Abstract
Information and communication technology expansion creates new opportunities and challenges for developing economies’ manufacturing sectors. South Africa’s inadequate application of information and communication technology (ICT) creates great concern about the manufacturing sector’s inability to compete globally. This study explores how the South African manufacturing sector can improve its competitiveness through adequate use of ICT. For this purpose, an interpretive analysis of recent literature and document review were employed. This study found that the initial problem lies within the manufacturing sector’s inability to successfully identify and integrate the right technologies into business processes. The reason for this is among other factors, the technical skills shortage. The findings of this study can be generalized to those manufacturing sectors that have not adopted ICT. However, the findings can be extended to and applied in developing countries, especially those in Africa, in terms of using ICT in innovative ways to enhance manufacturing performance.