SA Affordable Housing November - December 2019 // ISSUE: 79 | Page 38

PROFILE
with two assistants, who are trainees. This primarily
involves educating them on the basics of work.
He outlines the challenges of being the resident
engineer of an affordable housing project which is required
to employ a large proportion of workers from adjacent
communities. The problem for the sub-contractors on site
is that they may one day have ten workers on site but just
two the next day. The problem with temporary workers is
the absence of loyalty or even discipline.
“It introduces a short-term view to the job,” he explains,
“so it becomes difficult to train them in the aspects of
construction, whether it be plumbing or fault-finding. I try
my level best to hold workshops all the time, but it’s a
massive battle.” A challenging aspect of this is to educate
people that technical information is derived from
textbooks and not Google. He mentors any number of
people who show willingness to learn.
Marshall’s mantra is the three Cs:
• Communication
• Cooperation
• Coordination
“If you get those three on a project, you’re off to a good
start. A large part of managing a project is coordinating
the delivery of materials on site to ensure work takes
place consistently – and not waiting until they’ve run out.
I also have to teach them about cash flow – for instance,
not to order goods between the 25th and last day of the
month because your terms of payment then go from
60 days to 35.
“I similarly teach them before going on site, to have a
clipboard and checklist to ensure they have all the tools for
the day’s work: a spirit level; a hammer, and the rest. For
36
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2019
SAAffordHousing
people who have not worked on a building site, or maybe
not even worked at all before, these are important matters
to learn. In their rural upbringing there has been no value
placed on time – and time equates to efficiency on a site,”
says Marshall.
Sub-contractors also need to be educated on profit and
loss: “They have to be taught to do a job within the
specified time and the specified material, or there’s no
profit in it, in fact they’re going to lose money. They need
to realise that they can’t wait 90 days to find out that they
are going to lose money.
“The government has made it difficult, with its CIDB
grading system, for these SMEs to grow substantially. Now
they’re a Grade 1, but what company is going to give work
to a Grade 1, when what is really needed is experience at
a Grade 5 or 6 level. They cannot get out of that trap. They
cannot get off the ladder until they’ve done a certain type
work. This is the heart of what I am trying to achieve on
this project, by giving them such work. However, the
whole development plan for the industry was developed
by the ‘suits’ on the 13th floor, who’ve never worked at
the coalface.
“My objective on this project is to build up the SMEs. My
job is to raise the level of quality on the project while
instructing them on maintaining their cash flow, so as to be
viable and sustainable. The challenge in construction is
that you have work for eight months but pay expenses for
12 months, when you factor in having no work, down times,
public holidays and rainy days.”
Just as important, he says, is educating them on using
the correct materials for a job, as workers are unfamiliar
with the application of different materials. With 600
workers on site, Marshall has his hands full, and can only do
spot checks.
saaffordablehousingmag
SA Affordable Housing
www.saaffordablehousing.co.za