The South African Maintenance Association (SAMA) supports government’s efforts in assisting with the continuing professional development of the engineering industry, SAMA vice president Paul von Zeuner tells Engineering News.
He says that SAMA is engaged in a number of certification programmes and training initiatives with the aim of developing the local industry, and this includes organisational benchmarking, and providing accreditation for continuing professional development (CPD). (Engineering News 29th October 2008)
Maintenance, or the execution of certain tasks to keep implements in working order, had its origins in the early times when rough wooden and stone tools were made.
Maintaining those tools required nothing more than very rudimentary skill.
In the later part of the 1700s there occurred a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual-labour-based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The introduction of steam power (fuelled primarily by coal) and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity.
