Robots replacing human workers in the manufacturing were at the top of the agenda at the Manufacturing Indaba in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.
The annual Indaba seeks to find solutions to the challenges faced by the sector.
Speakers at the Indaba believe the use of robots is the future. The Indaba comes at the time the manufacturing sector continues to shrink. In the first quarter results released by Statistics South Africa, manufacturing production fell by 6.4%.
From start to finish of production, robots are expected to be at the forefront in the 4th Industrial Revolution with humans contributing little to production.
The education system is also expected to be affected as online teaching is expected to dominate in providing skills to build these robots. This would also mean less government expenditure on school infrastructure.
But the biggest fear around this robot revolution in the manufacturing sector is job losses.
According to Statistics South Africa, the manufacturing industry has lost 250 000 jobs in the past 10 years.
One of the panelists at the Indaba from the National Technologies Implementation Platform, Dirk van Dyk, says people should change their mindset instead of spending lots of time at university and equip themselves with skills to build these future firms dominated by robots.
“It means we can skill people differently on a much smaller component specialization. And the we needed to learn me and you we need to work together and I’ve got specialization you’ve got something differently and if we work together we can serve this project for 3 weeks and we move to that project. So this is the future of manufacturing is project based employment. Much more flexible all over the world. So we don’t need to be bound in one place. We can work anywhere in Africa.”
One of the biggest automotive industry giants in the country with headquarters in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape, has started using robots in assembling vehicles. Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Schaefer, says they have found a balance between humans and robots and the relationship has yielded positive results.
“Less breakdowns, less maintenance and the better economics for the people. We have for example orgmatic reality glasses that operators can see computer enhanced if there is a fault at the vehicle it can be detected early. Less rework or you have human robot cooperation working next to a human lifting the heavy stuff and the really important stuff is done by human by hand but the stuff that affects the back is done by the robot.”
The use of robots will also mean people will spend less time in the workplace.
Executive General Manager at the Coega Development Corporation, Riccardo Temmes says “We use to work 78 hours per week now we work 40 hours per week. In Germany and some European countries they now work 38 hours per week what I’m saying with industry 4.0 people can work less and relax more.”
The manufacturing sector is contributing just over 13-percent to the Gross Domestic Product – this is below the 25-percent needed to sustain economic growth. – by Mcebisi Ngqina
