50 years of service: a long-term commitment

The delivery of long-term, through-life equipment support is a humbling experience. Our service business is built on trust and partnerships to ensure lasting stability for our customers. We do this with passion and integrity, and we know that we are nothing without our customers.

As a company, we feel a collective responsibility for making sure that our technology performs to the best of its potential throughout its service life. It is not a coincidence that I have been working in our service business for a long time. I am passionate about ensuring that the Siwertell dry bulk handling equipment that we deliver in one decade, continues to meet our customers’ needs in decades to come. 

It is essential that we enable and support our customers, who have invested and put their trust in our technology, and our business, to maintain their ship unloading and ship loading equipment and keep our delivery promises. 

Happy customer, happy company

Service work is a creative endeavor; you have to think laterally, and bring all your knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to the table. No two dry bulk handling installations and operations are the same, making customer support equally unique. When our customers are happy, I am happy. In fact, we are all happy. Sharing the success of a customer’s operations is a company-wide experience, extending far beyond our offices in Sweden. We work as part of an international team, and it is a fantastic feeling to share.

I have worked with Siwertell ship unloading, ship loading and screw conveyor products since 1996, starting in the summer of that year as a purchasing engineer, procuring equipment and systems for Siwertell machines and terminals. I later became a contract manager, then a sales manager and operations manager, leading the sales and field service teams. This position led to managing a number of refurbishment and maintenance projects, including the development of planned Siwertell service agreements. I became service director in 2016 and am now responsible for Siwertell technology service globally, as well as the coordination of Bruks Siwertell Group services since its establishment in 2018. 

My first, and lasting, impression of the company happened even before I even joined in the autumn of 1995. It was a gray, rainy and windy November day and I was visiting a shipyard in Arendal, Gothenburg, Sweden. The team was assisting in the final stage of assembly of two huge Siwertell ship unloaders, just before they were transported via heavy-lift vessel to the Philippines and Indonesia. 

I met the designers for the slewing and gantry components of the Siwertell ship unloaders, and the project manager and supervisor on site. We continued our discussions long after leaving work. I found their approach very interesting; making a high-quality Swedish machine with dedicated individuals, as well as a wider team, all contributing to both the engineering and commercial challenges of the global dry bulk handling market. I just had to apply for a job at this company. Since that day, and every day since, Bruks Siwertell has delivered on these early promises. 

After nearly three decades, I am still driven by my own, and a company-wide sense, that we are working as one team to deliver good service. Very little beats the satisfaction that I feel when we contribute to a well-functioning operation, which in turn underpins a successful business for the customer.

Incremental improvements 

Although a Siwertell ship unloader looks very similar to the units delivered fifty years ago, we have made a lot of technical improvements and developed new solutions, as well as processes for service. However, the important things are the small improvements that we achieve every day to solve customer problems. This, of course, might sound like a cliché, but it is fundamental to our business.

The wonderful thing about being part of our service department for so long is seeing how well-maintained equipment lasts for decades; ship unloaders from the early 80s are nonetheless performing at high levels where it is still worth investing in modern control systems for another service cycle. By extending the service life of existing dry bulk handling equipment, we ensure that our customers can access a sustainable business model.

Sustainability work is a natural part of our company. We have a proven track record for biomass ship unloaders, enabling stakeholders to switch from coal to renewable sources of energy. Within the aftersales market, we are now supporting our customers to convert existing coal unloaders to handle biomass in the bioenergy sector. Biomass is a very different commodity to coal, requiring measures to mitigate fire and explosion risks when handling it in enclosed conveying lines.

Investing in Siwertell dry bulk material handling technology delivers long-term benefits. We provide high-quality products designed for long, reliable service lives, which are backed-up by a dedicated service partner throughout the whole lifecycle of the product and beyond.

Furthermore, the team spirit within our company has enabled us to be pioneers in a market that can struggle to change. Five decades later, we are still the most innovative choice for efficient dry bulk handling. By literally cleaning-up global ports, I have seen our products transform the environmental impact of dry bulk handling. This is a great legacy for continuing to make a positive impression on the future. 

Setting the future path

But our work is far from done. Many dry bulk ports still use grab cranes and clamshell buckets perpetuating wasteful spillage and dust emissions and polluting the sea and air. Siwertell technology will continue to play an important role in environmentally friendly bulk handling, converting these ports into highly efficient, sustainable facilities that can meet the needs of tomorrow’s world. 

Part of this is our drive to develop our ship unloading and ship loading products, including embracing the advantages of digitalization. We have recently introduced Siwertell Smartview, a cloud-based industrial Internet of things (IIoT) system that is planned for a phased integration into Siwertell technology. It is designed to offer a better understanding of operational and component performance through enhanced data visualization and analysis. 

Siwertell Smartview also forms the basis for the gradual development of our remote expert services. This is a very cost-efficient and sustainable way of improving the availability and reliability of our customers’ Siwertell ship unloading and ship loading equipment. 

I really look forward to further developing these services. It is challenging and innovative work, which will continue to deliver advantages that will have a positive impact on our customers in the future, much the same as the dry bulk handling technology transformed the marketplace fifty years ago.