July/August 2023 - 7

GIANFRANCO DI CICCO
PRESIDENT
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
A Major Challenge for Our Industry
Lately, I have been part of many
discussions about the state of the deep
foundation industry, the strategy for
the future and what is, for me, our
major challenge.
Of course, I must try to think for the
entire industry while keeping in mind
that at this point in my career I am
(again) a contractor. But then I realized
that what I had in my mind was not just
a challenge for the contractors, but
also for manufacturers, as well as for
engineers/consultants and clients.
Hopefully, the challenge can be resolved
through academia.
So, what is in my opinion, today, the
major challenge for our industry?
Finding PEOPLE!!!!
And, in particular, of maximum
importance is to find and train specialized
and qualified personnel that do the
actual work in the field, in our workshops
and factories. Personnel that
must know how to build and use our
technologies and equipment in the
safest way, correctly the first time, with
high quality and deliver production
while being (why not) sustainable.
I absolutely don't want to disregard
the importance of the personnel that are
in our offices, and those that manage
and support our projects and factories.
But we are still able to find project
managers, field engineers, quality
control managers, designers, planners,
safety officers, etc. However, we do not
have enough qualified experienced
personnel to supervise and do the actual
work in the field and in the factories.
And, as an industry, we are not doing
enough to ensure that we are training
and developing the next generation
of superintendents, supervisors,
operators, drillers, mechanics, and
electronic/electrician specialists. You
may be surprised, but engineers and
managers don't know everything. I am
one of them and, after " few " years in the
industry, I am still learning from the
field personnel, and I always recognize
that without our expert superintendents,
drillers, mechanics and
specialists, I would never have been
able to successfully complete any of the
challenging projects I was lucky to be
part of...without learning from them.
So, what is in my opinion,
today, the major challenge
for our industry? Finding
PEOPLE!!!!
Of course, it would be a fantastic
dream to have a special DFI vocational
school that trains our industry's specialized
personnel (as it is done in the North
of Italy since the '60s, first, with funding
from major deep foundation companies
and now, with the local government's
support). However, a more acceptable
solution may be to include some of the
existing vocational schools in our
academic DFI group and support them in
developing courses for the specialized
personnel our industry needs.
More project specifications are now
requiring qualified and experienced
personnel to satisfy the positions of
superintendents, supervisors, drillers
and specialized operators - while
sometimes the project manager 's
qualifications are not a requirement!
This is because the design engineers'
responsibility is to ensure the client
that the work is done not just by a
qualified company but, in particular, by
qualified personnel. Until artificial
intelligence takes over the world and all
our project and factory work is done by
robots, we will always need experienced
personnel and we all know how
challenging it is to find them. Still, even
then, we will always need someone
able to supervise, repair and do the
work the " robots " cannot perform
whenever it's needed and ensure the
quality of the work performed.
DFI has been trying to have more
students attend our conferences and
become more involved while developing
various programs and, thanks to
the Trust, providing scholarships and
grants. Now the question is: should DFI
discuss how to involve the vocational
schools in our industry? How can we
involve not only university students in
DFI, but also students from the
vocational institutes?
This question is not only for our
committee chairs and trustees, it is a
question for the entire DFI membership.
We want your ideas; we need your
input. DFI is your organization!
Contact Gianfranco Di Cicco at gianfranco.dicicco@bauerfoundations.com
DEEP FOUNDATIONS * JULY/AUG 2023 * 7
July/August 2023

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