Sandvik has established a regional centralised distribution hub in Wingfield Park, near OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, to support its mining customers throughout southern Africa. The new hub is the fourth of its kind within the global Sandvik. The other three strategically sited warehouses are in the Netherlands, the USA and Singapore. These centralised distribution hubs are characterised by highly efficient inventory management and advanced logistics to ensure reliability of supply. Operating from a 16,000-m2 site staffed by a total of 65 temporary and permanent employees, the new distribution hub, known within Sandvik as C4, is a consolidation of six local warehouses. It currently controls a stockholding of about 28,000 product lines at any one time – from O-rings to 4.5 t manganese cones – worth in the region of R230 million.“We’re presently delivering 5,000 lines to customers every week,” Sandvik regional logistics manager, Rodger Winter, says. “With more than 1,200 pieces of our equipment operational in southern Africa at the moment, we offer customers 80% availability on all parts. This percentage includes both fast and slow moving parts and with continuous improvement programmes in place we are targeting to increase this. We can source and ship the required item within 24 hours and 85% of these customers receive their required parts within six hours of requesting them. Over the course of 2011, our logistics partner travelled 5.3 million km while delivering stock items to southern African customers.
“Sandvik’s success as a company is mirrored in the fact that, in terms of inventory and warehousing, we have grown at a rate of 15% per annum year-on-year for the past three years.”
Sandvik has partnered with broad-based supply chain management company Super Group as its logistics service provider for the past 10 years in the management of its outbound national distribution, as well as its cross border deliveries to southern African countries.
“In line with the Sandvik corporate values ‘Team Spirit, Fair Play and Open Mind’, together with Super Group we ensure that our customers receive the right parts, at the right time, in the right condition, in the most cost effective way possible,” says Winter. “We’re proud of the fact that we were joint nominees with Super Group in the 2011 Logistics News Achiever Awards and came away with a bronze award.
“Sandvik is in the rare position of stocking a full spectrum of product lines for underground and surface mines, as well as the coal mining and construction sectors in southern Africa. We also supply other international customers on an ad hoc basis and we’re supported by our own drill steel product unit in Krugersdorp, where products are made to customer order and for stockholding.”
In keeping with its commitment to world class Environmental Health and Safety, the facility is equipped with sophisticated fire detection technology and staff members comply with world class safety procedures.
Winter says continuous training is part of this commitment to safety and the hub has developed a dedicated in-house warehousing training and assessment program that has been so successful that it is being adopted by other Sandvik sites. The program, which is part of the hub’s efforts to obtain Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply accreditation, includes learnerships to boost skills levels.