Meet One Eighty’s Laboratory Manager, Murendeni Munyai

Being Africa’s most widely scoped ISO 17025:207 materials testing laboratory involves a significant focus on maintaining the highest quality standards in our laboratory – something that One Eighty is well-known for globally.

It is also involves a detailed quality management, and ongoing checks and balances and associated traceability documentation. Periodically, we are audited by SANAS in order to maintain our ISO 17025:2017 accreditation for our accredited tests and we continually add new tests to this scope. This is a very onerous process but entirely necessary for the results of the laboratory to be reliable repeatable and certain. Large engineering decisions of consequence are made with these results, there really is no other way to generate them if one is to rely on them. The laboratory needs to run seamlessly, with a very high level of efficiency, as test data is not worth much to our clients if it is delivered late, and even with this pressure, the all checks and balances and quality standards adhered to for every single test that we do.

The sheer volume of work that comes through our doors also means that the laboratory needs to run with with the utmost efficiency at all times. We are always ready for anything that comes through the door!

Murendeni Munyai is both a Consulting Engineer at One Eighty as well as our Laboratory Manager, and a real young star in the Materials Engineering field. We asked him a few questions about his role and himself.

How long have you worked at One Eighty?

Since 4th July 2022

What is your current role and what does that entail?

I am One Eighty’s Laboratory Manager.

I oversee the overall lab performance, ensuring the lab runs smoothly. To achieve this, I manage all the lab technicians. I track the progress of deliverables that run through the lab from the specimen’s arrival to the report finalisation, ensuring the deliverable are handed in on time and are done to the highest possible standard.

What do you love most about working for One Eighty?

When the material arrives via the customers, I am excited by the nature of how the material could fail or the origin of how the material has failed. When a piece fails or has the potential to fail, there is a rich history behind the failure, the environment the piece is subjected to, the force the piece is subjected to, the manufacturing process leading to the creation of the piece, and many more variables. During the process of figuring, it out, it’s as if I am a detective solving a mystery, and every piece that comes in is part of a different case, shock absorbers used in cars, welded pipes for oil rigs.

What inspires you?

My main driving force is bettering myself every day, and not just myself but also the lab team I carry under my wing. Observing my team exert themselves and striving to be better every day creates an environment where we all give 100 percent and support each other to grow and learn.

What do you like to do in your leisure time?

In my leisure time I research different methods of etching materials and I am starting to look into testing procedures of composite materials, as I believe composite materials have an untapped beneficial application in the world of materials and the future of material engineering which is the basis for engineering applications.

What is your favourite quote?

“I don’t have time for hobbies. At the end of the day, I treat my job as a hobby. It’s something I love doing.” -David Beckham