The company, today known as Shorrock Automation (Shorrock), was founded in 1975 by Roy Shorrock and Bernard Senior, initially being known as Shorrock Senior Associates. The original focus of the company was mass measuring equipment, in particular for the local iron and steel industry, this business being where Roy Shorrock himself had established his own expertise.
It was only in 1978 that the company started to diversify into the process control industry that rapidly was to become its core business activity. The entry was made possible when Shorrock was appointed as the sole South African (later extended to the whole of southern Africa) agent for the German company IFM Electronic that at that time manufactured a small range of industrial sensors marketed under the 'efector' brand name.
Today of course IFM (which itself was formed back in 1969) offers a full range of industrial sensors for both position and fluid measurement, sensors being based on a wide-range of technologies including capacitance, inductance, the photoelectric effect and devices based on fibre-optics and lasers. It was also an early introducer of the industrial communication protocol ASi (1993) and today it also supplies industry specific control systems. Although there is some dispute as to who actually installed the first ASi system in South Africa, there is no doubt that the IFM system put in by De Beers R&D facility at Booysens in Johannesburg was one of the first such installations.
As a company, Shorrock is not a systems integrator, although its knowledge of sensors and ASi is used to help companies design and develop their systems. Shorrock provides and supports the equipment (and if required will train on how to program the controllers) but the actual installation is carried out either by the client's own engineers or through a systems integrator. As part of a new strategy that will allow Shorrock to work closely with systems integrators throughout Southern Africa, the company has established a close working relationship with Ramtec Systems. Knowledge gained from this partnership will then be used to allow Shorrock to carefully select other integrators for specific regions or industry sectors.
Shorrock itself remained a small family business (the Shorrocks themselves) until the mid 90s when the introduction of Actuator Sensor interface (ASi) by IFM, and the acquisition of a number of other agencies put the company into a new phase of growth in a significantly enlarged market. (Shorrock Senior had resigned from the business after the first couple of years.) The introduction of ASi effectively changed Shorrock from being a supplier of just sensors into a solutions business, capable of supplying a complete system with all the networking components. To complement the IFM sensor and networking products Shorrock also acquired the agency for Brad Harrison through which they can supply a complete range of moulded connectors and cables. The product range of Brad Harrison when designed into a control system helps minimise installation time by consolidating and simplifying the control wiring.
More recently Shorrock has acquired the sole rights to market the Reer (Torino, Italy) range of light-based safety curtains and the Davy McKee portfolio of precision hot metal detectors. Six years ago the company added the products of South Africa's own LaserM to its inventory and has successfully sold their laser-based level measurement products into the mining industry in the Rustenberg and Phalaborwa areas. In line with the revised focus on the process control industry the name of the company was changed to Shorrock Automation during 1998.
Shorrock as a company has grown dramatically over the last decade, from a staff complement of four in 1991 to twenty four people today. While their operations used to be confined to Pretoria, Shorrock now covers the whole of South Africa and the neighbouring countries. The company operates three separate entities located in Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Eastern Cape. The Gauteng operation is based in the company's Head Office in Pretoria and three satellite branches (Johannesburg, Rustenberg and the Vaal Triangle), which report to Pretoria. The Natal branch has representation in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Richards Bay. The Eastern Cape branch primarily covers the towns of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage as well as offering support to its East London distributor. The needs of industry in the rest of the country are covered through official, well-trained distributors, the primary ones being located in Zimbabwe (Harare), Limpopo (Pietersburg and Phalaborwa), North West Province (Klerksdorp), Mpumalanga (Witbank), Western Cape (Cape Town) and the Eastern Cape (East London).
Shorrock last year relocated its Head Office to a purpose-built 600 m2 facility located in the new Corporate Park in Irene, just off the R21 Airport link highway. The move was necessary as a result of space constraints in their old premises although obviously this prestigious and convenient location adds great value to the Shorrock image. The site has also been carefully chosen and allows for a further 600 m2 expansion some time in the future. In this new building Shorrock now have very comprehensive training facilities and a full demonstration area. Corporate Park is also well known for its high level of security offered to tenants.
In terms of its customer-base Shorrock services the needs of a wide sector of South African industry, the prime areas of focus being food & beverage, mining, metals (steel, iron and aluminium), coal handling, sugar, paper & pulp and the burgeoning automotive sector. One of the largest projects undertaken was no doubt the pump project for the Phalaborwa copper mines while major projects have been carried out for Iscor and Columbus Stainless. In terms of the automotive industry one of Shorrock's largest customers is Pico-Comau in Port Elizabeth. While Pico-Comau does undertake projects for the local industry, the company also has a global presence and Shorrock-supplied sensors and systems have found their way into car plants in Europe, China and Russia.
Shorrock Automation remains privately owned with three shareholders, Roy and Josie Shorrock and Michael Pitschlitz, with Michael being the only (and managing) director. The Shorrocks no longer have any interest in the day-to-day operations although Roy remains as chief executive officer. The Natal operation operates as a separate company with two directors, Michael and Alwyn Skelton, the latter acting as the branch managing director. All of the company's expansion, excluding the building of the new Head Office, has been internally funded, so there is no outside interest or debt.
The current managing director Michael Pitschlitz joined the company in 1991 as systems manager, the intention being to groom him to take over the company from Roy and Josie Shorrock who wanted to retire. Michael has overseen all of the significant growth and became MD in 1995.
Shorrock Automation intends to continue its growth in the process control and related industries (see box) both here and in Southern Africa. The way the company is expanding at present there is no doubt that the existing 'free' space at Corporate Park will soon be fully utilised.
Michael Pitschlitz, Shorrock Automation
(012) 345 4449
Shorrock diversifies into the security and surveillance markets
As a company, Shorrock is not shy when it comes to new opportunities and earlier this year they acquired a 50% shareholding in a new business called AmiSnap. AmiSnap specialises in the integration of technologies with a strong focus on the IT sector. The current jewel in their crown is an affordable digital surveillance system that uses standard PCs and Microsoft networking features. This means that companies can install a surveillance system by merely buying highly affordable cameras (<R1000 per camera) as the software developed allows the images captured from these cameras to be performed in the background. Key to the software is the fact that full digital frames can be compressed to just 8 Kbit that allows for rapid transmission over normal telephone links using the Internet.
A major opportunity will be the installation of this system by rapid reaction companies whose biggest bugbear at present is the number of false alarms that have to be responded to. Having cameras at protected sites will allow these companies to determine whether the alarm is real. In practice, the cameras will be linked to the alarm and will be triggered when this goes off. When the alarm signal is received at the call centre the operator will be able to immediately view imagery at the site in realtime.
Another sought-after application for this system is the monitoring of crèches and nursery schools. The parent can simply access a website and with the proper access codes, access the cameras of the crèche where one's child is and view what is happening to the child in realtime.
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