Engineering capabilities open up new and international markets

Cable management solutions provider HellermannTyton South Africa’s 2014 acquisition of PVS Engineering has significantly improved the company’s tooling manufacturing capabilities and placed the company in a strong position within the group internationally.

HellermannTyton South Africa network products manager Ken Dunn tells Engineering News that HellermannTyton Germany is the primary tooling manufacturer within the group; however, owing to capacity constraints, the group has looked to the local branch to meet the growing demand.

The establishment of HellermannTyton South Africa’s engineering and subsequent tool manufacturing capabilities at its facilities in Johannesburg has also opened up business opportunities with the automotive sector, with the company designing, testing, manufacturing and fitting components for a number of leading automotive brands, such as Volkswagen (VW), Mercedes-Benz and Ford.

Dunn highlights that HellermannTyton South African received its ISO/TS16949 certification in 2000, a quality management certification for the automotive sector, which has provided the company with access to this important market.

To further support its position as a supplier to the automotive sector, HellermannTyton South Africa established a division dedicated to automotive components assembly as part of its Port Elizabeth branch, an area which is home to a number of automotive manufacturers, including VW and General Motors.

The tooling capability has also allowed the company to increase the number of manufactured products it supplies, Dunn says, pointing out that the company lists about 6 500 different product lines.

To cater for the large number of product lines, HellermannTyton South Africa has upgraded its warehousing facilities in Johannesburg to 6 800 m2, with about 13 000 pallet locations and about 6 500 picking locations. Further, the company has moved to digital picking and logistics services, resulting in a 95% successful picking rate and a 95% success rate of completing orders within 24 hours.

The electronic systems have also significantly improved the stock count times, and significantly improved stock variances, ensuring that the right stock is available at the right time to meet customers’ high stock requirements.