The Role of Technology and Competitiveness, Jan Jooste – Director Innovation: Vaal University of Technology (VUT)
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Jooste’s in-depth presentation covered a variety of scenarios in relation to constraints experienced such as; component cost inputs through to competitiveness and the role technology plays, from, front-end design, simulation and additive manufacturing.
According to Jooste, technology is probably one of the best ways – under the control of the manufacturers – to improve competitiveness and is geared towards overall improvement in quality, delivery and price.
His view of the current policy for designation being a temporary measure and the argument in favour of a more permanent “localisation premium” will provide a window of opportunity to drive costs down and set the stage for South African manufacturers to become globally competitive.
A “localisation premium” will enable the South African society to allocate a value to the benefits (savings) gained by keeping a sector of industry alive. The benefits include prevented welfare as well as income circulated to supporting industries. Keeping industry sectors alive prevent the ogre of local industry collapsing like a set of falling dominoes.
“In a strategic move it could be possible to share costs between universities and stakeholders such as the NFTN, that will help us as an industry to determine where we sit with regard to our competitors and perhaps this will assist with our determination of a “localisation premium” – what I mean by this is, if one takes the lowest cost price and you add the localisation premium to that, so long as the local manufacturer comes under the cumulative price, then the local supplier meets the requirements,” Says Jooste.
“Both the foundry industry and the valve industry are serious contributors to South Africa’s industrial base, and to the extent that we put these two industries at risk, we will actually put the entire industrial base of South Africa at risk,” concludes Jooste.