Investigating the relationship between automation and productivity in a South African firm
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Abstract
South African manufacturing industry productivity has been declining over the last 10 years. Automation intervention driven by advancement in manufacturing technology is becoming increasingly popular and is being touted as critical to reversing this trajectory and ensure the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry is sustained. However, in South Africa where high levels of unemployment and low-level of skills, automation interventions in the labour- intensive manufacturing industry draw mixed views due to the fears that it will lead to massive job displacement. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between automation and productivity in a South African manufacturing firm. It does so by critically evaluating the automation intervention of a production process by a manufacturing company. The study interrogated firm level production data looking at performance before when manual production was in use and after automation was implemented. The literature review by the researcher found that there are limited studies in South Africa evaluating automation of manufacturing process. As a result, the success of automation in South Africa has been constrained by the limited empirical evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and merits of such an intervention. Hence, an experimental study like this one is a valuable contribution to literature and addressed the contextual knowledge gap. The manufacturing industry is critical to the country and very labour-intensive. As such, understanding how automation of the manufacturing processes in the industry relates to issues such as productivity and costs is critical. The study draws from the secondary data from the company data base. The study showed that automation is an effective strategy to improve productivity, quality and reduce production costs. In addition, the immediate displacement of workers was notable, and this would have negative implications on the drive to create employment in the country
Description
Research report submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Business Administration to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2021
Keywords
Automation, Productivity, Industry productivity, Manufacturing technology, UCTD
Citation
Zvoushe, Nobert. (2021). Investigating the relationship between automation and productivity in a South African firm [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40866