FACE-TO-FACE
Doosan
South Africa has the potential , I ' ve always said , to be the breadbasket of Africa , and infrastructure development in the construction industry is a brilliant starting point .
Doosan ’ s heavy-duty DX225LCA hydraulic excavator has been designed to cope efficiently and safely in Africa ’ s harsh operating conditions .
economy . While they may have the contracts , they are maybe not cash-flush or asset-strong enough to warrant finance , and the banks all want a 20 % deposit . Understandably , really . If a company buys a R2-million piece of kit and then wants to give it back after a few months because the contract has gone sour , the bank needs to make sure that there ' s enough equity invested in it that the company doesn ’ t want to lose it and will do everything in its power to keep it going . So what we sometimes do , on a very limited basis , is rent-to-buy deals , for example , which are really intended for the customer to build up a deposit so they can secure finance from the bank .
RG : Another area receiving a lot of focus at the moment is telematics and data analysis . Do you use any of that sort of technology ?
RW : Yes , we do . I believe that telematics is the future . We use Doosan-specific , factoryfitted telematics on our larger machines , as well as third-party solutions on some of our other machines . From the distributor ’ s point of view , you are able to monitor the machine for maintenance purposes , and the customer can also manage their fleet and optimise their operations from a central point . But you ' ve got to have a champion who is dedicated to managing the data and sending out the alerts if a machine is starting to overheat , or if fuel
consumption is increasing or productivity is dropping , and so on .
So it is the future , but remember we ' re in Africa , so on your upper-echelon and high production sites or mines it works like a dream . If you ' ve got R200-million or R1-billion ' s worth of equipment out there , you ' re going to want to know what is going on . But the further you move away from that and into the more remote areas with smaller contractors , the less important telematics becomes .
RG : With this increasing level of technology , cybersecurity is also becoming much more important , which we ’ ve seen from the two big cyberattacks in recent months . What is your opinion on this area ?
RW : Cyberattacks are a very real problem worldwide , and I think that modern-day terrorism is heading that way . You can shut the whole world down , really , and it ' s very worrying , so we have to be aware of it and take whatever software precautions we can . For us this is part of the general package that comes with the telematics solution . Obviously , every software program has built-in barriers and firewalls and so on , but unfortunately in some of these cases , the point seems to be to create chaos , rather than achieve any particular goal — they do it just because they can . And this is an area that could affect all aspects of your life , not just equipment . Just take your motor car today , it ' s full of electronics and if somebody knows what they are doing , they can manipulate your car .
RG : What do you think are going to be the big areas or the big trends to watch , specifically in South Africa , over the next few years in the industries that use this kind of equipment ?
RW : Well I think one is definitely the political scene — it ’ s going to make or break these industries , and following on from that would be socio-economic conditions . If you get a government that is pro-job creation , the mining and construction industries would both grow . Another important area is education ; our education standards are dismal , to the point where it is even affecting our universities . And this also comes back to socioeconomic factors , because where wealthier people can elect to go the private education route , including private universities , that option is extremely expensive , which then widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots . So that ' s a big worry ; we must keep our education standards up , and again , so much relates to good governance , from both a government and a corporate level . This country has so much potential , if we can just get past the corruption . n
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SEPTEMBER 2017