„Just the right services to meet our requirements“
SGS: What made you commission SGS Industrial Services GmbH with this new project in Piet Retief?
Francois Pienaar, Project Manager, PG Bison, South Africa: Our prior experience with SGS has been exceptionally positive. For the first time, we commissioned SGS for a plant installation project in Ugie. Back then, SGS - a company we had never heard of before - had been recommended by the main equipment supplier Siempelkamp. The highly satisfactory performance in Ugie made us decide to award SGS another project.
SGS: Did we once again meet your high expectations in the context of project Piet Retief?
F. Pienaar: Absolutely. From start to finish, we were very happy with the way SGS carried out their work. Communication and coordination between the SGS and the PG Bison team were always characterized by mutual respect and the quality of their work was always above standard. SGS furthermore managed to integrate local assembly specialists into the European team, thus creating a powerful and performance-oriented team.
SGS: You also decided to hire SGS Industrial to carry out revisions in the course of a largescale shutdown. What was the decisive factor?
F. Pienaar: Such large-scale shutdowns are extremely time-sensitive. Massive losses result from every single day the production standstill exceeds the planned period. Due to our experience with SGS Industrial Services during the assembly of new plants, we decided to also rely on SGS's know-how and product knowledge in the context of said revisions. The decision turned out to be the right one. The plant was put back into operation ahead of schedule and without any complications.
SGS: For a fast-growing group such as PG Bison and its parent company KAP, what factors are becoming more important to be able to operate cost efficiently in the field of assembly and maintenance?
F. Pienaar: Nowadays, it is definitely vital to stick to schedules, reduce downtimes and ensure the maximum availability of production facilities. All of that requires a reliable partner with ample product knowledge and functional project management. SGS provides us with all of that.
May 2017