Smiths Manufacturing (Pty) Ltd is based in Durban, on the East Coast of South Africa and South Africa's biggest port. Originally Smiths Industries, Smiths was purchased by Metair Investments Ltd in 1985, a group specializing in the manufacture of automotive components, which is listed on the Johannesburg stock exchange.
CAPABILITIES
Smiths has 6 manufacturing and assembly plants in Durban, with more than 25,000 sqm of space. The breakdown of the plants is as follows:
Plants 1&2 - Manufacture of Heat Exchangers and Fluid Exchangers
Plants 3&6 - Manufacture of plastic injection moulded, gas injection moulded and painted parts
Plant 4 - Assembly plant and motor manufacture
Plant 5 - Warehousing
PRODUCTS
Smiths is a leading manufacturer and assembler of automotive plastic, air-conditioning and engine cooling components. Since 1966 Smiths has manufactured automotive climatic control systems expanding into motor manufacture (1971), automotive plastic injection moulded parts (1977), receiver driers and condenser and evaporator cores.
Please click on the links below to navigate to the various products that we manufacture.
- Heat Exchangers
- Fluid Exchangers
- Climate Control
- Motors
- Smiths' Plastics
COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
At Smiths, quality is an integral part of our strategic planning and daily operations and is the responsibility of every employee. Through our commitment to quality we have achieved such internationally recognised quality ratings as QS9000, ISO 14001 and VDA 6.1. For these ratings, Smiths is registered with Underwriters Laboratories, based in America, which conducts assessments throughout the world.
Continuous improvement teams (known as Mission Directed Work Teams), run by line operators, have been established throughout the company. Teams are encouraged to look at their work processes to see where improvements, whether they be in terms of time, quality or cost, can be made. Improvements that are implemented are presented and recognition given to the teams. Through this programme Smiths has made considerable savings.
SMITH'S PEOPLE
Smiths employs over 800 people, of whom nearly 80 are qualified engineers. A formal company-wide skills development programme is in place, which seeks to enhance the skills of employees across the board. In order to ensure that we provide continuous, quality service to our customers, the programme includes the multiskilling of employees and has been very successful in this regard to date.
CUSTOMERS
Smiths supplies the following OEMs within South Africa:
- BMW
- Delta
- DaimlerChrysler
- Fiat
- Ford
- Land Rover
- Nissan
- Toyota
- Volkswagen
In addition Smiths exports products to the USA and Europe.
