System Integration & Control Systems Design


Afrilek: Afrilek enhances customer service through tailored divisions.

July 2014 System Integration & Control Systems Design

Afrilek, providers of automation and electrical solutions, has spent the past few months developing its existing divisions, adding new elements to the business and appointing an industry expert to head up each division.

According to Afrilek’s marketing and business development manager, Su-Anne Willemse, the changes implemented by the company will provide its customer base with a wider and more comprehensive service offering.

Panel workshop employees.
Panel workshop employees.

Willemse points out that the company has grown from 25 to just over 40 permanent staff in recent months. “We have developed the company by strengthening three of the divisions, namely drives, instrumentation and training, and we have established two new offices in Lydenburg and Witbank. In addition we are hosting free workshops every month that are based on solutions to industry. This means that we will not be concentrating on the marketing of products as such, but rather a sharing of our knowledge and expertise with the industry to provide a solutions-based service,” she says.

The company can provide a number of services for instrumentation, including design, fabrication, supply, installation and commissioning of instrumentation and analytical process projects including analyser sample conditional systems, complete with distribution boards, wiring and panels.

“We provide full turnkey process industrial shelters and enclosures for our instrumentation. We also provide project management, procurement and engineering, as well as the design, supply, consultation and engineering of process automation equipment and solutions – DCS, PLC, scada and field equipment. Customers have access to plant maintenance and training and we combine the classroom situation and the plant scenario to provide customers with the ability to use their systems innovatively,” explains Willemse.

Afrilek Automation is particularly excited about its upcoming CIDB EP6 Rating. Willemse says that EP denotes all electrical engineering works, relating to generation, transmission and distribution of electricity or electrical power generation, transmission control and distribution equipment and systems.

Afrilek’s team are specialists in VSD design and engineering and can provide customers with a turnkey service from concept through fabrication, supply, installation and commissioning of VSD panels. Plant specific training and plant maintenance is provided for each customer.

Afrilek training solutions

Effective maintenance of an integrated automation platform requires that staff providing maintenance have the prerequisite technical skills and knowledge to provide first-line support. Afrilek believes that prerequisite skills should be based on the application and require that staff have a technical understanding of the process and the products that provide control within the application.

“Standard product courses allow for skills transfer on a specific product, but a staff member has to know how this product fits into the integrated automation environment. To this end we offer a service that addresses the need of technical employees to acquire the skills needed to offer effective first-line maintenance,” says Willemse.

“We make use of a number of processes to ascertain the skill gaps of maintenance staff when measured against their respective KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These include an application equipment audit, an understanding of technical staff KPIs, a training needs analysis, a training plan showing courses to be attended to address skills gaps, attendance of training as per the development plan (off-site or on-site). The company offers a number of courses in programmable controllers (basic to advanced), HMI (operator panels), scada, DCS, variable speed drives and switchgear.

For more information contact Su-Anne Willemse, Afrilek, +27 (0)11 552 8113, [email protected], www.afrilek.com



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