By Lebo Ntsane, MMM Segment Service Sales Lead – Schneider Electric Anglophone Africa
How OEMs secure business continuity through SLAs. This is Part One of a two-part series.
The cold chain, like all industries, is facing a critical shortage of skilled technicians, especially for maintaining ageing infrastructure and ensuring operational reliability. This shortage threatens productivity, safety and compliance.
The 2023/24 Xpatweb Survey revealed that 79% of South African organisations reported difficulty recruiting critically skilled individuals, particularly in Engineering, ICT and skilled trades. The Allianz Risk Barometer 2025 ranks skilled worker shortages among the top 10 business risks in South Africa, marking the first time this issue has entered the top tier of national business concerns.
With the retirement of ageing workforces causing a further decline in technical expertise, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have become crucial in addressing this gap. Essentially, OEMs play a critical role in modern industry by addressing workforce shortages and ensuring operational efficiency.
They act as custodians of technology, providing expertise, training and digital solutions to bridge skills gaps and maintain productivity and provide guaranteed Service Level Agreements (SLAs) supported by certified field engineers, serving as a crucial resource for industries such as mining and manufacturing.
In industries like mining, often located in remote areas, the lack of skilled personnel to perform equipment diagnostics is a major concern. An SLA bridges this gap by offering digital solutions such as real-time monitoring dashboards and automated alerts for abnormal conditions.
Additionally, dedicated spare parts availability ensures emergency preparedness. With commodity price fluctuations and increasing operational challenges, organisations can benefit from SLAs by prioritising efficiency, asset longevity and budget optimisation.
Structured maintenance support
An SLA provides structured maintenance support to ensure equipment efficiency and longevity. Key benefits include 24/7 technical assistance in the form of a hotline, video support and corrective maintenance.
SLAs also provide for scheduled maintenance, which is integrated with production shutdowns to optimise downtime and with predictive maintenance, which relies on advanced diagnostics to optimise maintenance schedules, reducing unnecessary expenses.
The support option adopted by an OEM often depends on geographical constraints. Given that many mines are in remote areas, an effective support system ensures efficient service delivery.
With the local partner support option, OEMs train local partners to provide emergency 24/7 support and onsite corrective maintenance, so instead of travelling long distances, local technicians can handle urgent needs. Additionally, a back-to-back contract ensures rapid assistance, with a nearby distributor holding essential equipment and spare parts. This level of localised support is guaranteed only through an SLA agreement.
Source: Schneider Electric Anglophone Africa