How can preventive maintenance help avoid downtime and costly repairs?

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Why do we maintain our vehicles but not our scales? It is clear that preventive maintenance of cars has a beneficial impact on their performance and lifespan. The same principle applies to your scale too, often small faults are overlooked or ignored, over time these lead to serious damage which can be costly to repair and cause significant downtime. Preventive maintenance in combination with calibration is the most economical approach to ensuring productive and accurate equipment performance. Preventive maintenance is designed to avoid breakdowns through regular monitoring of equipment deterioration and restoring equipment to proper condition. The most important reason for a preventive maintenance program is reduced costs through reduced frequency of equipment breakdowns and extension of equipment life.

Reactive maintenance may be described as an approach where equipment is allowed to run until failure, when it is then either repaired or replaced it could be very costly and time consuming. Disadvantages include poor production planning and a higher risk of weighing errors which leads to a higher scrap output and reduced efficiencies. Overall maintenance costs tend to increase as well, as emergency repairs take place at higher costs.

Contact us today to discuss a service maintenance contract, in the long run you may save a lot on maintenance.

CONTINUED SANAS ACCREDITATION AFTER SUCCESSFUL AUDIT

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Premier Scale Services is a SANAS approved Verification laboratory for weighing equipment up to 60 000kg. This together with our Certificate of Authority from NRCS allows us to Verify scales for trade use. This includes weighbridges, gas filling scales, platform scales, butchery scales and many others. It is a legal requirement for many scales to be verified every 2 years. Many scale users are not aware of this and may be breaking the law. Penalties can range from fines to confiscation, closure or even a prison sentence. The reason for such stiff penalties is to protect consumers who need to be assured that the weights indicated are always correct i.e. if you pay for 2kg of rice you get 2kg of rice. Before selecting a scale supplier or repairer make sure that they are SANAS and NRCS accredited before you use them. Using un-accreditted suppliers could end up being very expensive.

As part of our accreditation we are audited annually by SANAS. This year the audit was over 2 gruelling days where almost all aspects of our quality system were audited. Our Quality team did exceptionally well, only 2 minor findings were made and we received numerous compliments from the audit team. We would like to thank the audit team from SANAS and congratulate our Quality team on a very successful audit once again!

NEW LEGAL METROLOGY REGULATIONS MEAN BIG CHANGES FOR INDUSTRY.

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The DTI and NRCS have had their final stakeholder meetings on the Draft Legal Metrology Regulations. These Regulations cover weight, volume, measurement, and many other areas but our focus is obviously on weight. Many industry bodies, companies and interested parties attended these stakeholder meetings. Whilst a large number of concerns were raised, it was made clear to us by DTI and NRCS that they would not be making any further changes to the Regulations. We can expect these Regulations to come into effect in 12-18months time with far reaching consequences to industry. Below are some of the most important changes in our assessment;

  1. Registration;

Henceforth, all companies which in any way sell, manufacture, import, repair, calibrate etc. weighing equipment must register with NRCS and report certain information to them. The how and why of this is very unclear, as are the costs of registration. We are also not certain what information they will require from us, once this has been made clear we will be able to assess if/how this will affect client confidentiality and advise accordingly.

Whilst we support this move as it will assist in cleaning up the industry, as always, the devil is in the detail and we await to see how the NRCS will implement. What is clear is that we will be paying additional fees. 

  1. Amendments of Technical Regulations;

I will not go into too much detail regarding the changes to Technical Regulations, except to say that reading between the lines it seems as though the DTI/NRCS is aiming to bring an end to the use of mechanical scales for trade/prescribed purposes. We urge clients to consider their choices carefully when making decisions regarding the purchase of mechanical scales. The largest impact of this will be felt in industries that weigh products in hazardous areas such as LPG gas depots, as EX approved equipment is extremely expensive.

  1. Split of repairs and Verifications.

This is arguably the most controversial and far reaching of the regulations. In simple terms, all companies and their Technicians must now register as Repair Bodies with NRCS (no indication of costs yet). A Technician who conducts a repair may not Verify the same scale, but must issue a repair certificate and then submit the equipment to a separate Verification Officer for Verification. In practice this means that our teams will now need to comprise of a Repair Technician AND a Verification Officer. Two qualified Technicians per call out instead of the current one. There are also significant administrative requirements for Repairers, similar to what we now have for Verifications. All this adds up to significant increases in costs for us and our clients. We are working on several initiatives to try and keep costs down and will discuss these with each customer over the next year.

  1. Penalties for non-compliance.

The new Regulations have dramatically increased the powers of NRCS in ensuring compliance. They now have far ranging powers and below are just some of the penalties which can be implemented;

  1. Seizure of equipment
  2. Destruction of equipment
  3. Returning product to country of origin at owners cost
  4. Prison terms

We urge all clients to familiarise themselves with the terms of the new Regulations as soon as possible as there are some fundamental changes which will affect almost every industry.  As we find out more information or receive clarity from NRCS we will keep you informed.

Successful 2017

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We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our staff, clients and suppliers a very successful 2017. We are blessed to have started the year well with weighbridge orders from Massmart and Rand Water, 2 custom made 30 ton coil weighing scales for a large steel manufacturer, 2 new gas filling depots in Botswana and a large order for platform scales from Nampak. If this is any indication of the year ahead it will be a good one for all. 2017 is an important year for the scale / metrology industry in South Africa;

  1. The upcoming AGM for SACS (Scale Council) will be an important one with the founding Chairman stepping down. I will keep you posted on what transpires.
  2. We expect finalization on the Legal Metrology Regulations from DTI during this year – keep an eye on this as it could have some serious consequences for everyone. Once we have some clarity we will communicate the changes.
  3. We also expect some finalization from NRCS on the Certificates of Authority to Verify weighing equipment.
  4. Premier Scales will have our annual SANAS audit in May, every year we do a bit better so I’m actually looking forward to it.
  5. And of course the ANC elective conference in December……….who knows what is going to happen there.

All in all I think 2017 is going to be a very interesting year, if nothing else we won’t be bored J. Let’s hope that it is a great business year for all.

DO YOU USE REGISTERED COMPANIES TO REPAIR, SERVICE AND VERIFY YOUR SCALES?

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Like many industries in South Africa, the weighing (or Metrology) industry has certain bodies set up to monitor, regulate and improve the industry. The 3 main bodies involved in the scale industry are; SANAS (South African National Accreditation System), NRCS (National Regulator for Compulsory Standards) and SACS (Scale Council for South Africa).
SANAS : SANAS is the body which accredits and audits the scale companies in terms of The Legal Metrology Act and its regulations. Any reputable scale company should be Accredited by SANAS for Weighing Equipment (SANS 10378) and should be able to produce their certificate.
NRCS : NRCS is the body which monitors and enforces compliance with the Act, they are the ones who conduct inspections at companies sites and ensure that the public is protected from harm. No scale company may Verify a scale unless they have a Certificate of Authority from the NRCS.
SACS: This is a voluntary industry organization for scale companies who are interested in maintaining high standards and improving the industry. There are currently more than 40 members, SACS holds its members to high standards ensuring that quality, integrity and honesty are maintained.
If the scale company you are using does not comply with the above, ask yourself “Why?”. There are many “fly-by-night” scale companies out there, many of them will undertake repairs, servicing or even Verification but if they are not properly accredited they may be breaking the law and ultimately it is the responsibility of the scale owner to ensure that it complies with the law. So next time you need a scale company, make sure they are properly accredited and affiliated or you could end up facing some serious consequences.
Premier Scale Services is an accredited Verification Laboratory (LTF0101) by SANAS, has valid Authority to Verify from NRCS and is a member of SACS. Make the right choice, choose to use an accredited company.