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 commercializing 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.
Poynting Antennas (Pty) Ltd developed as result of seed funding provided by Government related agencies - this article pays tribute to their beliefs and contributions and gives some concrete measure of the employment and export benefits realized.
Poynting Antennas mainly focuses on the manufacture and distribution of antennas. The factory consists of a mass production facility and a specialised antenna manufacturing facility. Our production staff increased from 3 people, 2 years ago, to 32 employees currently.
According to Bernardt Jansen, manager of the mass production facility, the 24 assembly workers employed here currently manufacture over 16000 antennas a month. 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 stand-alone antenna systems).
The specialised manufacturing workshop are responsible for the custom-made antennas which include the Electronic Warfare (EW) range (see later), military communication antennas, underground (mining related) and special purpose vehicle antennas. This workshop employs 6 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 6 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 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 has been 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) of ARMSCOR. The production and export is really the fruit of these funding bodies` belief in local technology and abilities. The original project applications projected some contribution towards employment and job creation - 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. These industry related activities is supported enthusiastically by Prof Ian Jandrell, Head: School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits.
The company has also seen considerable benefit from Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through EMIA funding which assisted us in attending a number of international trade shows. A special mention should also be made of the South Africa Electrotechnical 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 Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to support and co-ordinate export initiatives. This council has arranged a variety of pavilions (amongst other things), which assisted us greatly in our export efforts.
The Poynting Group has shown its mettle in using funding to achieve the aims of the fund managers - we believe that current "high risk" ideas receiving funding will similarly result in products which will drive increased sales, exports and employment in the years to come. For more information on any of the funds or projects mentioned in this article please contact ylana.haarhoff@poynting.co.za.
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Poynting Innovations is situated in Wynberg, Johannesburg. The company supplies industry with electromagnetic engineering research and development services and products. For additional information on Poynting Innovations visit their Web site at http://www.poynting.co.za or call (011) 262 5155.
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