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Sandvik’s new support facilities in Zambia are enabling faster and more efficient turnaround times for the maintenance and repair of mining fleets throughout the central African region.
In a year since moving into the new facility from their old premises and opening its doors in Kitwe, the operation has significantly improved throughput of repairs and rebuilds and has slashed delivery lead times for parts to ensure maximum uptime of Sandvik fleets in the region.
Sandvik invested in state-of-the-art support offices that include administrative offices, workshops, parts distribution and logistics centres. Up-to-date equipment and tooling, along with globally accepted management systems, are also in place to ensure services and support that is comparable to other Sandvik centres across the globe.
World-class facilities
Sandvik Mining in Zambia plays a crucial role in assisting mines to develop infrastructure and supply appropriate mining solutions to meet production and revenue targets. It is also one of the most respected mining support firms globally. Its investment in Zambia underpins Sandvik’s commitment to both Zambia and the entire central African region.
Steve Chambers, Sandvik technical and workshop manager for central Africa, says burgeoning fleets in the area require equally modern facilities as elsewhere in the world. Mines in the region now have access to the same services that are available globally and can optimise their fleets accordingly without concerns over technical support.
“Within a year after opening our new facility it is clear to see that the move has paid off and mines operating our machines are starting to make full use of our services,” Chambers says. “With a significant amount of stock and spares parts and a complement of specially trained staff able to maintain and support our full range of machines there is no need to look elsewhere.”
Efficient fleets
Since opening, the Kitwe office has been a major success with a significant increase in the amount of jobs completed and parts distributed. This included a 60 percent increase in rebuilds received from customers, combined with the reduction of rebuild lead times by a massive margin of 45 percent to just 12 weeks for a complete machine rebuild.
Component rebuild times have also been vastly improved and are steadily becoming comparable with Sandvik’s international standards.
Simultaneously the company has extended its safety record to an incredible 4 240 440 hours without Lost Time Injuries.
Chambers concludes that the company is now in a position to effectively provide full pre-sales and aftersales service from design to supply, as well as servicing and maintenance of all Sandvik equipment throughout the region. “Technically, our new workshop has the latest equipment and tooling with facilities for a full spectrum of related works, such as customer machine rebuild-bays, component rebuild-bays, unique machining capability, transmission test facility and drifters test facility, to name a few.”
