News


Iritron and the I3 Group build on synergies

April 2021 News

Although 2020 was a tough year for everyone, Alwyn Rautenbach, CEO of the I3 Group, not only ensured its survival, but strategised to strengthen the business for future growth.

Part of this strategy was to employ Gerhard Greeff, well known to the industry through his work at MESA Africa (Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association) and MESA International, who has been involved in the MES market for the past 20 years. “We decided to expand into the MES domain as there are definite synergies with the control and automation competence within Iritron and the control room design and visualisation competence of Oculus, a subsidiary of Iritron,” explains Rautenbach. “I believe that adding MES competence to the fold will provide an additional offering to our customers and make the total bigger than the sum of its parts.”

Iritron was established to assist its customers to sustain increased efficiency and availability of their processes and operations. “We have assisted many companies in the past 20 years, but mostly at plant-floor level,” adds Rautenbach. “Optimisation opportunities at electrical and automation levels are limited as the biggest constraint typically occurs when people need to make plant-wide decisions. This is where MES will play its part as it reduces the time it takes between when an adverse event occurs on the plant floor and when the appropriate people that can act become aware of the event. This reduces the amount of lost production time, the number of defects produced and the amount of raw material wasted.”

Jacques van Eeden, well-known in the energy and food-chain industries in South Africa, was also employed. He has a wealth of experience in utility optimisation, looking at things such as wastewater purification, heat recovery, chiller and boiler optimisation and even condensate recovery. “We believe that the experience and expertise that he brings to the table not only fits in with the design and engineering competence of Iritron, but also with the environmental, heating and cooling competence within KVMTech, a sister company of Iritron in the I3 Group,” says Rautenbach. “This addition to our company competence is good for the environment as it has a focus on the sustainability of South Africa’s critical natural resources, energy and water.

“It is important that we all do our part for the environment. Water is a critical resource in South Africa and we should all try to conserve water as much as possible. If we can recover and reuse water from our production plants, it will reduce the strain on rainwater, given we are a drought-stricken country. We are also aware of the issues we have in South Africa with our local energy provider and changing our plants and processes to use less energy and use it more efficiently will benefit everyone in South Africa. We are seriously looking at renewables and clean energy to assist our clients reduce the strain on the grid. Helping our customers do better with their sustainability efforts is a big focus for us.”

Rautenbach believes that these additions to the I3 Group will open opportunities and expose Iritron to different markets and industries, not previously served. “We have not changed our strategic intent; we are just adding some competence to increase synergies within the group,” he concludes. “We have a lot of value to add and we want to plough as much of this competence and experience back into South Africa. We want to ensure maximum positive impact on the areas of our clients’ business that affect everyone in the country.”


Credit(s)



Share this article:
Share via emailShare via LinkedInPrint this page

Further reading:

Palabora Mining Company and LH Marthinusen launch robotics and coding initiative
News
In a joint effort to advance education and digital skills development in Phalaborwa, Palabora Mining Company (PMC) and LH Marthinusen (LHM) have partnered to establish a fully equipped robotics and coding classroom at a local high school.

Read more...
A new era for African engineering
News
A group of mostly South African engineering professionals who bought a controlling margin of the South African arm of Netherlands-based engineering consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV have rebranded it as Atana.

Read more...
SEW-EURODRIVE builds regional strength with Gqeberha expansion
News
With the Eastern Cape firmly established as a hub for key industries such as automotive manufacturing, ports, agriprocessing and renewable energy, SEW-EURODRIVE is strengthening its presence in the region through an ongoing significant expansion of its facility in Gqeberha.

Read more...
Functional safety explained
News
The SAIMC supports Pepperl+Fuchs, a National Member, in a free four-part online seminar series focused on Functional Safety.

Read more...
The Future of manufacturing in Africa
News
The future and development of African manufacturing will be discussed extensively at the upcoming Manufacturing Indaba conference, to be hosted on 15 to 16 July 2025 at Johannesburg’s Sandton Convention Centre.

Read more...
Reinstatement opportunity for ECSA registration
News
In 2023 the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) announced a special opportunity for engineers in South Africa to reinstate their registration status if it had been cancelled. This exclusive offer is available until the end of August 2024.

Read more...
Fostering a collaborative learning environment for sugar producer
SKF South Africa News
One of South Africa’s leading sugar producers made strategic use of its off-crop season, turning scheduled downtime into an opportunity for both essential maintenance and valuable skills development with the help of SKF

Read more...
TechAccess and Schneider Electric partnership goes from strength to strength
Schneider Electric South Africa News
Schneider Electric, together with its longstanding partner TechAccess, is poised to take the Southern African market by storm.

Read more...
Steinmüller Africa and Eskom uplift eMalahleni communities
News
Steinmüller Africa, in partnership with Eskom, has reaffirmed its commitment to social upliftment by donating essential goods and creating meaningful connections with two impactful community organisations in eMalahleni.

Read more...
Comtest calibration user group seminar
News
Comtest invites metrology and calibration professionals to a focused technical seminar series aimed at demystifying some of the most common hurdles in inter-laboratory comparisons.

Read more...









While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.




© Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd | All Rights Reserved