Traditional Building Methods cannot meet demand
‘Our age of anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools,’ says Hennie Botes, designer of Moladi, a patented plastic formwork system.
Traditionally bricks or blocks are manufactured in a small mould and then laboriously laid by an artisan, sandwiched with mortar. The walls are then chased to position the water and electrical pipes and later plastered by an artisan to fill and rectify the damaged wall to conceal the imperfections.
“As a rule, small contractors build houses in a traditionally ineffective way, with low quality materials, inferior workmanship, little or no professional support and no benefit of economy of scale,” states Hennie.
‘We simply cast a whole house in a day, employing unskilled labour, reducing time, waste and cost. Eliminating chasing for plumbing and electrical pipe work, plastering and beam filling results in a very strong wall,’ says Hennie.
Moladi has developed into a construction technology that addresses six key challenges embodied in the housing shortage facing developing countries:
• lack of resources
• shortage of skills
• time constraint
• controlled work flow
• waste
• insufficient funds
‘The result is a quality, cost-effective, holistic design and building technology with exceptional benefits,’ claims Hennie.
‘Foundations and superstructures are designed and certified by independent professional engineers. The walls have passed tests by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and have been issued with an Agrément Certificate by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), endorsing the physical and thermal properties. ’
Thermal properties of a Moladi wall are excellent, reducing the cost to heat or cool the home. He adds that Moladi structures do not look different when compared with conventionally plastered structures.
All standard traditional finishes are catered for such as – steel, wood or aluminium window and door frames, with no limitations to roof design and finishing.
‘The first homes in South Africa were constructed in 1987 and bonded by Standard Bank.’
Moladi is currently used in South Africa, Panama, Mexico, Angola, Botswana and Kenya and negotiations are being finalised with Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sudan, Algeria, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ecuador.
In order to be a contender when it comes to delivering 1 or 10 000 units, it should be viewed as a “Production Line”, similar to that of the automotive industry. By applying a disciplined lean approach, logistics, management and a reliable technology such as Moladi, a project can be completed on time and in budget without forfeiting quality. We are geared to help and coach TEAM Moladi partners and customers to become more productive, profitable and gain a competitive advantage.
One of the important principles under a lean production paradigm is termed ‘lean assembly’. This refers to simplifying the process of assembly through industrialisation, modularisations, standardisation, and continuous flow processes.
The reduction of operations required for a production process means less chance of the occurrence of errors, waste and rework. This follows from the same logic that the fewer the number of operations, the higher the quality of the product and a predictive timeline, resulting in cost savings.
Moladi provide and assist with the full range of requirements involved in the transfer and use of their proven technology.
Website: www.moladi.com |
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