The employment of automation is transforming economies worldwide allowing companies to keep abreast with the growing demand for the CPG. African economies have pledged to shift from their huge reliance on imports from the west and east. They are striving to promote local transformation in several sectors.
Sub-Saharan African countries have a largely growing youthful population with very high rates of unemployment. This makes jobs highly competitive and thus translates to lower wages. Why then should companies invest in automation when they can easily tap from this pool and quickly man their production lines with little onboarding?
The African economy has very limited capital and high interest rates. Therefore, companies lean more towards human capital which they think is more cost-effective compared to automation.
Despite the large labor force available, there are very few advanced skills. Furthermore, the This means there is very low staff retention which directly affects productivity and quality of products. This locks companies in recruiting a cycles.
The challenging economic climate with fast growing and increasingly sophisticated demands makes a break in the production line a luxury many companies cannot afford.
Customers’ tastes are becoming more sensitive and a growing demand for quality products which means consistency is inevitable for companies. No matter how much Quality Assurance is employed, it is very challenging to remain consistent with error-prone humans which make automation a very strong case to consider for especially for companies that want to stay competitive or lead in this new technological age.
The employment of Automation is the natural progression of industrial companies. As this not only improves efficiency but also reduces cost in many ways.
As stated by World Economic Forum, there are three major reasons why industrial automation matters;
- Industrial Automation lifts productivity.
- Industrial Automation arms the industrial workforce.
- Industrial Automation lowers impact of industries on our environment.
This makes it primordial that Companies in Africa turn more towards Automation if the want to keep competing in the local and world stage.
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