Amidst the challenging landscape of South Africa’s manufacturing and foundry sector, the National Foundry Technology Network (NFTN) continues to prioritise sustainability through resource and productivity improvement and efficiencies of local foundries.

Through targeted interventions, the NFTN conducted comprehensive support interventions over a period of years which included benchmarking assessment, layout optimisation and assistance in acquiring an Air Emissions Licence (AEL) through a storm water implementation plan at an aluminium casting foundry, Alcutech.

These initiatives have significantly improved the foundry’s operational efficiencies, energy reduction and resulting cost savings by approximately 20%, and environmental compliance – all of which assisted with the sustainability of the foundry.

This had an indirect effect on youth job creation through the Department of Science and Innovation engineering internship programme, as well as job retention of the employees, as the foundry was facing possible job losses prior to interventions.

Alcutech is a sand and gravity casting foundry that was established in 1999

Alcutech is a sand and gravity casting foundry that was established in 1999. The foundry supply directly and indirectly aluminium castings into the mining, marine, rail and power generation sectors. In 2014, Alcutech was on the verge of closure, facing severe operational challenges that threatened the sustainability of the foundry and would have resulted in significant job losses.

However, in 2015, a new ownership team with a blend of technical, engineering, economic and infrastructure expertise took over the foundry with the objective of developing and retaining a sustainable business. The NFTN played a pivotal role in bringing this ambition to reality.

Alcutech sustainability journey: NFTN interventions
According to NFTN Senior Project Manager, Manini Phokwane Ramagaga, the NFTN conducted a gap assessment, revealing several critical areas of need for the foundry. Beginning with optimisation of resources through a layout assessment, the objective was to create a competitive foundry that can have access to markets through technical and environmental compliance.

“Our objective is to work with industry to strive to co-create a green manufacturing foundry sector. It should be noted that one of the things that gave NFTN confidence to support Alcutech was that they had consistently maintained the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system. This is a good indication that a foundry takes compliance matters to heart and show the willingness to grow the business,” said Ramagaga.

The layout optimisation intervention identified gaps in processes, productivity, resources, technological requirements, capital expenditure investment requirements and further opportunities for technical compliance, which were addressed through several support interventions over a period of time.

Through targeted interventions, the NFTN conducted comprehensive support interventions over a period of years which included benchmarking assessment, layout optimisation and assistance in acquiring an Air Emissions Licence (AEL) through a storm water implementation plan at an aluminium casting foundry, Alcutech. These initiatives have significantly improved the foundry’s operational efficiencies, energy reduction and resulting cost savings by approximately 20%, and environmental compliance – all of which assisted with the sustainability of the foundry

This led to significant improvements in operational efficiencies, productivity improvements and a reduction in the foundry’s energy consumption and resulting costs.

According to Alcutech Chairman, Tshidi Mokgabudi, the impact of the benchmark assessment was one of the most critical interventions for the foundry.

“This helped us to understand how Alcutech compare with the local and international foundries and new possibilities how we could compete more effectively in the grand scheme of the global market and the South African industry and made us realise the possibilities of what we could be as a female and black owned foundry. These assessments provided insights into industry best practices and highlighted areas for technological improvements,” said Mokgabudi.

Ramagaga adds that the NFTN is dedicated to advancing the competitiveness of the South African foundry industry and understands that navigating environmental regulations can be challenging. Assisting Alcutech in becoming environmentally compliant ensured that it met stringent regulations and positions the foundry as a responsible and sustainable player in the industry.

“These interventions supported the foundry to tap into possible opportunities to access new markets and localisation which includes the automotive and power generation sector even though currently it is still at a significant scale,” added Ramagaga.

With continued focus on preserving the industry’s sustainability and ensuring that foundries remain operationally efficient and environmentally compliant to avoid closure and further shrinkage of the sector, the NFTN invites foundries seeking to enhance their sustainability, technology advancement requirements, localisation, skills, research and development to contact them via email nftn@csir.co.za.

The NFTN will be hosting a sustainable foundries workshop at the Sustainable Industries Conference 2024, being held at the CSIR in Pretoria on 11 and 12 September. Registration and more information can be found at https://www.industrialefficiency.co.za/conference/