Service Support and Spare Parts Supply

For example, a spokesman for our longest-standing customer, Sasol Coal’s Middelbult Colliery, commented: "CDC provide a professional service and are always prepared to sort out problems and are open to suggestions and new developments."

Similarly a spokesman for Ingwe Coal Corporation’s Matla Colliery said: "CDC’s service is very good. They are very responsive and are always ready to make a plan to sort out any problems we may have as quickly as possible."

But the quality and speed of a company’s service is only as good as its latest call. "We are careful to guard against over-confidence. We have to keep working to maintain our service at a high level and we keep looking to improve it wherever possible all the time," remarks Bob Johnstone, CDC’s general manager.

Service exchange

CDC operates a service exchange scheme as an integral part of its maintenance, repair and parts supply service.

We see service exchange as a vital element of providing a consistently efficient and reliable service and winning our customers’ confidence. Having the option of installing a functioning unit in place of a faulty one when it cannot be fixed quickly on the spot ensures that downtime is kept to a minimum.

CDC’s sizeable service exchange stock also enables customers to reduce their backup stockholding and costs without jeopardising production time. The stock comprises sufficient pumps and fan assembly units of each type and size to meet the needs of the total number of field units.

When a mine has a breakdown it calls for a service exchange unit from CDC, which promptly delivers a fully reconditioned service exchange unit of the right type directly to the mine. This is installed and the breakdown unit is returned to CDC where it is stripped, repaired and goes back into stock. The mine pays a service exchange fee and is billed for the repairs.

"Our service exchange scheme has proven its effectiveness and cost-saving advantages many times over, so that most of our customers now rely on it," says Johnstone.

CDC currently holds a spare parts stock worth R1,75-million and a service exchange stock of R1-million.

Repair Services

All CDC's repair work is undertaken according to set inspection, quoting, repair and test procedures to ensure that every fault, malfunction or potential malfunction is identified and attended to timeously. The repair work is closely allied to the preventative maintenance procedures applied by the company, aimed at preventing equipment failures wherever possible to avoid customers having to incur unnecessary repair and downtime costs.

The company recently completed a major revamp of its pump repair shop, resulting in a 25 per cent larger work area, a re-organised work procedure with dedicated areas for each stage of the repair operation, more spare parts stock than previously and the addition of new equipment, including a computerised test rig and a battery-driven forklift truck.