Testing, inspection and certification multinational Bureau Veritas Southern Africa has completed more than 5 000 remote inspections of clients’ assets and operations in Africa amid restricted-movement regulations to combat the spread of Covid-19.

Bureau Veritas Southern Africa VP Sal Govender says the company has embraced digital technologies to serve its clients across all industrial, technical and productive sectors, and was well prepared to continue serving them during lockdown periods.

Digital solutions is a focus area for Bureau Veritas, and it has adopted various technologies to do remote inspections, says Bureau Veritas Africa information systems and information technology director Zishaan Singh.

One of the technologies is video streaming from devices such as cameras, mobile devices, smart glasses and drones to do inspections. Its use of drones to inspect clients’ assets is well established.

It has also developed its augmented reality capabilities to enable its experts, located anywhere in the world, to use live information from site – typically from a smart tablet or smart glasses – to inspect assets on site. The experts advise technicians by providing annotated images or head-up displays within smart glasses of the steps of a procedure to inspect an asset.

“We have done more than 5 000 remote inspections of clients’ assets in Africa using various technologies while restrictions to the movement of people were implemented. The aim is to provide an efficient solution for our clients, and we believe our approach is working well,” says Singh.

In addition, the company launched its revamped technical centre for Africa in early August. The technical centre is supported by engineering professionals across Africa, who provide engineering solutions to a variety of clients across industries as well as standards, processes, and certification requirements, says Govender.

“Bureau Veritas is present in 45 African countries, with various laboratories and offices to serve our clients in the food, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, consumer goods, marine, manufacturing, mining, energy, government services, trade, and export and import industries, besides others,” she says.

Further, to introduce clients to its ability to continue inspections remotely and its technical expertise, which it uses to assist clients to improve the efficiency of their assets and systems, Bureau Veritas hosted an online client engagement session.

Bureau Veritas Technical Centre Africa head Heinrich Stander explains that clients can receive engineering support and access experts to determine various technical requirements and how to implement them.

“Our mission is to support technical excellence, and to help clients to design and manage product and equipment performance and risks, as well as safety and asset integrity. “We are also an independent third party that holds certain statutory obligations and responsibilities, and can provide expert, detailed advice and support to clients. For example, for mining and infrastructure, we provide services across the full life cycles of these projects,” he says.

Bureau Veritas has also developed its software and cybersecurity capabilities for any commercial or industrial system. It can conduct maturity assessments, verify and certify software development, and can also provide internationally recognised certificates for conforming companies.