‘Our mandate is provision of critical spares’

Statement from Prince Abraham, Nedlac Automation CEO

I am excited and happy that we have the Minister of State Judith Ncube, the Deputy Minister of Industry Raj Modi, the Mayor of Bulawayo Solomon Mguni and the captains of industry and mining with us today.

This is a great time to be alive and in business in Zimbabwe. We have been here since September and I must say that Zimbabwe is indeed open of business. The economy is being rebooted and for it to grow Zimbabwe needs its industry and mines to scale up and sustain production. Industry and mining are vital for economic growth and as such Nedlac Enterprises has seen it fit to come to Zimbabwe to ensure that units in mines and industries do not fail. Our job is to keep your operations online even after a major breakdown to ensure that you help Zimbabwe achieve Vision 2030.

How will we do that? By supplying you with the correct mining and industrial spares to eliminate unwanted downtime. The value of a well thought out spare parts system in industry and mining can’t be overstated. For production to continue uninterrupted and for Zimbabwe to grow, we cannot afford to have our machines shut down for lack of spare parts.

All too often, spare parts are over looked which results in a panic search, high costs, machine downtime and loss of production. Our job as Nedlac is to ensure you have spare parts on hand to reduce the stress caused by machine downtime.

Unplanned downtime can be costly — an out of service machine affects all areas of production, both upstream and downstream in your production process. Not having spare parts results in high costs caused by the rush to have spares delivered quickly, you also have to bear the burden of paying idle employees who have no machine to run. There is also the temptation to use inferior parts or improper repairs to continue production — that is risk and can be costly.

Not having spare parts also means you have to deal with the nightmare of missed or late deliveries to your customers. This is the worst nightmare because you run the risk of losing clients if they deem you unreliable. Good customer relations are the lifeblood of mining and industry — so our job is to make sure you avoid avoidable frustrations caused by lack of spare parts.

We have a proven track record of supplying genuine spare parts and we have helped many big companies in Zimbabwe even before we set up shop here. We can be trusted to supply you with the correct replacement parts. There is no reason whatsoever for you to shut down because you do not have the right parts.

Winners make a habit of expecting the worst and they prepare for it in advance. Downtime caused by lack of spares is not ideal in mining and industry. We are here to make sure that you are prepared in advance.

At a time when we are losing production due to lack of foreign currency to buy spare parts, we are here to do everything we can to help our manufacturers and miners stay competitive. They are the backbone of our economy.

It is more important than ever for Zimbabwe to rededicate itself to manufacturing and mining at 100 percent. If we do that the economy will grow and poverty will fall. Our people will get jobs and food on the table — we won’t want for anything.

Whether in mining or in manufacturing, the trick is to stay ahead of the curve. I believe we should not wait to be disrupted due to lack of spare parts — we should have a spare parts system that ensures your downtime is not disruptive.

We have great challenges and great opportunities, and with your help, we will meet them and make this country great again through mining and industry.