NEW AGE ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS: Safety First: Proven at New Age

In 2023, Mpumalanga’s New Age Engineering was focusing all of its attention on the quality as it looked to reinforce its position at the top of the specialist engineering industry in South Africa.

A structural, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and piping (SMEIP) business, founded in 2003, and a Level 1 BBBEE organisation, New Age Engineering Services has worked all over South Africa for the country’s big energy, industry, and mining players.

“We deal with critical operations, working with the likes of Koeberg, the only nuclear power station in the country and boasting the largest turbine generators in the Southern Hemisphere. We also do a lot of work on the petrochemical side and some in the energy sector, with coal-fired stations, for example, and are targeting expansion within this in the near future having identified real opportunities within the hydrogen space,” CEO Joseph Zinyana told Enterprise Africa in 2023 as the company celebrated its 20^th anniversary.

This experience combined with a reputation for quality delivery has helped the company to grow significantly, now a beacon for young engineers looking to upskill and contribute to these economically underpinning industry sectors.

Now, the company is reiterating its primary long-held pillar: safety. Working in SMEIP environments for the likes of Sasol, Total, Eskom, Chevron, Astron, Worley, and more means that staff are put in harm’s way. To deal with the day-to-day threats, New Age Engineering has a detailed and comprehensive programme that stitches safety into culture and ensures its involvement in every task.

“Safety is our priority,” the company declares. “One of our industry’s critical standards is operating safely to avoid harming the environment and injuring our employees and the communities around which our operations are based.

“This year, our goal is to continue placing safety at the heart of every project we work on to enhance the trust our clients have in our team.”

SAFETY FIRST

Alongside people, agility, and responsibility, safety makes up one of the company’s key pillars. Zinyana, who has been in the industry for his entire career, says that safety starts at home.

“We operate in different environments, all of which present elements of harm. Therefore, one of our core values is Safety First,” he confirms. “We want to ensure that all of our employees undergo training related to the plant needs and undergo training regarding process and procedures in our company. As one of the companies in the area of nuclear, petrochemical, mining etc, New Age ensures and enforces life saving behaviours and life saving rules. We start right at home. When someone leaves their home, they must buckle up. When they arrive on site, they must wear full PPE commensurate to the task they will perform. 

“Since we operate in harsh environments, we like to ensure the processes from our clients are adhered to. Therefore, training and competency becomes core to our safety culture. 

“Every task that happens in our environment requires documented proof. That is why we must follow a safety culture in the business, looking after each other, ensuring that everyone who comes safely to work also leaves safely to go home.”

EFFECTIVE TRAINING

New Age Engineering’s core services include construction, welding, plant shutdown and maintenance, and fabrication, repair and installation. Using modern methods and fresh technology, the team is efficient and effective. Zinyana praises his team for the way it handles complex projects, saying: “our integration of progressive technology for enhanced efficiency, our approachable attitude that enables us to deliver solutions that are on-point with our clients’ requirements, and the fact that we have some of the most brilliant minds in the industry around our table, guaranteed.”

But these are complicated tasks that are not simply ‘picked up’ along the way. For specialist training and development, New Age Engineering relies on trusted industry partners to keep the team at the cutting edge. Located close to the Evander gold mine, and the Sasol Secunda operations, the company requires a training partner that is national in terms of footprint and international in terms of standards. 

The South African Institute of Welding (SAIW) boasts an ISO 17025-certified materials testing laboratory and is the leading certification body for ISO 3834 company certification and personnel certifications in NDT, Competent Persons for Pressure Vessels and Steam Generators, and Inspectors of Pressure Equipment. This is why New Age Engineering sends new and established professionals through SAIW doors to learn about the industry and upskill in an industry specific environment.

Thankfully, the proof of worth is on site. Since 2012, New Age Engineering has reported zero shutdown-related recordable cases on more than 1000 completed projects. the company also has zero lost time due to injury work hours against 10 million worked. There is also not a single environmental incident in the same period.

“We comply with ISO 14001:2015 and 2018 safety management systems which is the internationally accepted foundation for quality occupational health and safety practices,” says Zinyana. 

This culture is already paving a bright future for the business. with so many heavy industrial projects underway in South Africa, and a minerals boom around the world which will increase mining activity on the continent, now is a great time for New Age Engineering to display its competence and become the undisputed industry leader across all of its service provisions.

“For us, quality is not the exception; it is the rule,” reiterates Zinyana, as he looks forward to continuing to revolutionise the SMEIP industry through excellence, innovation, empowerment, and new technology.