News: The importance of Quality Assurance Apprentices - Southern Industrial Roofing

08 May 2019

Southern Industrial Roofing, based in Portsmouth, recently talked to CoTrain about why they invested in Quality Assurance (QA) apprentices.

Although quality of work is down to the site supervisors and contracts managers, Southern Industrial Roofing felt having technical apprentices on the ground would bring significant benefits to the site teams. Cameron joined them in Summer 2016 and Richard in Summer 2018 as technical apprentices, and Cameron completed his CoTrain apprenticeship in 2018, joining SIR full time. Both have been greatly beneficial, assisting in a number of roles within the company - especially quality delivery.

Quality assurance, and what main contractors and external auditors expect, has dramatically increased in importance over the past 3 years and looks set to continue. The importance of the quality of the work produced (and proving it is to exemplary standards in accordance with the specification and drawings that are produced) is something Southern Industrial Roofing is always working hard to achieve.

A larger proportion of their work is with Willmott Dixon, Skanska and Kier who all adopt different methods of requirements when it comes to quality control. Willmott Dixon, for example, use an app-based system on a tablet called Field View which is popular and easy to use, saving a lot of time and paperwork. Both Cameron and Richard now attend sites, assisting their labour with recording the quality of the work.

In recent years they have installed various rainscreen cladding systems. Following the Grenfell incident, this area has come under scrutiny (in terms of the materials they use, installer competence, and how these products are installed) so the recording of the quality of work has been increasingly vital.

Following the completion of Village Urban Resort Hotel in Portsmouth, Cameron won an award from Willmott Dixon for the work carried out when recording the installation of passive fire products, the specification of the product, where they were installed on the building, and how they were installed, which was in turn handed to Willmott Dixon's client.

They have also recently acquired FIRAS accreditation, which is a certification that allows them to self-certify installing passive fire products. For this accreditation they must document the installation of each fire barrier, where it is on the building and who installed it. Both Cameron and Richard will be heavily involved in this recording process and helping document what needs recording to comply with the FIRAS standards.

Click the link for more info about Southern Industrial Roofing