The Civil Engineering Contractor May 2019 | Page 41

BUSINESS INTEL
(using the new ISO standard for it)
would reduce building costs by 22%.
“I appeal that while reluctance is
understandable, it is now time to
innovate,” said Mfebe.
Digitisation
transformation
“We need to invest in digital skills
at school and at TVET level, as a
country,” said Mfebe. “At a company
level, we need to invest in two things
regarding technology: like Barloworld
has done, companies need to appoint
a chief digital (or innovation) officer
to drive digitisation, and in terms
of human capital development, a
strategy should aim to develop digital
skills so that the demands of the
new digital age can be met through
upskilling its people and completely
reskilling them for new functions. It
www.civilsonline.co.za
should not be feared — it should be
invested in,” he said.
It was noted that not everyone
would be required to be an expert
in digitisation — there would still
be demand for bricklayers and
welders. Kent said it would not be
a 180-degree flip in terms of where
we are now. Safety is a key focus
of digitisation at SNC-Lavalin, for
instance, such as remote welders
that can get inside components
that would otherwise be dangerous
for individuals. He listed the skills
required for such a job as basic
computer literacy and programming.
Yet, on a recent recruitment drive,
the company had to reach out to
India to find such a person, following
a fruitless six-month search in South
Africa. “Computer literacy and
programming are skills that students
should be learning at school,” he
chided.
Msiza of Raubex emphasised: “We
are falling behind, both as a country
and as an industry.”
Most attention on digitisation
transformation is on the ‘sexy’ tools
that involve automation and risk
job destruction, but Van Dijk said
that just as many innovations involve
safety and these have already been
widely adopted in civil engineering.
Adoption of new technology
cannot simply be left to the new
generation who is more comfortable
with it, said Van Dijk. “We have to
look to the older generation where
there is a definite reluctance to use
that technology. So, we need to work
on our managers [regarding new
technology], who in turn can work
on the millennials — and we can go
much further.” nn
CEC May 2019 | 39