Overview
The national World Class Manufacturing (WCM) study tour programme entails day-long sessions held in each of the major automotive regions in South Africa. Each session focuses on one of four major Market Drivers – Inventory, Quality, Flexibility and Reliability – as well as the associated importance of the HRD Market Driver. They include a review of the local industry’s performance versus comparators for each of the focus areas, as well as an introduction to the necessary supporting best practices, and also entail visits to at least two manufacturing operations.
This peer review methodology is a practical way to gain insight into the operations of the host firm and the specific practices they employed to overcome a challenge of mutual interest. The study tours are conducted in KZN (in partnership with the Durban Automotive Cluster), the Western Cape, East London and Port Elizabeth (in partnership with the Eastern Cape Automotive Industry Forum) and Gauteng.