SupplyWorx Vol 15.5

In Africa  Procurement Billions Lost In Value Sustainability  Business Moving into the realm of mission critical

 Mining Mechanisation is urgent Your Merchandise  Monitor Even when its left the warehouse Service  Customer The new strategic differentiator In Engineering  Women The Leadership Challenge Design Trends  Office What to look forward to in 2016

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Don’t Let Your Merchandise out Of Your Sight,

Even When It’s Left the

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Warehouse

by Laurence Smith, Executive Graphic Images Technologies

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Until recently, warehouses were seen as a separate entity in the overall supply chain; merely a repository for merchandise storage before it was moved onto its final destination.

Now retailers and other businesses have realised that by integrating the warehouse and freight transport into the greater supply chain, they can reap the benefits of enhanced inventory management, better loss prevention and shrinkage protection.

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hen it comes to transporting merchandise between warehouse and retail destination, merely tracking the movement of trucks is no longer enough, and companies are having to rely on armed escorts and the implementation of smarter security technology to get their freight to its destination. Despite additional security measures, there are still syndicates that outsmart these technologies and additional measures while in transit. In addition to merchandise being at risk during transport, these goods are also vulnerable in the warehouses while waiting for collection.

Securing the goods inside and outside the warehouse The main risks in warehousing and freight transport are theft, loss and mishandled goods. However, the transportation of goods continues to be one of the most critical areas of vulnerability. While systems can be placed both in the vehicle and the warehouse exit and entry points, their effectiveness depends on the implementation and strict controlling measures to ensure the integrity of the system.

Inside the warehouse environment security can be enhanced through the use of Ultra-High Definition (UHD or ‘4K’) IP cameras, which offer better resolution and more detail.

Because of the high video resolution of these 4k cameras, fewer of them are required to monitor a larger area, which means fewer cameras to manage, fewer network points and less of a drain on bandwidth and storage. This is largely due to the fact that these cameras are capable of adaptive video streaming, which allows for recording of the video at 4k resolution but allows for viewing at resolutions that meet the viewer’s requirements. These cameras have even evolved to the point where it’s now possible to use them for visual monitoring and verification of merchandise. For example, in a warehouse where goods are picked from the shelves and placed in a cage ready

for transport collection, by using a 4K camera, an operator can visually ascertain whether the correct number of crates or boxes were loaded from the warehouse.

Keep your eyes on the goods at all times with remote live CCTV monitoring Using these 4K cameras and the associated video recorder management applications it is possible to monitor the merchandise all the way from the warehouse, until it reaches its end destination. Each situation is different but, for example, by utilising closed body trucks the freight is not as exposed to the risk of theft. A closed body truck can be monitored, using a mobile DVR and cameras which can monitor what is going on inside the truck, as well as provide visual verification that the correct goods were loaded into and off the truck.

Such a mobile video recording and transmission system also ensures that the load is secure during its journey as an alarm is sent to the control centre with video verification in the event that the load bay door is opened. Once the goods have reached their destination, footage from the mobile DVR’s cameras could be used to conduct an external visual inspection to make sure that the load doors are still sealed (this verifies integrity of load). A main gate interlocking system could also be implemented here whereby access is given to the control centre operator (not the guard at the gate) and the driver vehicle and guard would be recorded as they enter and exit the premises. While this can be time consuming, it enables the goods to be tracked along every meter of the journey with visual verification of any intrusion or collusion between parties.

Where bandwidth availability is an issue, the same technology that is used for cash-in-transit vans could also have application in freight transport. Such a system is effective in its simplicity as it enables remote monitoring of the vehicle making use of GSM networks with bandwidth requirements as low as 8kpbs. Using cellular and wireless technology, live video is streamed (and recorded) from vehicles to a remote control centre.

Despite the fact that warehouse and freight security has long been overlooked, it’s undeniably important to focus more attention on the integrity of the supply chain at this point. By securing the goods in transport and storage in a simple, visual way, retailers will be able to see the positive impact on security, in the elimination of theft, loss and damage of valuable goods.

Despite additional security measures, there are still syndicates that outsmart these technologies and additional measures while in transit.

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Customer service the new strategic

differentiator

Consumers have never been smarter than they are today. They have more information to help them make purchasing decisions than ever before and they have become accustomed to, and expect, regular interaction with companies.

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echnology has enabled people to connect with the world and this has shifted the power base from the companies to customers,” says Natalie Maroun, Managing Director of the LRMG Management Group. “In the past if customers had a bad experience their ability to ‘tell-itforward’ was only as powerful as the amount of people they knew. Today social media platforms create an environment for people to talk anywhere, anytime.

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“Even if your company has the greatest PR and marketing, these still only put forward the brand promise. The real moment of truth lies in how customers experience your brand promise and how they talk-it- forward,” Maroun explains.

Companies world-wide are beginning to understand the changes in consumer behaviour. Customer service interactions are increasingly seen as opportunities for engaging more with customers to gain better customer insights and leverage service propositions for revenue growth.

Maroun says that even in an emerging market like South Africa, companies are starting to make this shift. “The SA companies we work with are starting to see customer service not only as important enough to need a defined strategy, they are also mobilising their organisations around these strategies.

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“This did not happen five years ago,” she stresses.

“Although there were customer service strategies in the past, these, like the company’s brand promise and PR and marketing strategies, were isolated from the business operation. What we are seeing now is the need and wisdom of having a coherent strategy that integrates all of these components. In fact, a defined customer service strategy in an integrated environment is the new agenda for companies to successfully win and retain customers,” says Maroun.

Looking at key trends that are shaping this new integrated customer service agenda, Maroun highlights the following:

A defined customer service strategy in an integrated environment is the new agenda for companies to successfully win and retain customers.

Leverage service for revenue growth Best customer service practices need regular engagement with the customer and take advantage of every customer contact. In the past, customer service focused on dealing with, closing and moving on to the next customer as quickly as possible. “Today’s customers want service beyond the first interaction and we have found that there is a cause and effect relationship between market share, revenue growth and profit, and customer loyalty.”

Customer loyalty, she explains, is achieved by creating total customer satisfaction and this is driven by three variables: Firstly the value created for and experienced by the customer which, if successful, leads to the second variable – customers who are brand advocates or brand evangelists, as she puts it. The last variable in the customer satisfaction quest is the capability of leaders to lead a customer-centric strategy.

“When you have all three variables in line you have customer loyalty, and this is the Holy Grail in the equation. This is what drives revenue and growth and therefore market share.”

Innovate the customer interface: “Customer service has actually gone backwards in areas where we have taken away human interaction for the sake of expedience. She uses the example of telephonic auto queues that lead customers through a maze of options only to find, as a last resort, the option of speaking to a human.

“Customer self-service and self-resolution are critical, but they need to be easy and responsive and the technology

should not cut out human interaction completely. There still needs be a high ‘touch’ element in order to connect with the customer,” says Maroun.

Integrate customer touch points This leads to the issue of touch points in the value chain. Companies need to take advantage of every point of customer contact and, in order to maximise the value of every interaction, distinct silos of customer touch points need to be abolished. “The biggest frustration for customers is inconsistencies between departments.

Customers are not interested in how organisations are run, they are interested in their experience. The ahead-of-thegame players are the businesses who are integrating the management of all contact channels”.

Drive customer-centricity Customer service relies on one of the largest untapped resources companies have – customer feedback and proprietary customer data, says Maroun. “Customer data is the key to everything however organisations often have so much data that it becomes difficult to discern what is important and what is not.

“Organisations need to realise it is not about the amount of data, but the critical and specific data that tells them about their customers’ experience. The survey rhythm often gets it wrong because it gives no feedback to the customer. Feedback is part of harmonising the value chain, the customer needs to feel heard and to do that there needs to be some form of response or action taken following a survey.”

Another recommendation from Maroun is to employ or empower a strong chief service officer—someone with advanced strategic capabilities who works closely with peers in marketing, sales, and technology. “These executives can establish a cross-functional, end-to-end perspective on customer processes playing a central coordinating role as the ‘voice of the customer’,” she adds.

Mastering the basics of customer service remains the key for customer service organisations that are struggling with poor service and inefficient processes. The challenge lies in putting these changes in place while simultaneously maintaining activities that will truly create value for the organisation, Maroun points out.

“Performance is no longer measured solely by cost-toserve. Companies need to ask whether their operation and value chain represent the sentiment of their business. And of course none of this is possible or practical unless customer service is an integral part of an organisation’s value chain,” she concludes.

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Women in Engineering the Leadership Challenge

by Thandiwe Nkambule, Pr Eng; Electrical and Electric Engineering

Women are globally underrepresented in leadership positions. In South Africa, if one looks at the statistics of professional engineers registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and the number of engineering graduates from different institutions of higher learning, men are overrepresented. This has an impact on the number of women that are available and will be available in the near future to take up leadership roles in the engineering profession in our country.

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omen are also underrepresented in leadership positions of the JSE-listed companies and state-owned enterprises in general. According to the Business Women’s Association of South Africa (BWASA) Women in Leadership census of 2012, although women constitute more than 50% of the population, they make up only 44% of the working population in South Africa. They constitute 21% of all executive managers, 17.1% of all directors, only 3.6 % of all CEOs; and 5.5 % of all chairpersons of listed companies and state-owned enterprises in South Africa.

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Over the past 11 years I have seen increasingly more women enter the field of engineering than ever before.

It is encouraging that many companies are embracing transformation at a management level; however the pace is still gradual. Women are making a lot more effort to accommodate other women in the workplace and this includes hiring more women and promoting them into management positions.

Unfortunately, there are some companies, albeit only a few, where men occupy the director and executive manager positions, with no women represented at senior levels, thus making it harder for women to move up the corporate ladder.

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At the same time, government is trying to push the women empowerment agenda, although this is not being heard by everyone. According to Nkambule from ECSA, ECSA can create a platform where on the agenda is the issue of women advancement in the profession and how rapid change in this regard can be encouraged and achieved.

In 2008, the Department of Labour published a report on engineering professionals which showed that in 1997 women constituted 4.44% of managers with engineering qualifications.

This number grew to 14.47% by 2005. This positive trend was partially due to more countries passing legislation that is driving

the transformation agenda, as well as efforts undertaken by various parties to ensure that more doors are opened to women and that the glass ceiling is finally broken.

Thankfully, South Africa does not fare badly when compared to other countries regarding women in leadership positions, and particularly engineering. The global trend is positive, with a large number of women climbing higher up the corporate ladder. In a study undertaken by ECSA last year in the 31 March 2013 financial year, it was revealed that more than 10% of the total number of engineers registered with ECSA are women. ECSA also revealed that the number of female candidate engineering professionals had risen by 9% and that the number of female professional engineers is currently sitting on 4%.

When I started my engineering career, it was with AngloPlat as an intern, where I spent a year learning the ropes, we were the initial group of women to work underground at that time. However the experience gained from that was unimaginable. The one incident that stands out for me was when we were asked to carry 25kg of cement to the other side of the mine. For the men, this was an easy task; however for us women it was extremely difficult to carry 25kg! But we had to come up with a plan to overcome this obstacle and that is how I have approached my life going forward – always find ways to overcome challenges no matter what the situation is.

Throughout the years I have noticed that young people that are entering this profession do not understand what the profession is about. They are not aware of the different disciplines that are part of the profession, especially those that come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is our duty to educate the youth about making informed decisions about the career path they chose. Mentoring young and upcoming engineers is important as it also helps to move candidate engineers to positions of professional engineers much faster without losing them in the future because of misinformed career choices. It also helps to ensure that they have an informed person to talk to about their future plans.

For me, engineers like Allison Lawless and Ayanda Noah have made my decision to continue striving to make a difference as an engineer, that much easier. These are women who have been in the field for years and who have proven that women are as capable as their male counterparts.

In conclusion, I believe that women can add enormous value to the profession by holding leadership positions. This is something that can change over time with companies and government working together to push the same agenda, to create an environment that is conducive for women to become leaders.

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Mining Mechanisation is

Urgent

South African mining must mechanise and research has a crucial role to play in helping industry to get there. The country urgently needs to build a new cohort of mining researchers and there is no better place to do it than the Wits School of Mining Engineering, the largest English-speaking mining school in the world, which houses the Centre for Mechanised Mining Systems (CMMS).

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his is according to Dr Declan Vogt, the newly appointed Director of the CMMS, who says that South Africa has allowed some segments of its mining industry to deteriorate. “We have seen a tremendous drop in productivity and that is making us uncompetitive. We are now under enormous pressure to become more productive.”

At the same time, there has been a decline in the quality and quantity of mining research, beginning in the 1990s when mining companies began to experience economic pressure due to the drop in the gold price and research became seen as an unnecessary overhead. In addition, political transformation meant that companies could invest offshore, in countries with easily accessible reserves, and did not need to conduct the research necessary to drill for deeper deposits in South Africa.

As a result, there is an urgent need for mining research in South Africa, particularly around mechanisation, and Vogt sees the CMMS as the starting place for where mining research in South Africa is set to go.

“Now is the time and this is the place,” he says.

He says that in addition to conducting research, the CMMS has an important role to play in training middle managers. This is because, whereas senior executives of mining companies understand the benefits of mechanisation, and operators

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undergo training that can be tailored towards mechanisation, the middle managers are used to working on sites with large numbers of people rather than capital intensive machinery and can find it difficult to adapt.

This is one of the reasons why the CMMS is taking a systems approach. They recognise that most attempts to introduce mechanised mining have been systems failures and that it is important to take into account human behaviour when introducing changes.

Vogt says that one of his biggest challenges as the newly appointed Director of the CMMS will be to ensure that the Centre demonstrates its value and attracts more funding by meeting the needs of its sponsors, which include mining powerhouses such as Anglo American, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum.

“We have got to sell them on looking at systems and redesigning operations. At the moment they are redesigning manual processes, and this does have value, but where they will really see benefits is if they take a clean sheet,” says Vogt.

His chances of realising the mechanised mining vision are good since most major mining companies announced at the beginning of the year that the future was mechanisation and affirmed their commitment to the process. “They are really getting the urgency,” he says.

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Procurement in Africa: Billions lost in value

The impact of ineffective procurement in Africa is estimated at a staggering USD 31.5 billion - or USD 24.9 billion for Sub-Saharan Africa alone - in terms of value leakage. With strong growth aspirations in infrastructure, finance, energy, mining and other sectors, the role of procurement in an organisation is becoming increasingly strategic says KPMG.

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owever, according to KPMG’s Power of Procurement 2.0 Survey 73% of C-level executives do not believe procurement adds real value. Dr Dinesh Kumar, Associate Director at KPMG and regional country leader for supply chain and procurement practices says; “This is a significant threat as today companies are still focused on traditional cost optimisation initiatives, rather than value-add. Procurement professionals must start to view the business within which they procure as a key broader cost-driver for the company. There are six key business challenges that can impact procurement, but can also be aided if procurement is done correctly, including; cost management, compliance, transparency, efficiency, global integration and people.”

The contradictory opinion is possibly as a result of procurement organisations that are struggling with basic issues on the delivery front such as low use of technology, inadequate skills and non-compliance. These issues are more evident in the public sector, though also still exist to different extremities in the private sector. Taking a deeper look at each of these three elements individually; Low use of technology Procurement technologies have evolved significantly in the last 20 years. What started out with E-procurement has evolved into a sophisticated technology landscape that enables suppliers and customers to partner strategically.

Comments Kumar: “There is no doubt that the use of appropriate systems and technology will be a competitive differentiator. However, the lack of executive support and insufficient training are some of the major reasons why African organisations struggle to adopt technology and

achieve operational efficiency. For instance, 56% of the organisations do not use tracking tools, and approximately 66% do not track supplier performance.”

Inadequate Skills There is lack of appropriate procurement skills in Africa. Some key skills such as analytics are not adequately incorporated in educational programmes and 51% of organisations believe their lack of qualified personnel poses a ‘moderate to severe’ risk. One of the reasons for this is that procurement is not seen as the career of choice.

Compliance Foreign investments are increasing in Africa. To realise return on these investments, one of the major focus areas is on governance, risk and compliance – and decreasing uncertainty.

Contributing factors to this uncertainty include organisations being involved in irregular expenditure, fraudulent activities and corruption – and 40% of the organisations are unable to monitor procurement compliance.

“By combining global and African people, best practices, content and tools – towards achieving the best strategic results for our clients - the PCoE has designed our delivery model for rapid and thorough deployment of solutions to African organisations to understand their core issues and to create a sustainable model for value creation and realisation. There is, however, still a long road for procurement organisations, in both public and private sector, to travel to achieve significant and sustainable maturity and curtail the value leakage, and through the PCoE initiative, we look forward to assisting African organisations on this journey,” concludes Kumar.

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Office Design Trends for

2016

As we approach the end of the year amidst fears of a global economic slowdown, businesses are likely to have one word top of mind: costs. The one place that affects a company’s two biggest costs, people and real estate, is the office. So what do we have to look forward to for office design in 2016?

Spending Wisely The good news is 2016 won’t be about cutting costs but spending money wisely. In the past office design projects seemed to take the form of either extreme cost cutting or extreme spending. After years of trying to replicate the Google office, common sense is finally prevailing over quirky, underutilised, budget-consuming white elephants. Instead, we are witnessing the making of a far more practical ‘grown up’ office, says Lucy le Roux, marketing manager for interior design firm Paragon Interiors.

“While keeping costs low is still important, CEO’s are placing a greater emphasis on the value of staff. Cost-effective shared communal spaces for employees feature high on new design spaces. This does not necessarily mean installing a ping pong table in the middle of an open plan area, but creating spaces that are designed with multiple activities in mind making work places more fun and interactive.”

“For example, a canteen that incorporates long tables for informal meetings and project discussions with hot desking for mobile workers and easy access to power points and wireless. These spaces will be designed near outdoor function areas and boardrooms to allow for events and staff briefing sessions. The canteen for the 1 hour lunch break is a thing of the past,” says le Roux.

When implementing these types of spaces importance will be placed on durable yet inexpensive finishes. This means specifying local equivalents of imported base finishes, such as floor and ceiling finishes, to assist with keeping the cost of the project low. Having plush cut-pile

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carpeting in a general office space is no longer deemed a clever use of the material, and is better suited to client interface areas instead, where the cost of this finish is justified. Budgets will need to be stretched and there will be more creative use of every-day finishes and furniture.

Smarter Open Plan “Whilst the emphasis on open plan will remain, it will be recognised that this will not suit all job functions and that the roll-out of seas of desks is not always conducive to cost savings and productivity. Much more thought will go into the needs of the individual and the tasks they perform. This will contribute to a combination of individual and shared offices,” says Jenny Seddon, design director at Paragon Interiors.

Collaborating remains important but is not haphazard as it was before. Design aims to meet off-the-cuff meeting requirements in a comfortable, yet practical area, in close proximity. There is an understanding that the open plan needs to be a space where people can perform tasks, without distraction, but also with staff having easier access to one another. There is a new respect for colleagues and a renewed understanding and adherence to office etiquette.

“Areas for private phone calls are vital as are focus rooms where staff have the chance to break from the office hubbub to focus on a task that needs their full concentration. These rooms have more than one function. They will be slightly larger where small teams will work for short periods, such as brainstorming,” says Seddon.

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Inspired Design Though the notion of the over-creative Google office has taken a back seat, office design still requires a sense of originality. Staff retention is a growing focus with companies looking to use the working environment as a way to attract and retain good employees. Accessories such as interesting lighting and wall coverings or the clever use of typography on surfaces will be key to personalising individual companies.

Bespoke graphics and methods of custom designing, weaving, printing, laser cutting and 3D modelling are all on the rise and are becoming more affordable and popular.

“Sourcing accessories, furniture and art from local designers is also growing in popularity. South African artisans and designers are designing for a cutting edge and contemporary market, using the most modern methods of assembling, with contemporary lines and materials. These locally produced items are ideal for contextualising the office space as a proudly South African company or division,” says Ms Seddon.

As the modern employer-employee relationship shifts to one of partnership, office design is adapting to also allow staff more expression of their own identity at work. The use of white boards, chalk boards and pin boards are increasingly common to provide space for staff members to have an outlet for expressing their ideas.

Finding ways to make staff more productive and comfortable is also becoming increasingly important. As a result office design is moving toward a homelier look and feel, with furnishings resembling those of a residential setting rather than the hard, serious ‘fit for purpose’ office. Fabrics in modern day corporate design are steering away from the true colour ways of corporate identities, and instead make way for colours that evoke the ‘happy transmitters’ in our brains. Softer finishes, edges and lines create environments that are inviting and comforting for the office worker. Furnishings and facilities such as sofas in pause areas and plug sets at alternate work destinations allow us to ‘feel at home’ while at the office.

Having plush cut-pile carpeting in a general office space is no longer deemed a clever use of the material, and is better suited to client interface areas instead.

Bringing the outside in Colours will be influenced by the sea - Mediterranean blues, turquoises, through to olive greens, palm greens, dusty mint and touches of orange and rust with soft, serene neutrals, pale pinks, flamingo pink and flesh coloured tones.

There will still be neutral greys and charcoals and a bold mixing of strong colours with soft pastels.

Seddon says materials such as timbers and metals are still in line with the trends – keeping the finishes natural and exposed as opposed to hidden behind a thick layer of paint, stain or lacquer. This allows staff to experience and enjoy the material as nature intended, with the warmth or coolness that it embodies.

“Materials will include clouded and tinted glass, gauzy fabrics as well as chalky florals and textures like rough suede and leather. There will be a continuation of the use and combination of warm metallic materials, such as burnished gold and bronze. We will also see wicker or rattan returning to indoor areas, accompanied by rustic woods and the sustained use of bamboo and creative recycling will gain in popularity.”

“The trend is to move away from the boring and expected striped chenille or the dotty equivalent and introduce solid colour blocking in interesting textures and weaves. The 1980’s polyester-based fabrics, whilst still hardy and durable, are being left behind to allow for more natural fabrics such as 100% wools, which are able to be upholstered along the softer curved lines of the inviting modern day office,” says Seddon.

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Managing Energy Costs a Key Factor in

Business Sustainability

£8.6-million UK government injection to support energy efficiency improvement in SA’s private sector

The NERSA-approved hikes in energy costs between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2018 will represent at least a 47% increase in the electricity costs for businesses over the five year period, with an additional increase due in 2015 following the recent approval of the regulatory clearing account for Eskom. Managing business sustainability on the back of these annual electricity tariff increases along with the current threats to energy security and the fluctuating fuel price is a critical balancing act for South African companies.

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espite the considerable potential to reduce operational costs through the more efficient management of energy, many companies are still not proactively identifying opportunities that will immediately enhance energy efficiency. “Many low hanging fruits that would alleviate the pressure of energy price hikes and supply constraints while redirecting the savings back into the business for deployment elsewhere are being left hanging on the tree,” explains Val Geen, Head of Energy at the National Business Initiative (NBI) which is responsible for the implementation of the Private Sector Energy Efficiency programme (PSEE).

In June 2013, the NBI was awarded £8.6-million (more than R150-million) by the UK Government through its Department for International Development (DFID) to implement the PSEE as a countrywide programme of support for energy efficiency improvement in the private sector. The programme is supported by the South African Department of Energy and technical support is provided by the Carbon Trust, leveraging its experience of similar programmes in the UK. The NBI is a voluntary coalition of

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South African and multinational companies committed to working towards sustainable growth and development in South Africa.

The subsidised services offered by the PSEE are aimed at assisting companies of all sizes – from small right through to large entities - to improve energy efficiency, save costs and enhance long-term business competitiveness and sustainability. These services are provided by experienced third-party consultancies with competencies in energy strategy, green buildings, HVAC, pumps, motors, lighting, compressed air and industrial processes, contracted by the PSEE and overseen by a team of professional programme managers and account managers.

The following PSEE services are available to qualifying companies:  2500 small companies with energy spend of less than R750 000 p.a. will be able to access advice offered by technical experts over a toll free phone line, referrals to tools, publications and other relevant information on the PSEE website, and attendance of workshops in the various

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regions. There is no cost for these services as they are fully subsidised through the PSEE.  Over 1000 medium-size companies with annual energy spend between R750 000 and R45 million will be assisted with fully subsidised direct support including site surveys, energy audits and face-to-face engagement to identify energy saving opportunities and develop an implementation plan. Additional possibilities include follow-up support to prioritise and develop a business case for the implementation of energy efficiency projects, and exploring the finance and technology options available. The costs for these services are 100% subsidised through the PSEE.  Around 60 large companies with annual energy spend of more than R45-million per annum will be supported through 60% subsidised, holistic strategic energy management engagements to help improve operational energy efficiency and assist in the development of a comprehensive energy and carbon strategy. In addition, specific programmes of support can be tailored in accordance with organisational requirements. This support will help prepare companies for future mandatory reporting requirements from government such as the submission of energy management plans and demonstrating implementation against the energy saving opportunities identified.

“More than 200 companies have already signed up for the PSEE’s services. Interestingly, even though some

of the participating companies have had a significant focus on energy efficiency over a number of years prior to signing up with the PSEE, further saving opportunities have been identified through their participation in the PSEE programme,” says Geen.

Industry bodies and professional associations have also taken to engaging their membership base to participate in the programme. “We are also very excited by the growing interest from industry associations to see this programme as a value add to their members,” says Geen. The likes of the Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association (CAIA), Plastics South Africa, the South African Chamber of Business (SACCI), and the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA), amongst others, have engaged their members to participate in the programme.

“Energy audits at two medium-sized SEIFSA member companies have already identified immediate savings of at least R86 000 per annum without any capital investment whatsoever at one company, while at the second a once-off capital investment of R1.3 million will translate into ongoing annual savings of at least R720 000, recouping the outlay in less than two years, where after its significant savings each and every year could be ploughed straight back to the bottom line,” explains Geen. Given the industry’s energy intensive nature it makes perfect sense to find ways of using energy more efficiently and cost effectively.

A number of large companies and government entities participating in the programme are partnering with the NBI in introducing and facilitating the uptake of the PSEE through their supply chains and customers. These include Woolworths, eThekwini municipality, First Rand Bank, Eskom, Absa and Mercantile Bank, with more coming on board soon. As part of this initiative, Woolworths has already engaged 113 of its own suppliers to participate in energy audits, fully paid for by the PSEE programme.

Achieving greater levels of energy efficiency is a vital driver of business and indeed South Africa’s economy, but it does not need to be a cumbersome or burdensome undertaking. With rapidly escalating energy costs and security of supply challenges, it should be seen as an opportunity and treated as a company-wide initiative that will provide longterm financial and reputational benefits. It starts with the CEO and top leadership committing to energy efficiency and its importance to business profitability and sustainability as well as the environment.

“By coming on board with the PSEE, participating companies will have access to subsidised, professional consultants to assist with the establishment of energy consumption baselines, implementation plans, data gathering and benchmarking against global best practices, that will combine to create a sustainable business environment that places energy efficiency at its core, and most crucially, much of which can be achieved without any capital investment upfront,” concludes Geen.

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