The first quarter of the year is now behind us and I hope that those of you with production or sales targets are well on track to achieving your 2015 objectives. As the nip in the air increases here in Johannesburg, things are warming up at the SAIMC with the new council meeting later this month for the first time. We held a very successful SGM and AGM during March – a big thank you to all attended.
One of the objectives I would like to propose this year is that the SAIMC do regular surveys, to help determine the vital statistics and the issues facing our industry. Historically, we have received numerous requests for such information and it appears that a pattern has emerged from the parties, mainly media, making these requests. Hence the SAIMC can work more proactively to gather this information from our members, patrons and our colleagues in the IIG, as well as other applicable parties. We have done some ad hoc surveys recently to test the concept, and this will be formalised in the coming months.
One of the current topical issues in our industry is the new Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) codes. These revised codes indicate government’s commitment to localisation and uplifting black people. There is a significant emphasis on ownership, local procurement, as well as training and development. The general sentiment from the conversations I had with various organisational and individual stakeholders is that it will be challenging to achieve a reasonable level (Levels 4,3,2,1 ). The SAIMC hopes to assist our Patron members and our colleagues in the IIG with the training and development aspects. Our newly formed Education and Training committee will have an important role to play here. Anybody who would like to join this group is welcome to contact myself or our secretariat.
In striving to be the voice of automation and control in southern Africa, the SAIMC continues to search out partnerships with organisations that we can cooperate with. I recently attended the Southern African Regional Profibus Association Special General Meeting and proposed a closer working relationship with them. We shall explore this further in the coming months along with our MOUs with other organisations. I have also made contact with the local Foundation Fieldbus Marketing Committee to setup co-operations agreements with them. The Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA) South African group is also a group with whom we have a relationship and the SAIMC is represented on the MESA SA Executive Committee. The issue of non-engineers/technicians working in the MES space is a challenge we can assist MESA-SA with. These relationships are very important especially in light of the newly formed SABS TC 165, to which these and other organisations can make a valuable contribution. We invite all our expert practitioners out there to join us in TC 165.
Once again this month I wish to remind you all that our Industry Calendar http://saimc.co.za/events-calendar has been populated with our SAIMC events for 2015. However, we still need our industry partners out there to send us their events so this can live up to its name and objective of recording all events happening in our industry. I humbly request the entire C&I fraternity to contribute to this calendar to provide better co-ordination of activities. Please send your updates to [email protected] .
As usual, please mail me your thoughts on [email protected]. I thank you all for taking the time to read this column.
Don’t forget to register for the Africa Automation Fair... see you all there next month!
Working together, achieving more,
Vinesh Maharaj, President.
| Tel: | +27 11 312 2445 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.saimc.co.za |
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