About RCL Foods

RCL Foods is a major South African consumer goods and milling company that produces a wide array of branded and private label food products. The company was originally founded in 1960 as Rainbow Chicken Ltd. The company’s operations extend beyond South Africa to several other African countries, including Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia. Its products cover multiple categories, including household staples and value-added goods.

Application Details

Purpose of the role:

• The purpose of this role is to, with the support of the Process Control Technician, oversee the reliability of the process control equipment and automation systems and provide technical support to problem solving in the capacity of a subject matter expert of control systems. The incumbent is also expected to define and execute the software scope of work on projects. He/She should also execute software upgrades driven by obsolescence and/or business requirements as well as partner with service providers to identify improvements to existing systems/processes.

Minimum Requirements

• NQF Level 7 Advanced Diplomas or Bachelor’s Degrees in Electronic, Electrical or Mechatronic Engineering
• Relevant experience with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Distributed Control Systems (DCS) required.
• Experience in the manufacturing or design sector will be advantageous (eg. Automated FMCG Plants, Petrochemical, Mining, Automotive, EPC firm).
• Experience with vendor-specific softwares will be advantageous

Duties & Responsibilities

Health, Safety and Environmental Compliance:

• Ensure that all maintenance activities are conducted with strict adherence to the site’s safety policies and procedures.
• Promote a safety-first culture and enforce safety standards as defined among all team members.
• Ensure aspects of process safety are adhered to (Risk Assessments, HAZOP studies, MOC)

Factory Reliability and Optimisation:

• Resolve escalated issues promptly, support operational troubleshooting and maintain system uptime through proactive measures.
• Drive execution of routine preventative and predictive maintenance on software and automated systems.
• Lead the development of standard maintenance procedures for software systems. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to lead and support on problem solving using root cause analysis techniques.
• Establish corrective and preventative countermeasures from problem solving.
• Determine the material, equipment, and supplies to be used for maintenance activities and ensures that these are ordered and available at the work site, in conjunction with the input of the asset care planner.
• Analyse factory performance data to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Collaborate with service providers and identify opportunities to improve the factory’s control systems.

Process Control Design, Standardisation and Improvement:

• Define and develop a robust process control system, such that the desired operating conditions and performance indicators are in line with product specifications and regulatory requirements.
• Ensure compliance with control and automation standards.
• Guide the selection and design of the control strategies, instruments, and algorithms.
• Analyse and maintain process dynamics for process inputs and outputs with a view to improve non-conformance or deviations from standard.
• Guide the selection of the control structure, the configuration and arrangement of the control loops, sensors, actuators, and controllers.
• Guide the design of control algorithms, which are the rules and calculations that govern how the control instruments adjust the manipulated variables to achieve the desired outputs.
• Maintain the control system infrastructure to ensure alignment with best practices and standards for process control system design, installation, and operation, such as ISA-88, ISA-95.
• Apply different tools and techniques, such as statistical process control (SPC), key performance indicators (KPIs), or root cause analysis (RCA) to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the control system.
• Documentation and Reporting: Ensure adherence to established change management processes. Maintain accurate engineering documentation (FDS, Process Descriptions, HAZOP, etc.), engineering changes, and project records