Dear Valued Client

The SABS is committed to improve communication with customers and stakeholders in an effort to improve the quality of our services and in turn customer satisfaction. This letter focusses on the progress made to improve our testing service delivery to the Appliances, Geyser as well as Electricity Metering Industries.

Herewith our feedback in addressing some of your challenges concerning the Appliances, Geyser as well as Electricity Metering Laboratories

1. Customer Specific Requirements (CSR)

We are pleased that the issue of ‘partial testing’ has been resolved through the introduction of testing to customer specific requirements (CSR). In the letter that sent to the industry in November 2018, the SABS has committed itself to the re-introduction of this much needed service to you. We count on your support in this journey as we improve our service offering in line with your requirements. To this end, you are more than welcome to contact us with your enquiries in line with such testing services and we will endeavour to facilitate your requests within the constraints of our policies and capabilities.

2. Boiler Plant Major Refurbishment Project Shutdown

One of the critical service requirements for testing operations is the availability of environmental conditions (i.e. temperature and humidity). Conditions are a very critical element of testing in the; Appliances, Geyser as well as Electricity Metering Laboratories. The SABS laboratory infrastructure is in need of a major plant refurbishment. The SABS EXCO scheduled the first phase of this much needed refurbishment of our Central Boiler Plant. During the holiday period of 14 December 2018 to 31 January 2019, a complete SABS Boiler Plant shutdown was scheduled as a risk measure to minimise total disruptions and enhance future risk management capabilities.

As of Monday 08 February 2019, we confirm that most Appliances Laboratory conditions have been restored and we are ready to start testing with immediate effect in the majority of areas that were previously affected. Appliances (Cooking Appliances, Dishwasher, Thermostats), Geyser, as well as Electricity Metering laboratories can proceed with testing as part of the first phase of conditions restoration The only exception is with the Laundry Equipment Laboratory which will still be out of commission for a period of four weeks following the 8th February 2019. The unfortunate need for atwo phased approach arose as a result of the thermo-coil part failure necessary to control conditions to this particular Laboratory. Our suppliers have advised the SABS that this is a made-to-order part, resulting in the unfortunate lead time. We are targeting that the Laundry Equipment Laboratory will be back in operation by 4 March 2019.

We have furthermore identified the risk associated with centralised s conditions provision and control and the SABS Management is progressing with an alternative decentralised risk management strategy. Therefore in parallel with the Boiler Plant refurbishment execution, our Facilities Department were also working to decentralise the environmental condition sourcing for the Appliances (Cooking Equipment, Dishwasher, Laundry Equipment, Thermostats, AV Equipment), Geyser, as well as Electricity Metering Laboratories. This approach has been proven for laboratories such as the Appliances: Refrigerator Laboratory and we envisage finalising the localisation of the sources of environmental conditions and control to the targeted Labs by end of July 2019.

3. Geyser Laboratory

The SABS has committed to spend about R4m in the current financial year to upgrade the Geyser Laboratory. The NRCS has embarked on enforcing VC 9006 (geyser equipment: Class B labelling requirement), and our testing capacity and turnaround times were identified as insufficient. Currently, the SABS is only able to test three water heaters in every 8 weeks of the 49 operational weeks in a given year. Given the number of market demand, it is for this reason that the SABS’ current testing capacity was concluded to be inadequate. The Geyser Laboratory investment aims at testing process automation and increase the number of test benches from three to four. As such, the majority of the test work being automated, the Lab will realize 25% increase in available capacity per annum while turnaround times are improved by 50%.

In the efforts to enhance quality assurance in our testing services, we are also performing “interlab testing” with our competitors in the space of SANS 151 particularly on the “standing loss test” as this has been identified as a risk factor in the conformity of sample products tested in our laboratories. The first inter-laboratory comparison was conducted in August 2018 on a 100L sized geyser, where results were confirmed to be aligned with very minimal/negligible variances among the labs. Before the end of the first quarter in 2019 we plan to also conduct an interlab testing comparison exercise on a 200L size geyser.

4. Electricity Meter Laboratory

Although the SABS Electricity Metering Laboratory was one of the labs affected by the loss of environmental conditions, we can confirm that we are now operational and capable to meet customer requirements. However, in the third quarter period of 2018, the SABS NETFA facility lost, due to retirement, the resource skill responsible for Load Switch testing. We are currently re-capacitating the area through training and development of our existing resources. During this period the load switch test will be subcontracted to an international partner laboratory. We will keep you posted on developments and, as a reminder, our procedures require thatwe always attain your formal authorisation every time we subcontract work to other labs outside the SABS.

5. Appliances Laboratories

The NRCS has embarked on enforcing VC 9008 (Appliances equipment: Class B labelling requirement). We confirm that we have been fully equipped in terms of infrastructure as well as the development of testing methods to fulfil the testing requirements of SANS 941 standard in the following appliances and their associated test standards:

• Refrigerators – SANS 62552
• Household Electric Cooking Appliances – SANS 60350-1
• Dishwashers – SANS 50252
• Washing machines – SANS 1695
• Tumble dryers – SANS 61121
• Washer-dryer combinations – SANS 50229
• Standby testing for AV equipment – SANS 62087

As such, with the stability of the Laboratories environmental conditions confirmed as of 08 February 2019, we also confirm that joining the Refrigerators Laboratory, the Appliances (Cooking Equipment and Dishwasher Laboratories) are ready to start testing.

Our testing capabilities and capacities for the aforementioned laboratories in the scope of SANS 941:2014 (Energy Efficiency of Electrical and Electronic Equipment) test standard are as detailed below:

In the efforts to enhance quality assurance in our Appliances Laboratory testing space, through joint efforts with the UNDP and the DoE, we have contracted services with regards to training and technical support as benchmarked with an external service provider. We envisage that the contracted service provider will assist the SABS Appliances team to alleviate some of the “teething problems” associated with the commissioning of our new Energy Efficiency testing facilities, as well as advise on improving testing efficiencies. We have scheduled to conclude these activities duringMarch 2019.

6. Appliances Laboratories

The SABS has initiated the process of recruiting suitable and qualified senior technical skills to help improve quality and instil a continuous improvement culture and capability within the Appliances Business Unit Laboratories. We have developed an intensive on boarding and training schedule to ensure that the right candidate will be fully capable to manage the technical and client service deliverables required by you, our valued customers. We are currently working on ensuring that we have the new Principal Test Officers appointed in the SABS Appliances Business Unit by the 01 April 2019.

7. Improved communication

We are committed to effective engagement with our stakeholders and open to listening to feedback regarding your requirements, while equally ensuring that you remain informed on key business decisions and development at SABS. We are serious about ensuring that we adopt an inclusive approach and we will continue to send you business updates and ensure that we always live up to our commitments.

Please continue to share your experiences with us so that we can continue to improve our services. We are all excited to be part of this turnaround strategy and appreciate your support.

For further questions please contact: