Digitalisation and the future of Manufacturing in Africa

whitePaper | March 23, 2023

The fourth industrial revolution is transforming the manufacturing industry as we speak. Industry 4.0 is digitally driven, and like all other revolutions, the transformation did not happen overnight. Since the first personal computer on a factory floor in 1970s, computer-aided design has developed and matured exponentially. Strategically eective evolutionary steps has resulted in productivity and eciency gains in manufacturing. We live in the Industry 4.0 era, characterized by the digitization of manufacturing processes. Inevitably, today, information plays a significant role for an enterprise transformation. Data on how the product’s design and manufacturing information is authored, exchanged, and processed is critical to competitiveness. Information ‘silos’ for various life cycle processes are gradually connected to form a digital thread of information, envisioned to integrate and drive modern product design, manufacturing, and product support service processes.

whitePaper | July 30, 2020

After the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly ground the world to a halt in the first few months of 2020, it created both new challenges for the manufacturing industry and exacerbated those that had existed for some time. According to an article by McKinsey & Company analysts,1 the future we expected by 2020 hasn’t quite come to pass. Rather than a significant shift towards more automation and a smaller workforce, the opposite is true, due in part to the pandemic.

whitePaper | February 10, 2020

Manufacturing is at a crossroads. The traditional ways of growing productivity and profits no longer work, and the industry has been at a loss for new ones. But no longer. A solution has been found. The potential is unlimited, and the obstacles are gone. All that remains is for manufacturers to embrace the way forward to a new and transformative future. The time to do so is now.

whitePaper | May 23, 2022

Cost-effective digital manufacturing solutions are needed to keep factories and supply chains running smoothly while producing high-quality products–whether delivered by OEM, parts or assembly supplier, contract manufacturer, or manufacturing services supplier. IBM can help you cocreate a roadmap to a custom solution with a focus on leveraging existing OT investments,improving key metrics, exploiting digital tools, and using the right talent. We help you set your direction based on a proven Industry 4.0 reference architecture and industry standards, achieve scale by consistently deploying advanced shop floor technologies on an open platform, and unleash optimum value by selecting manufacturingprocess use cases to address immediate needs.

whitePaper | January 19, 2023

Legacy ERP is the weakest link in your digital transformation, especially when it’s disconnected from CRM. But when everything from supply to sales is built on the same platform, you get more value, flexibility, and visibility to better serve your customers. Moving away from your legacy ERP system and on to something more modern may seem daunting, but the alternative of doing nothing or waiting for the next new technology is holding your business back in more ways than you might imagine. Hundreds of Rootstock customers have gone through the same process, looking at the limitations of their legacy ERP but assuming the migration to a modern cloud-based ERP could wait another year. But, without fail, every single customer comes out the other side wondering why they waited so long to make the switch

whitePaper | April 4, 2022

Digital transformation is driving the adoption of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing. Multiple technologies, such as internet of things (IoT) devices and artificial intelligence (AI), are changing manufacturing processes. For instance, more is being done with robotics, 3D printing, and industrial clouds. Employees need to digest all these innovations to enable new ways for them to do their jobs properly. Around the globe, industries have implemented work-from-home policies. In most manufacturing companies, there is a mixture of employees from the business office to the factory floor, and manufacturers can now instantly enable remote work for these employees.