P R O M M A C ( P T Y ) LT D
Jason English - CG Holdings CEO
PROMMAC (PTY) LTD
Prommac Positions Itself at
Forefront of Innovation PRODUCTION: David Napier
Prommac is investing heavily in technology that can help to upskill people quicker than ever, improving the company’s efficiency and building a business that is integral when delivering value for clients. CG Holdings CEO Jason English talks to Enterprise Africa about how Prommac is at the cutting edge of innovation and is continuing to grow while others falter.
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Leading South African multidisciplinary technical services business, Prommac, has been excelling in the petrochemical and heavy industry sector since 2006. Providing mechanical, maintenance, shutdown, project and drone services, Prommac has become the local player with an international reputation, competing against some of the biggest players in the global market while always delivering value, efficiency and results for clients. In 2016, CEO Jason English told Enterprise Africa that the company was enjoying a number of contract wins while heavily investing in new technologies that would help drive their vision of building a culture of innovative excellence within the business. Today, Prommac is continuing to embed industry leading technology into its business and is busy preparing for a
number of exciting projects that will get underway in 2020. Former COO Dany De Barros has taken the reins as CEO and Jason English is now CEO of Prommac’s parent group, CG Holdings which has also made investments in New Age Engineering - a top quality welding engineering and services business led by CEO Joseph Zinyana. “We are still very much focused on building a solid culture and it’s been a part of our growth story. There has been significant growth in Prommac over the past three years and that is because of the continued focus on the culture,” highlights English. Previously, he explained that building a culture where employees feel valued and rewarded, and have all the opportunities for selfdevelopment at their fingertips, was vital for Prommac. Now, the emphasis is on retaining this culture whilst
building innovation into the DNA of the company by using technology to deliver more efficient services. “We have really stepped up our innovation in training – the type of training material we are producing, the mentorship programs, the roll out of digitised learner platforms and the implementation of numerous virtual reality and mixed reality concepts are just some of the innovations we are driving across the company,” details English. “We can take data and create models of the environments in which we work so we can onboard our people quicker and develop their experience. Our learner management platform is constantly being updated with new training materials and improving in usage. Our platform is excellent as it gamifies the whole learning experience and that creates a form of competitiveness inhouse.”
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: ENGINEERING
GLOBAL TECH LEADER The company is not following this approach because it is a global trend, or because it makes Prommac seem different; English is part of Peter Diamandis Abundance 360 Singularity program as well as the Young’ Presidents Organization (YPO) and has had the opportunity to travel to innovation centres around the world in Silicon Valley, Europe, Asia and Russia and witness first-hand the amazing technology being developed. This has offered the company the chance to implement some of the world’s best systems, aimed at ultimately improving efficiencies in Prommac and the other group companies. “As technology has evolved, we’ve pushed it harder and harder,” he says. “As certain types of technology have evolved, they’ve become really useful tools for us. We’ve figured out that, because of the global economy and economies in general, there’s price pressure and there is disruption taking
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place. We are looking at what customers will want in the future and it always comes down to one thing – efficient suppliers and service providers. We have looked at how we can become more efficient and the answer is to increase the productivity of our people. Everything that we try and do now is related to how we can improve the productivity of our people. If we are more efficient, in theory, our clients are more efficient, they can make more money in these depressed markets, and they will want to continue using us. “A lot of the technology focus has been around the use of drones and connectivity to IoT (Internet of Things).” The company has officially introduced drone services over the past three years and uses these remotely piloted aircraft to collect data from these plants and then converts that data into meaningful, useful information like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality maps and visual displays. IoT is a system where devices are
connected and can share data with limited human instruction. While the concept is no longer new, it is only just starting to find its way into the mainstream, and businesses are only just discerning and understanding the possible benefits. Prommac has been quick to realise the potential of IoT and has already worked on some innovative solutions that are producing results. “We have signed a collaboration agreement with a leading telco in South Africa and a global IOT company, and we are working together to look at how we use sensors and the IoT to connect different data points on the ground to create meaningful impacts for our clients and ourselves - that’s being able to identify and track equipment, people, processes to improve project performance,” explains English. “We use different sensors to streamline the way in which we execute maintenance so we get different types of real time data from plant and equipment that can help
PROMMAC
// I SPEND A LOT OF TIME FIGURING OUT HOW TO BREAK OUR COMPANIES AND PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS // us predict future failures rather than being reactive to breakdowns. We are trying to use acoustic emissions to make predictions about failures, where we use sounds to pick up issues with rotating equipment. We are testing sensors in a non-traditional way to bring live data into a previously human captured environment. There’s a number of things that we are doing in this space and they are all aimed at helping us become a more efficient service provider for our customers.” Before the introduction of the learning technology, it would take Prommac around four or five years to get a well-trained, systemsknowledgeable, operationallycompliant individual, ready to take on site management duties. Today, that time period is down to two years. “The real value that we see is that we can onboard people with no experience about our business and rapidly get them to a point where they are effective in the field in the shortest possible time. Where it may have taken us four or five years to get someone up to speed in the field and ready to run operations, we are now finding that we can do it in two years. We are turning people with very little experience into valuable assets in the field, with technical knowledge, by using online training technology and building an innovative culture. To further enhance their value, we are exploring IoT solutions that allow us to gauge the hot spots where things are not going so well so we can respond quickly,” says English. Prommac is demonstrating its ambitions to be an innovation leader
in South Africa and by bringing in advanced technology across the business, it is differentiating itself from others in the country. “From what we know, there are others out there applying the same technologies, but in a fundamentally different way. Our uniqueness is that we take our deep knowledge of our industry sectors and use technology to evolve these industries in a way that no one else is really doing. In our space specifically, we are not always using world firsts, but we are certainly up there with some of the world’s leading companies,” admits English. “We are bringing together the right technology to solve client’s challenges on the ground.” He is keen to position the business as one with a reach into the technology sector, but without losing its reputation for technical excellence in engineering.
“We are sitting in the middle and thinking that the business landscape is going to change significantly over the next five years, and in order to reposition ourselves, we have to think of ourselves as a technology business that brings the right technology to our clients so that we can yield the right efficiencies and improvements in their operations by using our own knowledge of their infrastructure. If we can connect the technology to our knowledge of their facilities, that is where the real value is seen and where everyone wins.” PROJECT PIPELINE Following on from a number of success stories over the past few years – all over southern Africa – Prommac has secured a number of high-profile, high-value contracts across some of South Africa’s most vital infrastructure facilities.
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// WE ARE THE ONLY COMPANY, THAT WE ARE AWARE OF, THAT HAS SEEN POSITIVE GROWTH YEAR-ON-YEAR OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS IN A RELATIVELY LOW CONFIDENCE, DEPRESSED MARKET. // “A big focus going forward is a steam header replacement for a client in Sasolburg - that is a significant job,” says English. This is a project where Prommac has already demonstrated its enviable skillset. “In September 2018, we were given the first phase of a steam header replacement, one of two replica projects, the first in Secunda and the second in Sasolburg. The one in Secunda was given to a large international company and the one is Sasolburg was given to Prommac. It was executed in conjunction with New Age Engineering and we applied some of our 3D animation technology to try and optimise the execution of the project. It was a 14-day job and we finished four days early. The same job being done in
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Secunda by the international business was finished seven days late. Everyone in the petrochemical space knows that the difference in these results in a significant amount of monetary gains for our clients.” Such an effective delivery of the first phase saw Prommac awarded phase 2, and a subsequent great performance in phase 2, has led to phase 3 where the main steam header will be replaced. “It all stems from a team of people who have been productive and it all comes back to us being efficient. Because of the way we can execute, we have won significantly larger contracts.” For foreign industrial sector businesses entering South Africa, Prommac has positioned itself as the
obvious partner, brimming with local knowledge and determined to deliver efficiency for clients. In early 2020, Prommac will begin a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) replacement project for a French multinational business. The FCCU is extremely important, turning hydrocarbons into gasoline and other useable products. “This is a follow-on job after our first project with them in 2017 which we completed safely and ahead of schedule. It was a very challenging job where we had to replace the top of a column. We used our animation technology to make that a very successful project. Subsequently, the same company has reappointed us for replacement of a reactor at another refinery in Cape Town in March 2020,” details English. Prommac’s newer offerings fully complement its traditional service portfolio and drone services in particular are proving to be extremely useful for the company and its clients. “We are the first fully technically
PROMMAC
// WE CAN TAKE DATA AND CREATE MODELS OF THE ENVIRONMENTS IN WHICH WE WORK SO WE CAN ONBOARD OUR PEOPLE QUICKER AND DEVELOP THEIR EXPERIENCE // accredited drone operator for a major global chemicals client and we have been providing some really intricate, detailed, internal boiler, tank, stack and pipeline inspections. We have been saving significant time in the execution of work. Traditionally, it could take three days to put up a scaffold tower while inspecting. We can do a flight in 40 minutes and pull in all the data to provide a report in three hours, and highlight the damages that we might see.” Prommac is also using drone services to assist the mining sector with stockpile monitoring and high-profile inspections as well as supporting the agri-tech and security industry. Again, these efficiency improvements are impactful on the bottom line of a client’s business and, inevitably, this encourages repeat business and an ongoing beneficial relationship. CG HOLDINGS When looking for new technologies and methodologies to improve, Prommac is able to leverage from its sister companies in the CG Holdings group. Established in 2016, CG Holdings is an owner-managed group with more than 4000 employees at peak across its operating businesses with international exposure. The group is made up of Prommac, New Age Engineering and EC&I in South Africa, Al Laith in Dubai, Event Centre in Ireland, and CG Labs (formerly Iris
Group) in the UK. CG Labs is the innovation hub of the business and helps to drive the development, acquisition and adoption of new technology across the group. This problem-solving business helps to set the group apart from others. “It is focussed on understanding all the technology that is out there and how our individual operating companies, like Prommac, could utilise various technology offerings,” explains English. “Prommac would send a request to CG Labs for a solution and CG Labs would either develop technology or source something from its ecosystem of partners before sending the idea back to Prommac where it would be tested and trialled before becoming a Prommac product and a solution for Prommac’s clients.” Located in Milton Keynes,
Buckinghamshire CG Labs helps to take the load from other companies in the group, allowing them to focus on their core business and the business of their customers. “When you innovate inside your company, it can be a distraction,” admits English. “We found that as the group grew bigger and bigger, it became worthwhile for us to establish a completely separate innovation business that would only focus on problems in the group while allowing the core operating businesses to continuously focus on their day to day operations.” The work of CG Labs will become more and more significant as CG Holdings continues to expand its reach globally. Currently active across three continents, English says the group will expand, and is currently looking at new opportunities in the Middle East and UK.
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INDUSTRY FOCUS: ENGINEERING
INDUSTRY OVERHEAT? The oil and gas industry in South Africa has been depressed for some time, and markets surrounding including Angola, Uganda, Mozambique and Zambia have all been hit by unpredictable commodity prices and various other trading conditions. Asked if English sees an immediate uptick, perhaps resulting from confidence after large offshore discoveries, he is clear in his assessment: “Generally speaking, no. The market is generally very depressed and very flat. Mozambique is giving a little hope but there is scepticism about what the spinoff will be for South African businesses and the timing thereof.” Despite this, he remains optimistic about the future of the sector in general and Prommac in particular. There is a shift of the large oil players business models towards diversified offerings and low carbon emissions and this will have a direct upliftment over time for
existing plants. “There have been numerous bankruptcies filed by big-name businesses. Share prices have crashed and a lot of them are taking a beating. It’s strange that we are bucking the trend completely in this space – we are the only company, that we are aware of, that has seen positive growth year-on-year over the past five years in a relatively low confidence, depressed market.” The CEO is not happy about conditions across the sector even though his business has come through relatively unscathed. He says negativity delays investment and causes talented people to transfer their skills to other industries and other geographies. It also makes the industry vulnerable to incorrect views. However, Prommac, in its relatively short life, has already been through several economic cycles and has always come out with strength. English puts this down to truly
// WE ARE THE FIRST FULLY TECHNICALLY ACCREDITED DRONE OPERATOR FOR A MAJOR GLOBAL CHEMICALS CLIENT AND WE HAVE BEEN PROVIDING SOME REALLY INTRICATE, DETAILED, INTERNAL BOILER, TANK, STACK AND PIPELINE INSPECTIONS // understanding the business of clients and keeping a team motivated when the clouds are building. “We are upbeat and we are fortunate that we have had a bit of luck in the decisions we have taken. We understand our client’s challenges and we understand that they are under pressure from an economic perspective, and that just means that we have to reposition our business to help them. That doesn’t mean we have to be cheaper; it means we have to offer a better value proposition to help our customers ultimately make more money.” INNOVATION IS KEY Adding new technology to the Prommac portfolio, leveraging from the rest of the CG Group, upskilling employees quickly, and ensuring the company culture reflects a preparedness for quick changes in business direction, all comes as a result of Prommac’s commitment to innovation and culture. In order to display the company’s commitment to innovation, it signed up as the headline sponsor of the South African robotics team, the SpringBots, from 2018 who compete annually in the Global Robotics Olympics.
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PROMMAC
The contest is annually themed around the ‘14 Grand Challenges of Engineering’. Each year, a different Grand Challenge takes focus and young robotics engineers gather to offer up solutions. Interestingly, South Africa could not raise the funding to send the team to compete in 2018 but other African nations had been involved since the competition’s inception. “I was in Los Angeles in Jan 2018 and heard about the dilemma for team South Africa so we decided to jump onboard. They went to the world championships in Mexico in 2018 and finished sixth out of 192 participating countries. It was unexpected and Walt Disney actually awarded them a Gold Medal for Creativity and Innovation for their journey in the competition. They finished behind the USA, Singapore and other top economies but managed to beat South Korea and other powerhouse innovators of the world. “We have taken a strategic view to really support anything that is related to innovative manufacturing or something that could potentially be a part of our future. We think robotics will have some part to play but being behind the SpringBots is more about inspiring hope for our country and its young people and is a clear indication that we can compete in this space if we build the right eco-systems. As a result, it helps to keep us in the know and positions us slightly differently,” says English. This type of investment is not something that every company can put up and, much like the Prommac investment into technology solutions for advanced data processing, it is something which really separates the company from the rest. “It’s hard to put a monetary value on new technology as it’s not always a direct revenue generator,” admits English. “We know it make us more efficient and to try and understand what that equates to in terms of actual value is very difficult. Investing in training of people and technology is very hard to determine ROI, and if you can’t get a ROI
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it’s difficult to get budgets approved. Being a very entrepreneurial, privately owned business, competing in a large generally publicly owned space, we are a lot more agile and quicker with decision making processes.” And the speed at which the company makes decision and shifts approach allows it to negate the challenges that larger, more-corporate behemoths are often faced with. English takes responsibility for ensuring that Prommac, and other CG Group companies, ecosystem is crack-proofed. “I spend a lot of time figuring out how to break our companies and put them out of business. If I can figure that out, then I can figure out new ideas and solutions to prevent that,” he says. This ability, where management has a finger right on the pulse of the business, is not always the case
in big engineering firms. Ongoing investment into innovative technology solutions that help drive a culture of improvement and excellence are not always the norm across the industry, and it is these characteristics that set Prommac apart. By becoming more efficient and therefore more valuable, Prommac’s clients are receiving more benefit than ever before. As long as this continues, this will be a business that grows.
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Prommac Positions Itself at
Forefront of Innovation Exclusive interview with CG Holdings CEO Jason English ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Logicalis South Africa / Momsen Bikes / Brights Hardware / Singita
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ENTERPRISE AFRICA
NOVEMBER 2019