Poynting Antennas developed as a result of seed funding provided by government-related agencies. Paying tribute to their beliefs and contributions, this article offers some concrete measure of the employment and export benefits that are realised.
In 1999 Andre Fourie approached the Defence Research and Development Board (DRDB) at Armscor and later, the Support Programme for Industrial Innovation (SPII), with the nascent idea of commercialising some antenna technologies. These technologies were developed while operating a research and development company from the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits University.
With its main focus on the manufacture and distribution of antennas, Poynting Antennas' factory consists of a mass production facility and a specialised antenna manufacturing facility. Its production staff increased from three people two years ago to the current 32 employees. According to Bernardt Jansen, manager of the mass production facility, the 24 assembly workers employed in this plant manufacture over 16 000 antennas a month.
The mass production items are mainly in the GSM900/1800 end user antenna market (embedded and OEM antennas) and wireless LAN 2,4 GHz market (both embedded and standalone antenna systems). The specialised manufacturing workshop is responsible for the custom-made antennas which include the electronic warfare (EW) range, military communication antennas, underground (mining-related) and special purpose vehicle antennas. This workshop employs six people and is managed by Hannes Grau, a qualified fitter and turner, who sees that the strict delivery deadlines are met. It is not uncommon for this team to manufacture up to 48 antennas in a six week period.
Anthony Clark has recently been appointed as quality assurance and configuration control manager, and will be responsible for instituting a quality management and configuration control system within the company. He will also be responsible for gaining ISO 9001:2000 accreditation for the company.
The increase in the company's production has been driven by sales volumes which regularly exceed R1 million per month, with a typical export component of more than 50%. Poynting's patented SIP (solder in plastic) process accounts for many of the antennas in the mass production section. This technology was developed using funding from the IDC SPII program (Bluetooth project) as well as dual-use DRDB funding that was made possible with the assistance of Rob Calitz (electronics technology manager) and Franzette Vorster (technical manager) at Armscor. The production and export is really the fruit of these funding bodies' belief in local technology and abilities. The original project applications foresaw some contribution towards employment and job creation - however, the current production line and export volumes does justice to their investment.
Poynting is still receiving government assistance via the THRIPP program managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF) where joint antenna development is performed with Wits University. Prof Alan Clark, head of the Computational Electromagnetic Group at Wits, manages this funding that encourages co-operation between industry and academia, while enthusiastically supporting these industry-related activities is Prof Ian Jandrell, head of the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits.
Poynting has also seen considerable benefit from Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) through EMIA funding which also assisted with attendance at a number of international trade shows. Of special note is the South African Electro-technical Export Council (SAEEC) under the management of Eileen Leopold. The SAEEC, of which Poynting is a member, is a public/private partnership between business and the dti to support and coordinate export initiatives. The council has arranged a variety of pavilions - amongst other things - that greatly assisted in export efforts.
The Poynting Group has shown its mettle in using funding to achieve the aims of the fund managers. It believes that current 'high risk' ideas receiving funding will similarly result in products that will drive increased sales, exports and employment in the years to come.
Poynting Innovations is situated in Wynberg, Johannesburg, and supplies industry with electromagnetic engineering research and development services and products.
Contact the company for information on any of the funds or projects mentioned, or for any other information: Ylana Haarhoff, 011 262 5155, [email protected].
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