Frank Hobucher, Service Product Manager for Endress + Hauser Germany and participant in the company's global management exchange programme

An increasing number of local companies are gearing up to support the concept of South Africa as the service centre for Africa. Known as a leading provider of flow, level, temperature and pressure instrumentation, Endress + Hauser South Africa aims to become equally valued as a world-class provider of services ranging from repairs and calibration to installation, commissioning, testing, equipment rental and maintenance contracts.

"We are in the process of developing laboratories that will enable the company to offer full in-house calibration services," reveals Nico Marneweck, Endress + Hauser Service Manager. "From there, we will add on mobile testing units that will allow us to carry out on-site calibration not only for our South African clients, but anywhere in the region."

Endress + Hauser service centres worldwide are undertaking a standardisation drive that will see the same equipment, skills and methodologies being built up in every country. This will not only increase knowledge sharing internally, but will allow the various global service centres to assist each other on large projects, thereby combining resources in a well coordinated manner. As an extension of this approach, the organisation has embarked on a global management exchange programme that saw Frank Hobucher, Service Product Manager for Endress + Hauser Germany, visit his South African counterpart for a 30-day period of knowledge interchange and consolidation of experience.

"One can't assess a foreign market without being actively involved in it for at least a month," commented Hobucher at the end of his visit. "In fact, I will return on a regular basis to continue comparing the similarities in the European and African instrumentation markets, and to drive the mutual skills transfer on which we have embarked."

Hobucher said that while local service technicians proved to be on par with their European counterparts, the local services market had yet to be developed to its full potential. As an example, Hobucher noted that Endress + Hauser Germany carried out an average of 35 000 repairs a week, compared to 40 a week by Endress + Hauser South Africa.

Among the obstacles to be overcome, Hobucher listed the need to educate clients in terms of the modern nature of maintenance contracts, and building awareness for the potential benefits of enlisting expert service technicians to empower in-house maintenance personnel, as opposed to "threatening their careers".