PERSONALITY PROFILE
Primarily a development and training company, Umphakathi is focused
on skills transfer and the development of black-owned enterprises in
the plumbing industry. Trainees are taught every aspect of plumbing,
from the basics of hydraulics to more complicated installations for
large commercial projects. Each trainee is taken through all the skills
required for running a plumbing business, such as isometric drawings,
material take-offs for creating a bill of material, pricing and estimating,
risk assessments, producing method statements, doing the installation
recording and measuring the work, applications for payment, and the
completion of QA documentation.
“Training is probably the most important thing in South Africa at the
moment — to pass on skills to someone else, people who did not have the
opportunities to learn them,” he says. “The difference in earnings between
black and white has always been a big issue for me. How do we get people
to earn proper money for what they are doing? The only way you can justify
increases on the money you earn is by having a skill and that skill has to be
needed — so that’s where we focused all of our energy.”
To assist in recording progress and to document contractual issues on
site, they developed an app called Max-Form. The app allows remote
monitoring of the contract progress and the work that the plumbers on
site are doing. Max-Form paperless project management facilitates the
recording of the installation by means of tailor-made documentation
processes with pre-populated, easy-to-use forms that are published to the
cloud. It records progress and contractual issues, along with photographs
that are date and time stamped with Geotagging. The real benefit is the
business intelligence that is gained through the easy-to-use reporting.
User log-in on the net allows clients and principals to follow what is
happening on site, highlighting any problems or issues before they are
covered or closed, thereby preventing costly delays and reducing latent
defects. The documentation and history are recorded and it is accessible
years after completion of the contract.
“The students use Max-Form to record their portfolio of evidence
and to facilitate the mentoring required as they progress along their
learning journey. This is invaluable to any tradesperson that has not
done a formal apprenticeship, to document what he has done and
use this in his or her portfolio of evidence to take the trade test and
achieve formal recognition,” explains De Fine.
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Naturally, running a time-consuming endeavour like this means that
De Fine’s interests outside of work are limited.
“So, my hobbies are pretty much my work; I really love what I do. I
seem to spend a lot of my life looking at the next opportunity. A lot of
my energy goes into trying to help people to make a difference —
those are really my hobbies,” he says, adding that he doesn’t feel he
needs much else.
Such is De Fine’s passion for training that he also wishes there was a
lot more of it in the plumbing industry.
“I wish every player within the industry would just develop the person
next to them. My biggest regret for all the years I was at Group Five is
that we trained thousands and thousands of installers, but we didn’t
train any plumbers who had the full set of skills. We never taught them
estimating, we didn’t teach them to manage cash, or to run a business
or put in a certificate. So, when most of those guys did decide to try
it on their own, they would fail because they didn’t have that kind of
valuable background knowledge,” he says, quickly adding that he
thinks the reason it doesn’t happen is because of fear.
“People are scared that if they share their information, those people
they share it with will become competitors, but the irony is they
will become competitors anyway, and then they will pull the whole
market down because they haven’t been taught to price things
properly or abide by codes and standards,” he says. “If there is
something you know, why not share it with people? Why let others
do things badly? Why keep the information a secret?”
“Construction really is the most rewarding career. Whatever you
build today is probably there for the next 40 or 50 years, or longer.
All the buildings I have been involved in, from Sun City and hospitals
to the Hilton Hotel, are still standing, except for one, which was
knocked down to make way for a larger building,” he says. “It’s an
incredible feeling to be able to drive past somewhere and say I was
involved in that, I put the plumbing in, or I was involved in the design
of that. That is something that comes back every day. In a way, it’s
the same as creating a skill: Every time there is a guy you have
taught something new to, it allows that person to earn a living. It is
such an amazing feeling.” PA
The Personality Profile is sponsored by Geberit
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
February 2019 Volume 24 I Number 12