The organisers of the Factory of the Year competition, a global benchmarking contest for companies in the manufacturing sector, has issued a final call for applicants for this year’s iteration.

To apply, manufacturers are encouraged to download a questionnaire on the South African Factory of the Year competition website.

Completed questionnaires must be submitted by July 31.

The Factory of the Year competition was initiated by global management consultancy Kearney in 1992 and debuted in South Africa in 2018 through a collaboration between Kearney, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Manufacturing Circle and the Manufacturing Indaba.

It presents an opportunity for South African manufacturing companies to understand and analyse their strengths and weaknesses in comparison to global and local benchmarks and initiate improvements. 

South Africa’s manufacturing sector experienced a four-month slump (as of February), owing to continuous bouts of loadshedding and exacerbated by rising costs and interest rates.

Kearney principal Frances Phillips says this accelerates the need to identify gaps and improvements within manufacturers, which is what Factory of the Year works to achieve.

“We should all be looking at ways to kickstart this sector right now and this is the important and real role that this contest can play,” he adds.

Philips points out that new manufacturing technologies and methods of production are constantly emerging, transcending previous limitations and facilitating greater interconnectivity, monitoring and efficiency of resource use, and that this presents both considerable threats and opportunities for the manufacturing sector in South Africa.

“The bar for competitive manufacturing is constantly evolving, with companies using advanced technologies and big data to improve their performance. The Factory of the Year competition identifies sector leaders and rewards excellence in manufacturing operations.

“Hundreds of companies have participated and benefited from the independent, cross-industry feedback provided via the competition. The input has enabled them to analyse their strengths and weaknesses and initiate immediate improvements,” he adds.