Since the launch of Factory of the Year competition at the Manufacturing Indaba in June this year, there has been an outpouring of interest from many of the country’s top manufacturers from industries such as automotive, consumer goods, energy and many others.

After having received several requests from participants to extend the deadline of the competition, A.T. Kearney and the competition’s partners the Department of Trade and Industry, Manufacturing Circle, Manufacturing Indaba and the CSIR have extended the competition deadline to the 31st of January 2019 to provide an opportunity for even more companies to participate in the inaugural year of the competition.

Igor Hulak, partner at A.T. Kearney said: “We appreciate the high levels of enthusiasm from local manufacturers and hope the extension provides sufficient time for all manufacturers to participate in the competition”.

The Factory of the Year competition aims to boost competitiveness in the country’s ailing manufacturing sector by providing each participant with insights into their performance against global best practices across 7 dimensions (Economics, Quality, Agility, Value Creation, Customer Satisfaction, Innovation and Resource Efficiency) in the form of individualised feedback packs while ensuring the utmost confidentiality of each participants data. Furthermore, the competition will take place each year, giving factories the opportunity to track their performance over time.

Ilse Karg Chief Director of the DTI, further highlights that “the Factory of the Year competition is fully supported by government and we encourage all small to large manufacturers to participate in order to gain valuable feedback that is needed to improve individual competitiveness and competitiveness of the sector as a whole”.

We encourage more companies to take part in the competition as it is an exceptional opportunity to gain valuable insights into your factory’s performance in comparison to global best practices.

To find out more about the competition, please visit www.safactoryoftheyear.co.za

 or email the Factory of the Year support team (SouthAfricafoty@atkearney.com). Winners of the competition will be announced during the next Manufacturing Indaba in June 2019.

AT Kearney