Predictive maintenance could ease DCT congestion

An Internet of Things

(IOT) pilot project at Berth

8 of the Durban Container

Terminal (DCT) could

help Transnet Port

Terminals (TPT) institute

predictive maintenance

of its assets, easing

congestion.

This was revealed

by Nozipho Sithole, chief

executive at TPT, when she

addressed delegates at the

Transport Forum special

interest group event held

in Johannesburg last week.

The predictive

maintenance of assets

signals a move away from

traditional preventative

maintenance procedures

instituted by TPT.

Sensors used in the

project are providing

TPT with information on

cranes, straddle carriers,

container handlers,

hauliers and diesel

vehicles.

“We are collecting realtime

information from the

assets that work together,”

Sithole explained. “We

want to use this data to

make informed decisions.

We are looking at the data

to give us

information

about how

we are using

diesel and

how we can

reduce that.”

By the end

of October,

TPT should

have all the

data it needs

from the

project. And

by the end of

June 2018,

it should be

testing the

pilot in the rest of the port,

where relieving congestion

is a major focus point.

“We are on a drive to

constantly improve our

processes, buy equipment

and train and

develop our

people. We

are taking

up the lean

six sigma

methodology

and have trained

about 10 000 people

on it. We are also

introducing new incentive

schemes in order to

improve productivity,” she

said.

Turning attention to

the Market Demand

Strategy (MDS), Sithole

said it indicated that

TPT should have invested

R32.9 billion by 2017 but

had, in fact, only spent

R11.5 billion. Elaborating,

she said: “As the name

suggests, we are driven

by market

conditions,

which

determine

the pace

of our

investments,

year-onyear.”

She

pointed

out that

Transnet

had invested

in Ngqura

by buying

straddle

carriers and cranes, and

had invested in the Cape

Town, Durban and Ngqura

container terminals. “We

are not only focused

on bulk; most of the

investments (33%) still go

to containers across the

country’s ports system.”

Sithole said phase three

of the deepening of the

Durban port should be

completed by December

2023, while work to create

additional container

capacity of 1.7 million

TEUs annually was also

under way.

“In Richard’s Bay, we are

designing and investing in

a third tippler to handle

chrome, magnetite and

coal. We are seeing distress

in the magnetite industry;

demand continues to

decline as demand from

China wanes,” she stated.

Saldanha Bay is also

getting a third tippler, with

the commissioning date set

for December 2019.

Sithole said Transnet’s

manganese project, which

involved moving the

old terminal from Port

Elizabeth to Ngqura and

railing 16 million tonnes

of the mineral up the

coast, was in progress

and on course for 2019

completion.

INSERT

We are looking at

the data to give us

information about

how we are using

diesel and how we

can reduce that.

–Nozipho Sithole