Plumbing Africa November 2019 | Page 63

PERSONALITY PROFILE 61 ensuring the design is capable of being economically manufactured,” says Strauss. From SABS to beyond “I was thrust in the deep end over the course of the six years I was there. By that stage I had already had quite some experience with the plumbing side although it wasn’t a focus at SABS, when at this time I was approached by SABS to return. At that time, I was doing an extraordinary amount of daily commuting, and decided to accept the offer. I still had fond memories at SABS, and it was the right opportunity for the time as I now had a view of testing and certification from all sides. In 2009 I was appointed to manage the SABS plumbing test laboratory.” “The challenge was serving customers who still expected to be dealt with in the old way of a tax-funded public service, but which was actually under a new commercial system which was not well understood. It was now business orientated. However, the work remained the same and I continued to enjoy problem solving in the laboratory and finding equipment to test materials. We were involved in a lot of standards development where we had to assess and amend various standards to make them more practical, for instance, the heat pump standard where we assisted with writing the standard from beginning to end. This required getting the involvement of the industry as to what should go into the standard and making sure it could practically be applied. “A major part of the process at SABS was mentoring of people. We had to groom test officers and develop them into accepting evidence-based facts only and not bow to public opinion. This is vital in testing – you have to trust the results and not be swayed.” While outright bribery is not common, he says, one can be compromised through regular interaction with customers. It is one of the reasons for separating test staff from the customers. “The plumbing industry has always stood out for me as an industry that was more proactive than others. When at SABS I was regularly amazed at the initiative of the industry compared to other industries I was involved in. At that time, what became SA Watermark was evolving within IOPSA on behalf of the entire plumbing industry, and when they offered me the position, I was happy to be even more closely involved in what is an exciting industry,” says Strauss. This was a more entrepreneurial venture for Strauss, where he was responsible for growing and promoting SA Watermark as a non-profit organisation that is also a financially sustainable business. November 2019 Volume 25 I Number 9 He describes it as a challenging environment, “and a lot of fun.” By now, there had been an organisational change at SABS, one which Strauss says was “very needed” with the separation of testing, certification and regulation in 2000. Whereas SABS had previously been solely responsible for all that, and was government funded, now the government introduced the concept of ‘user pays’ in which test laboratories had to become financially viable. Herman Strauss, executive director of SA Watermark. “It’s exciting to be part of this initiative for its potential impact on the plumbing industry, which had become sensitised to the fact that it was having trouble demonstrating its products were compliant. Many had lost their SABS certification which became time-expired and at that stage SABS was still the only service provider.” IOPSA led a brain-storming session of major players in the industry, from which originated the idea through which various iterations ultimately became SA Watermark.” A project management team initially led the process and raised seed capital from various plumbing companies. From this developed a business model and plan for what was to be a non-profit company known as SA Independent Auditing Service, with SA Watermark a trade name. At this point, Strauss was approached. “The Watermark doesn’t test or certify at all – it’s a verification process. We take a test report relating to a specific product, compare it to the actual product and confirm the relevance and authenticity of the report. PA www.plumbingafrica.co.za