Process & Operations

Southern Africa has timber resources, manufacturing expertise and strong demand for furniture. The recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) Industrialisation Week explored how better connections between these strengths could create more competitive businesses while retaining more value and jobs in the region.

Mark Twain famously said: “If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change”. Weather unpredictability has plagued mankind since the dawn of time. Its effects reach every facet of life, including the operation of our electricity distribution networks. As severe weather moves across a region, it can affect several parts of the grid simultaneously.

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) has always involved more than simply cooling a space. Today, rising energy costs, stricter indoor air requirements and increasingly specialised manufacturing and processing place even greater emphasis on temperature, humidity, ventilation and air quality management.

Black Friday has become one of the biggest retail events on the South African calendar. What began as a single day of discounted shopping has evolved into weeks of deals. Retailers and e-tailers now promote offers across online and brick-and-mortar channels throughout Cyber Monday. Some even run ‘Black November’ campaigns.

South Africa loses nearly half (47.3%) of all municipal water supplied through leaks, infrastructure failures, and other non-revenue losses. Meanwhile, copper theft costs the economy an estimated R45 billion a year. Road maintenance backlogs also exceed R197 billion. These problems reflect the increasingly interconnected nature of South Africa’s infrastructure systems. Consequently, disruptions to electricity or water supplies, road deterioration and stormwater drainage failures can quickly escalate.

For many aspiring property investors, the appeal of property lies in its perceived simplicity. Buy a building, tenant it, collect rental income, and watch the asset appreciate over time. Yet the reality is far more complex. Successful property entrepreneurs understand a fundamental truth: a building is not automatically an asset. It is a business.

Every litre of fuel consumed on South Africa’s roads reflects the underlying health of the country’s logistics economy. Changes in fuel prices have a far-reaching effect on the country’s supply chain, transport systems and the wider logistics industry. They also affect the pricing of goods on store shelves.

Most of us know the feeling. The car goes in for something small. Then, the workshop calls back, and the quote lands well above what you budgeted for. A few months later, it happens again. Somewhere between the second and third invoice, the thought arrives: is it time to let this one go?

When people picture South Africa’s automotive industry, they still picture a factory floor filled with men in overalls. That image is out of date. Motor Industry Bargaining Council workforce data show that women now account for almost 95,000 employees across the organised automotive retail aftermarket. That represents about 30% of a workforce of nearly 317,000.

Twenty years ago, PC procurement was pretty straightforward. Business leaders would evaluate hardware specifications and then set off to compare vendors. This process was generally rooted in a single, simple transaction. It was one and done. Fast-forward to now, and this is no longer the case.