Engineer (GMR 2.1) - Rhodes Food Group / Premier FMCG - Tulbagh, Western Cape, South Africa
(2017-01)
Maintenance management over the Canning Factory, Pulp plants, Boiler plant, Labelling plant, Warehouse, Vehicles, Buildings, Staff facilities and Plant services. Managing a technical team of about 120 people, including the foreman for the different areas in the plant. Managing the Engineering team, by providing leadership to the different teams. Setting standards and objectives to support the production, quality, and safety requirements. Manage the Engineering manning structure and recruitments, assist in the employee's development and training programmes. Creating career paths for employees and assist in succession planning. Designing, applying and implementing Capex projects to improve and sustain the business. Compiling and management of Maintenance and Capex budgets. Managing of Upgrades, Improvement projects and Maintenance, which include cost saving projects, efficiency improvement projects and safety requirements. Allocating the correct resources to the various projects and work that are undertaken. Responsible for Health and Safety Management on site.
Implementing
Fire protection systems projects, to upgrade the site's infrastructure, according to the Fire Master plan and I
- Upgrade of the aseptic line from 10t/h to 15t/h throughput over a three-year phased project. This line produces high quality product due to the lower processing temperatures, reduce fruit and quality losses, overall reduction in steam usage and increased reliability.
- Installation of two high speed lines: Seamers, Flatbed cookers and Can handling. These lines produce the same throughput with less machinery and less people, it simplifies the production process, increase in reliability and reduction in maintenance cost. The Flatbed cookers can handle multiple cans and created other markets for the stackable cans and A1 can size.
- Upgrade of Slice plant (improved quality and throughput; reduction in manning and fruit waste)
- Upgrade of existing Seamers to improve the lid feed system and the electrical control of the machine. This upgrade improved the reliability of the machine, reduced the maintenance complexity and cost and the electronic control allows you to measure the machine's throughput.
- Upgrade of the PLC systems inside the factory to allow for synchronisation to allow for better line control this, reduces spoils and damages and gives visual display of throughput rates.
- Installation of four back-up Generators (4.6MVA) synchronised with the MV ring mains of the site.
- Installation of a Fire detection and suppression system, consisting of back-up water storage, diesel powered fire water pumps, fire ring main, gas suppression system, roof top sprinklers and hose real system. Fire detection and fire alarms was also installed. These improvements are done on a phased approach to accommodate the business' cash flow, while still complying to insurance requirements.
- Upgrade of Cold rooms was done also over a period of time: to increase the plants reliability, optimise the cooling capacity of the system, by replacing the reciprocating ammonia compressors with VSD controlled screw compressors, replacing the pumper drum system with ammonia pumps, that provides ammonia continuously to the evaporators, upgrade of the valve stations and PLC control system.
- Installation of three X-ray machines for finished product before labelling.
- Replacement of an Oil Transformer with a Dry-type Transformer, to minimise the risk of fire in this area and reduce the maintenance cost of the transformer.
- Installation of Line control to synchronise the equipment's operating speeds to optimise throughput and reduce bottlenecks on the production lines.
- Water reduction initiatives are implemented inside the factory, such as reuse of final wash water as water lubrication on the peach cutters, collecting of primary and evaporator water to be used as floor wash water, irrigating the backwash water onto the gardens.
- Continuous upgrades of existing equipment for increased performance, fruit quality and increased safety aspects, such as: angled infeed belts to Peach cutters (increased throughput), addition of nozzles and caustic flow rate in the Lye peeler (increased throughput), increased throughput rate on Cocktail filler, Seamer lid feed conversion (cost saving) and Slice plant upgrade (labour saving and reduction in product loss).
- Assisted employees to qualify as Artisans, of which 8 Employees are employed as Artisan or Foreman.
Engineer - Wildeklawer - Barkly West, South Africa
(2016-01 - 2017-12)
- Maintenance management over the Warehouse and Packaging plant.
- Optimisation of the holding depot.
- Management of the boilermakers in the workshop.
- Management over the maintenance of the fleet.
- Design and implementation of improvement projects.
- Design of a new Packaging plant.
Operations Manager - NWK Limited. EPKO Oil Seed Crushing (Pty) Ltd - Lichtenburg, South Africa
(2013-01 - 2016-12)
Reporting to the General Manager. Responsible as the 16.2 appointment, according to the Occupational Health and Safety act of 1993, over the crushing, solvent extraction and refinery operations. Directly managing a staff complement of 60 employees.
Managing the production personnel and all the production units, focussing on lowering production cost, improving the product quality, increasing the skills level of employees and managing the working capital. Identifying improvement projects or initiatives and managing and implementing them. Providing direction, general strategy, leadership and motivation for the different production teams.
Ensuring the safety, health and hygiene of the employees, product and premises. Partially responsible for the overall strategy, vision, business development and continuous improvement of the organisation. Acting as manager of EPKO at times.
- Reduced the Hexane consumption (highest cost component) in the solvent plants by 15%, reducing production cost and reducing the risk for an explosion.
- Part of the designing team to upgrade the sunflower crushing capacity from 400t/day to 600t/day.
Process Engineer - NWK Limited. EPKO Oil Seed Crushing (Pty) Ltd - Lichtenburg, South Africa
(2008-01 - 2013-12)
Reporting to the General Manager. Directly managing a staff component of 40 employees and External Contractors. Managing the maintenance and safety teams. Implementing and maintaining maintenance plans.
Processing and improving efficiency. Initiating projects and managing and improving new projects. Planning and scheduling work and production. Optimising production and maintenance processes. Conducing feasibility studies on possible opportunities.
Conducting daily, weekly and monthly reporting on activities and production.
- Successfully transferred the personnel from Sabie Management (the production contractor) to EPKO.
- Separated the fatty acids from the refining process, which increased the refinery's net income by 5%, with a 50% return on the capital invested for the specific project.
- Upgraded the control systems of the goal fired boilers, increasing the efficiency of the boilers and reducing the coal consumption by roughly 10%.
- Reworked maize germ filter cake, realising an additional income of R105k per month making the payback period on the project 8 months.
- Negotiated a cost reduction in the expeller spares of 15%.
- Implemented a preventative maintenance system.
- Successfully addressed the water supply crises to the premises and production units.
Engineer - Grandorff Africa Consulting (Pty) Ltd - Limpopo, South Africa
(2007-01 - 2008-12)
- Reporting to the Manager.
- Directly managing 1 Construction Contractor and some External Contractors.
- Preparing the contract documents for phase 3 of the project.
- Preparing the schedule of quantities for the contract document and for all the additional work to be done.
- Managing the budget for the projects by measuring the work done and certifying the amounts payable.
- Designing: civil services, road alignments, storm water runoff handling, water distribution networks and related structures and machinery.
- Supervising the construction on site.
- Coordinating and chairing the site meetings.
Engineer - Agricultural Research Council – Institute for Agricultural Engineering (ARC – IAE) - Pretoria, South Africa
(2005-01 - 2007-12)
- Reporting to the Department Head for Food Processing and Storing.
- Researching and developing food processing processes and transferring the technology.
- Designing, developing and evaluating tender document for irrigation projects and evaluating irrigation systems.
- Developing and testing a small scale oil pressing plant.
- Studying the creation of business opportunities for bio diesel.
- Conducting land surveys and mapping with the latest Trimble GPS equipment. Providing training with the Trimble GPS system.
- SAIAE Chairman of the Pretoria Branch from 2007 to 2009.
Process Engineer - Biz Afrika 105 (Pty) Ltd - Amersfoort, South Africa
(2002-01 - 2005-12)
Research Engineer - Masterfoods GmbH - Viersen, Germany
(2002-01 - 2002-12)
