SKF South Africa (a division of SKF AB, Sweden) announced it has officially opened SKF Solution Factory Africa, located in Johannesburg. The opening was attended by Vartan Vartanian, President of SKF's Service Division.

Johannesburg's 27,000 square foot facility is the sixth Solution Factory built by SKF. The others are in Shanghai and Tianjin, China; Gothenburg, Sweden; Torino, Italy; and Sao Paolo, Brazil. There are plans for similar operations in every key market.

SKF began rolling out the Solution Factory locations because there were few, if any, natural opportunities for bearing and seal customers to see and evaluate the rest of SKF's related value-added products, services and technologies -- lubrication systems, mechatronics, support, remanufacturing and repair, condition monitoring, troubleshooting, and many others.

The company hopes customers exposed to its array of interrelated offerings through a Solution Factory will see the advantages inherent in getting all of their mechanical and support systems, including training, from a single integrated source. SKF believes it can help them see the value proposition in terms of cutting costs and improving efficiency.

With Africa's coming in at ZAR9 million (5251R9N7 USD $1.2 million), the investments are seen as minimal for the potential impact they can have: leveraging the existing customer base for product loyalty and additional value-added sales, and being able to show potential customers the wide range of SKF's potentially integrated offerings.

Solution Factory locations are not just sales locations but also operating service centers. An example is the machine tool spindle repair and refurbishment offered by Solution Factory Africa. Gavin Garland, Managing Director of SKF South Africa, noted that prior to this, customers would often have to ship their spindles all the way to Europe for repair.

Mr. Garland went on to point out that many of the Solution Factory Africa resources have been gradually put in place over the past few years. It started out as a basic service and repair facility, then expanded to include a Remote Analysis Center. Last year, a Reliability and Maintenance Institute and a Bearing Remanufacturing Service Center were brought online. Now it includes a Power Transmission and Mechatronics Customization Center, a Lubrication Application Center, a Maintenance Products Repair and Calibration Center, and the Machine Tool Spindle Refurbishment Center.