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- Nestlé South Africa has launched its new Nescafé coffee mixes plant in Hammanskraal.
- The new plant, added to the existing Babelegi plant, is run mostly by imported and locally made technology, with minimal human help.
- Only 27 new jobs were created. The automated machinery can package 1 200 coffee mixes in one minute.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
Nestlé SA launched a R79 million Nescafé coffee mixes plant in Hammanskraal on Tuesday, and its high-speed technology produces and packages way more coffee mixes in a minute than humans can.
Only 27 people have been hired to work at the plant – an extension of its Babelegi Manufacturing Plant in Hammanskraal – but 1 200 coffee mixes per minute are packaged there.
According to the company, this is way more than the kind of output from costly manual labour in the same amount of time.
"The new plant has newly installed technology," factory manager at the Babelegi plant, Samantha Ganethige, said.
"The machine has been designed accordingly. If we had a low speed of like 50 to 60 per minute then [it would be due to] manual operation, but then the cost would be double because with the number of people, there is a cost element. With this high speed, we cannot use manual."
Initially, Nestlé’s coffee mixes in South Africa were imported from its factories around the world.
The company aims to locally produce coffee mixes, tailored specifically for the South African market, at the new plant.
According to the company, 90% of the produce is for the local market, and 10% will be imported.
The age of technology
Using the automated machines at the plant, for the most part, is said to be more efficient without affecting the quality of the product.
Human operators are simply there to monitor the machines and for manual packing after the process. Automated machines do everything else.
"On the current volumes that we have… with 27 people, we can supply 2 500 tons of coffee mixes per annum. The installation is designed in such a way that man doesn't interfere, so all the processes are automatic.
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"From a quality point of view, we make sure the batching is done correctly. [The bulk of the process is] all automatic to guarantee the quality of the product, to guarantee the right recipe. That's the only way to do it," said Nestlé's east and southern Africa factory engineering manager, Sean Weavill.
Imported from Europe
The state-of-the-art technology is imported from Europe but some parts have been manufactured locally.
"The bulk of the machinery that you've seen there in terms of the processing areas is imported. We imported the mixing equipment… [and] the filling machines from Europe.
"All the conveying [and the] cutting machine…that's local. The rest is imported. Unfortunately, we don't have the capability in the country to produce these high-speed machines [especially] with the quality requirements that we need," Weavill told News24.
