Coal cutting machinery and gearbox supplier Eickhoff South Africa was recognised for operational excellence as a supplier of mechanised equipment at the inaugural Exxaro Supplier Excellence Awards, held in Johannesburg, last month.

Eickhoff South Africa was recognised for its work at Exxaro Coal Central’s Dorstfontein-West colliery, near Kriel, in Mpumalanga, where it has supplied and continues to maintain two continuous miners.

The second continuous miner was delivered to the site last year after the first, which was supplied in 2015, demonstrated high production capacity, supported by effective service, spare parts availability and low life-cycle costs.

Eickhoff South Africa MD Francois van Tonder says it is important that the product continues to meet the colliery’s production targets, while other key performance indicators – such as mean time to failure and repair, as well as costs – meets client requirements.

He adds that product support is a critical service offered by the company.

“Our on-site labour team assists with diagnostics, repair and maintenance to ensure the ongoing availability of the machine.

Van Tonder notes that the Dorstfontein-West colliery houses an on-site consignment store to ensure the immediate and ongoing availability of spares, minimising downtime when maintenance is required.

He believes that these factors, together with strong commitment by Eickhoff’s employees, led to the company winning the award.

Exxaro’s Supplier Excellence Awards are expected to be held biannually from now on, to promote empowered partnerships and communities, excellence, the establishment and maintenance of relationships of goodwill.

“Relationships are important in steering our growth. We hope to create and enhance an environment where our supply partners are motivated to continuously deliver discretionary value that exceeds what is contractually committed,” Exxaro CEO Mxolisi Mgojo said at the ceremony.

“We believe that economic and social development cannot be achieved alone, we need to form strong partnerships and collaborate with all our stakeholders. Our suppliers are partners with us in achieving this,” Mgojo said.