Construction World July 2023

COVER STORY

Keeping its product development and customer service at world-class standards is the ongoing focus of construction materials leader AfriSam, and the recent recertification of its laboratory bears testimony to its success. WORLD-CLASS STATUS RE-AFFIRMED AT AFRISAM LABORATORY

P art of AfriSam’s well-respected Centre of Product Excellence (CPE) in Gauteng, the specialised cement and materials laboratory plays a vital role on many fronts. Not only does it help to ensure product quality but it also contributes to the continuous innovation of solutions for customers. According to Mike McDonald, CPE Manager at AfriSam, the laboratory was recently recertified for a five-year period in terms of the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS), supported by a stringent process that requires surveillance audits every 18 months. “Recertification is a challenging process which we always rate as a significant milestone,” says McDonald. “It requires a real commitment from everyone – from senior management through to all our laboratory staff – and demonstrates our common commitment to going beyond the ordinary to keep ourselves aligned to global standards of excellence.” Mitigating risk Adding to the onerous process this year has been the move by SANAS to the new ISO/IEC 17025:2018 management requirements, which introduced a risk-based approach internationally, he explains. The SANAS certification therefore now requires laboratories to consider a range of risks, and to apply measures to manage these risks. “For instance, protecting the anonymity of test-work is an area that has received much attention,” he says. “The standard requires measures that ensure no bias arises in the testing – even from prior relationships between laboratory staff and a company submitting materials for testing. The AfriSam laboratory therefore has a numbering system, so that the analyst will not know the source of the samples they are working on.” SANAS certification also means that every test is backed up by a proficiency scheme; this means that AfriSam seeks out other laboratories with similar standing to run comparative tests for all testing for which it is accredited.

This is an important benchmark to ensure that results are always trustworthy. Training up “As part of the recertification, our alignment with SANAS guidelines from ISO/IEC 17025 meant considerable internal and external training for our laboratory staff, who number over 15,” he says. “This ongoing development of skills in evolving best practice is vital to keeping our services at the cutting edge.” McDonald highlights that the laboratory is a key resource within the CPE, which in turn delivers a total package of customer and product support through AfriSam’s technical consultants. “A large part of our laboratory’s value is its specialisation, allowing us to focus on elements such as cement, concrete, aggregate and admixtures,” he says. “It is one thing to design a theoretical concrete mix for a customer through a desktop study, but quite another to practically verify the outcome in our laboratory.” He points out that the SANAS certified laboratory allows AfriSam to confirm the veracity of mix designs, using customer’s site-specific materials and quantifying the results, paving the way for customers to make reliable and informed operational decisions. The benefits are significant, given the costly process for concrete product manufacturers, for example, to test new mixes on a trial-and-error basis. The risk of rejects carries considerable losses in terms of material, labour and waste that must be removed from site. He highlights that using the laboratory for testing streamlines this process and defines more predictable outcomes. Technology The specialised equipment in AfriSam’s CPE laboratory includes a micro calorimeter, to monitor and analyse heat

20 CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2023