Investigating the effects of automating process chains towards sustainable manufacturing in South Africa
Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Automation of processes is becoming increasingly popular within manufacturing. However, in third world countries such as South Africa, automation could lead to the loss of jobs and even higher unemployment. In order to remain globally and locally competitive, companies need to invest in new technologies of which automation is a highly influential aspect. Thus a study is deployed to determine when a company should automate a process and when a semi-automated process is sufficient in the process chain. To ensure a close to optimum operation, a balance between workforce skill development and profit needs to be determined. In this study, the effects of automating process chains were evaluated. A semi-automated process chain that included a manual labor aspect was used to manufacture small aluminium automotive components and was compared to an automated process with regards to machine effectiveness and labor resources. The automated process derived a higher profit margin due to the high availability of the machine and the lower labour costs. Suggestions were given to increase the profit margin without the loss of labour.
Description
CITATION: Hagedorn-Hansen, D., et al. 2017. Investigating the effects of automating process chains towards sustainable manufacturing in South Africa. Procedia Manufacturing, 7:262-268, doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2016.12.062.
The original publication is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com
The original publication is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com
Keywords
Factories -- Automation, Engineering cybernetics, Manual labor, Computer integrated manufacturing systems
Citation
Hagedorn-Hansen, D., et al. 2017. Investigating the effects of automating process chains towards sustainable manufacturing in South Africa. Procedia Manufacturing, 7:262-268, doi:10.1016/j.promfg.2016.12.062