PRINCIPAL BUSINESS ACTIVITIES
Importing
Plasserail, being a partner of Plasser & Theurer of Austria, is also the agent for their range of machinery in Southern Africa. Plasserail can import any of the machines manufactured by Plasser & Theurer. These machines can be sold to any customer in sub- Saharan Africa. Plasserail has the experience and infrastructure to import, commission and support the machines bought from Plasser & Theurer.
Manufacturing and Refurbishing
Machines
Most of the machines Plasserail has delivered to the South African market since 1959 have been manufactured locally in Johannesburg. These machines were built to Plasser & Theurer’s design and customised to meet the special conditions encountered in Africa.
Plasserail has the experience, knowledge and infrastructure to manufacture a wide range of machinery. However, due to the skills shortage experienced in South Africa, Plasserail may focus more on importing of machines and rather use its manufacturing ability for the servicing and refurbishing of machines. During the refurbishing process a machine is completely disassembled and rebuilt using new components producing a product which is as good as new.
Major Components
Plasserail has a dedicated workshop for the manufacturing and refurbishing of major components such as tamping units, stabilising units, final drives, gearboxes, etc. These major components will be thoroughly tested, preserved and stored.
Service Exchange Units
The major components which were either imported, manufactured or refurbished will be made available from Plasserail to its customers on a service exchange basis. Plasserail will keep limited stock of these components to ensure optimum availability of machines.
Design
Due to the special conditions encountered in Africa and the need to customise machines, Plasserail maintains a design office with specialised staff with many years of experience in the field of mechanised track maintenance machinery. Furthermore, Plasserail has also designed a number of unique machines specially for the South African market. This design capability is carefully nurtured as it is the key to keeping all Plasser machines up to date with modern systems even when the machine has been in operation for many years. Every time a machine comes into the workshops for refurbishment, consideration is given to the upgrading of its systems which requires expert design capacity.
Of equal importance to this department is the keeping and updating of the spare parts manuals for these machines. Outdated spare parts manuals cause delays in the supply chain of spare parts and huge delays when the wrong parts have been delivered over long distances. There is a move towards computer based spare part books with the added benefit of accurate and on-line spares ordering.
Spares Holding
Maintenance staff can only maintain the machines at the high availability levels, for which Plasserail machines are renowned, if they have the spares available to carry out the necessary work. Due to the specialised nature of the machines, the spares are unique and in order to render a high standard of service, Plasserail keeps stock of 6,000 line items, or a total stock of 250,000 components. Most other components are available at short notice from local suppliers or from Plasser & Theurer’s store in Austria.
Sophisticated computer software packages are used to control the stock and to give early warning regarding low stock levels. This ensures that the stock components can be replenished with due consideration of the delivery period of such stock items.
Machine Maintenance
Mechanised track maintenance machinery works under extremely harsh conditions and is for all practical purposes, self destructing. The machines are very specialised and sophisticated with modern electronics and complicated hydraulic systems. Even well qualified tradesmen must work on these machines for many years before they can be left in 
charge of the day to day maintenance required to keep the machines reliable and available for work. Plasserail has many well qualified tradesmen with many years of experience on Plasser machines. The staff, supported by experienced supervisors, can be contracted to maintain the machines owned by Plasserail’s customers.
Technical Support
Even with well qualified and experienced tradesmen, there are still problems they cannot solve. For this reason Plasserail also has various electronic, electrical, mechanical, hydraulics and other technicians and specialists that are on call to attend to machine problems at short notice. Plasserail’s tradesmen and technicians undergo continuous in-house and international training which sharpens their skills to efficiently deal with just about any technical problem.
Machine Operating
The operating of track maintenance machinery is highly unique and specialised. For this purpose Plasserail provides extensive in-house training and has a large complement of experienced operators for its machines. The level of production achieved with the machines is very much dependent on the skill and experience of the operators.
Mechanised Track Maintenance and Construction Contracting
Plasserail owns, operates and maintains various machines which can be contracted out as a complete package for just about any track maintenance or construction requirement.
