Abstract
South Africa is a fast-growing economy, firmly in the sights of technological advancements ready to be adopted in its economy; however, the country has struggled to adopt those technological advancements attributable to various reasons, including the fear that adopting certain technologies could cause job losses and doubts that the infrastructure’s capacity would be sufficient. The study investigated the influence of technological advancements on the manufacturing industry in South Africa. It analysed manufacturing practices in South Africa, compared them with those being used in selected developed countries, and bridged the divergence between the manufacturing processes of South Africa and other countries. Powerful manufacturing countries, such as Germany and China, were the benchmark to determine how manufacturing is conducted in the modern era, and their practices are compared to how South Africa is undertaking its manufacturing. The manufacturing methodology of Germany and China were analysed because Germany was the pioneer of the 4th Industrial Revolution whereas China had picked a different approach named Made in China 2025 which has many similarities to Germany’s Industrie 4.0. The study adopted a quantitative method. The reason for a quantitative method over a qualitative method was because inasmuch as the study aimed to understand the impact of automation in the manufacturing industry the hypothesis that needed to be tested was whether automation is indeed a better path to take for manufacturing industries in South Africa. Questionnaires were administered to participants in the manufacturing industry, considering various levels of the hierarchy and experience levels of respondents. The results display that several participants were aware of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), albeit not by name, and even welcomed it. Many wanted to adopt Fourth Industrial Revolution tools within the company's manufacturing processes, even though it may mean they may risk losing their jobs. Based on the findings, the study recommends adopting ways to ensure a smooth transition into automated processes that align with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including upskilling employees to where they are not redundant in the working space, therefore, retaining their jobs. Other recommendations include using collaborative robots (cobots) as natural progression into manufacturing, enabling companies to maximise their production and efficiency, eventually. More studies on the application of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the South African manufacturing sector are needed to educate the existing workforce.
Keywords: Operations Management, 4IR, Internet of Things, Manufacturing