Abstract
The South African automotive industry is a key contributor to the economic growth of the nation and due to the complex nature of globalization today, there is a lot of competition at the international level for both developing and developed countries. This in general requires a high level of competitive strategies for a nation to remain constantly floating within the competitive environment. The research problem addressed in this study was to analyze the South African automotive industry global competitiveness and sustainability, including identifying the challenges and barriers that prohibit it from being globally competitive, resulting in affecting the country’s economy as the automotive industry is a major contributor to the national GDP. A comprehensive literature review was executed to obtain a clear understanding of the South African automotive industry global competitiveness. The research was approached from different perspectives through a combination of secondary data collected from the literature review and primary data collection via a well-structured questionnaire, application of Industrial Engineering techniques that included productivity, reliability, conceptual scheduling and global competitive models. This dual approach was used for the analysis, identification of factors that are constraints to the competitiveness of the South African automotive industry and also the development of a conceptual scheduling and competitive model. The findings of this research indicates that the automotive industry in the medium to long term is dependent on government regulations and policies for it survival. The results further highlighted that localization is a key factor behind the successful integration of the South African automotive industry into the global market, and also a consensus on many issues regarding the role of government strategies and policies in creating a global competitive advantage for the South African automotive industry the government’s strategic role in stimulating the industry’s competitiveness. 255 questinnaires were administered, and 187 were ulitlised after outlieres and incomplete forms were removed. The data of the questionnaires were later analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Software (SPSS). The respondents were virtually unanimous in indicating that the South African automotive manufacturing industry enthusiastically anticipates further changes in government policy to improve its global competitiveness. The study also found that there is a need for tariff protection or the industry will collapse in the face of global competition due to increased cheap imports into South Africa. Despite the challenges of globalization, the South African automotive manufacturing industry leaders remain positive about the future growth of the industry.