The name Honeywell hardly needs an introduction for anyone active in the automation and control field. In fact the brand is so well established that in a recent merger between the company and the much larger Allied Signal, the name was retained for the significantly enlarged entity which has annual turnover of some $25 billion.
Honeywell has been in South Africa since 1969 and apart from a short period (1987-1993) when it was part of the Murray and Roberts Group, it has been an integral part of the US parent company. Its confidence in reinvesting back into this country has been corroborated by the more than doubling in size of the business since 1994.
The growth of Honeywell in South Africa
Following its return to South Africa one of the first moves made by Honeywell Southern Africa (Honeywell SA) was to acquire the Bryanston-based company Advanced Control & Simulation (ACS). This local business, now known as Honeywell Hi-Spec Solutions, has a team of some 15 engineers who specialise in the advanced control field. While Honeywell SA itself provides a high quality generic system, the Hi-Spec team will optimise and tailor this to the customer's exact requirements. This could be a Greenfield installation, but more often than not in today's economy it means optimising systems already in use. This could include integrating the system with modern management tools such as SAP. With its Hi-Spec Solutions team Honeywell believe that they can offer local customers unique added value, leading to major improvements in productivity and efficiency.
Honeywell has significantly expanded its presence in KwaZulu-Natal since 1993, its parent having acquired the business of German company Pepperl & Fuchs during 1994. It was represented at that time by Conlog Industrial in Durban, its product line of emergency shut down and fail safe control systems being particularly pertinent for the refinery industry. Honeywell SA acquired this business in 1997, adding the product portfolio to its existing control and instrumentation business in that region, and renaming the business unit Honeywell Safety Management Systems.
Another company acquired by Honeywell internationally was Measurex (standing for 'Measurement excellence') of California in 1998. Measurex is a leading supplier of DCS and inspection systems to the pulp and paper industry worldwide and naturally has both Mondi and Sappi as major customers. Now operating as Honeywell-Measurex this company's 17 staff have now been brought together with the rest of the Honeywell KwaZulu-Natal staff in a new purpose-built facility in Umgeni Park in Durban, officially opened during August this year.
The headquarters of the company is based in Midrand in another new building occupied some four years ago. From here Honeywell SA operates its acclaimed 24h national response service and provides training for users of its systems and instrumentation. The facility also incorporates the warehouse with its extensive locally held stock. The test, repair and workshop facility operated by Honeywell SA is the only company-accredited repair centre outside of the USA, and represents an investment of more than R20 million in state-of-the-art test equipment. Overall a team of some thirty engineers and technicians provide the human resource element of Honeywell's Support Division.
Industrial automation and control solutions
As a company Honeywell provides 'Total plant solutions' which could range in scope from the installation of a single valve to complete process automation. They are well established in the area of full-blown DCS systems where reliability and availability are critical. As a result of this the flagship of Honeywell's TotalPlant Solutions, the TPS100, is widely used in the petrochemical and refining industries throughout Africa.
More recently Honeywell has introduced its mid-range PlantScape system, which while offering most of the benefits of a full DCS is modular in construction, flexible and meets the needs of hybrid processes ie an equal mix of regulatory and binary control. PlantScape has allowed the company to penetrate markets such as the mining and food and beverage industries where it has not traditionally been active. Recent contracts awarded for PlantScape hybrid control systems include control of the new condensate storage tanks at Mossgas and the full control system for AVMIN's COSAC project in the Zambian Copperbelt. PlantScape systems are also operating in Angola, Uganda and Namibia.
The company offers a full line of process control and field instrumentation that includes controllers, recorders, transmitters, control valves and analytical instruments. Fully supported with repair and maintenance by Honeywell's local support facility, these products can be part of a complete Honeywell solution or a standalone purchase.
Honeywell and quality
Quality is part of life for the staff of Honeywell and according to MD Nick Buick it is all-pervasive. The company has ISO 9000 certification for its operations in both Midrand and Durban (with the exception of Honeywell-Measurex which will also soon comply) but has gone far beyond the phase of paper certificates and into the realm of true Total Quality Management. Along with other leading South African companies (including ABSA, Armscor and DaimlerChrysler) Honeywell was a founder member of the South African Excellence Foundation (SAEF) which provides a real (and measurable) Excellence Model for industry, government bodies and even SMEs. While Honeywell subscribes to the SA Excellence Model and measures itself against its criteria it also continually benchmarks itself against other Honeywell subsidiaries throughout the world who use similar models developed in Europe and the USA (the Malcolm Baldrige Award).
Following its merger with Allied Signal and the adoption of the best practices of both corporations, Honeywell is about to embark on another branch of the Total Quality path, namely applying the well-known principles of 6-Sigma.
Novel solution for the power needs of a developing continent
The merger of Honeywell with Allied Signal saw Honeywell SA look carefully at the latter's product portfolio to see if there was anything which could have particular impact in the African scenario. This attention to the mainly aeronautic products of Allied Signal appears to have paid off in a big way as Honeywell SA has just launched a new generation microturbine based power system called the Parallon 75.
In a comparison with a noisy old diesel generator, this is a Boeing compared with a Tiger Moth. The Parallon has one moving part, which makes the generator easy to maintain and service. With a power output of 75 kW of 'City-grade' electricity one Parallon can run a reasonably-sized business or assist with the power needs of an entire rural community, including providing power for homes, schools, clinics, recreation centres and small business centres. Compared to a typical diesel availability of probably 50%, the microturbine is designed for 98% plus, and multiple units can be grouped together in standalone mode and operated in synchronised fashion. Unlike a normal diesel engine, which is very environmentally unfriendly in terms of emission and noise levels, the microturbine is designed for very low emissions and noise, and even more importantly can be run using alternative fuels including natural gas or paraffin.
To market this new product Honeywell SA and Honeywell Power Systems from Albuquerque in the US and manufacturer of the Parallon have created a joint venture company with Amandla International, an energy and environmental solutions company located in Fourways. The joint venture is known as Amandla-Honeywell Power Systems. Honeywell SA itself will take responsibility for maintenance and support. Although a primary target will be rural settlements in southern Africa, which cannot economically be supplied with grid power, the new technology generator has enormous potential for hospitals, airports and other businesses in urban areas where power continuity is critical. With the increasing discovery of natural gas fields on this continent, power generation using the gas fuelled option could become commonplace.
Honeywell in sub-Saharan Africa
While located in South Africa, Honeywell SA has responsibility for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, today a very significant market for a company with high credibility in the petrochemical and natural gas industries. Honeywell SA is currently active in many African countries and has appointed distributors in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Swaziland, and Ghana. A more recent strategy has been the appointment of technology partners in these countries that are capable of engineering and supporting Honeywell installations. The latest appointment in this area is Makon Engineering in Nigeria. Geographic growth is a key strategic objective, and Honeywell SA MD (and Country Manager) Nick Buick is adamant that the company will continue to look for local partners throughout the continent. The core engineering support team based in South Africa will be ready to provide support when and where needed.
From a small beginning Honeywell SA is emphatically extending the tradition of excellence in control solutions and instrumentation into Africa with its dedicated staff of some 150 people distributed between its two main centres and its branch offices in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. With its increasing penetration into sub-Saharan Africa and its entry into the distributed power generation market, Honeywell SA is well set on the path to future growth.
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