Specialised sector demands specialised skills

Major construction projects and an anticipated move to greater capital intensity in the mining industry in the future, have revealed a distinct demand for more project cargo specialists in this country, according to Stephen Libera, a product consultant on the ediEnterprise system at Compu-Clearing. “The complexity and knowledge required in moving cumbersome and inseparable goods has made project cargo a truly specialised field,” he told FTW. “With construction ongoing on several infrastructure projects – including the Medupi power station – the focus in the country is definitely on project cargo. This will ultimately require SA to step up its game and provide more specialists.” And, to support this requirement, Compu-Clearing is offering an integrated software platform which allows for complete management, communication and collaboration throughout an entire project. “Large projects like Eskom’s Medupi power station are so complex that two companies have come together in a joint venture (the Ardbel Joint Venture) to achieve the required materials task related to the project,” Libera added. He believes that, with labour relations in the country under strain, the mining industry will be considering a move away from the labour-intensive system of the present to a more capital-intensive system in the future. This intended to make the reliance on labour, and the effect of industrial action, exert a lower impact on overall revenues in the future. “This will lead to an increase in the need for project cargo specialists in SA to step up and bring in the heavy machinery required on the mines for them to automate the mining process,” he said. “The process of automation will take many years to complete. And it will involve a large portion of the undertakings by project cargo specialists in the freight industry. In the past, mining has been one of SA’s largest project logistics consumers. It will only continue to grow.” According to Libera, it is imperative that the project cargo sector finds ways of integrating its divergent systems to ensure that – although multiple systems are used – no data is ever captured more than once. “Not only does this increase efficiencies, it also has a major impact on accuracy, and will bode well for their projects,” he said. CAPTION Stephen Libera