Exacerbated by the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, South Africa’s manufacturing sector is taking significant strain. Predominantly owing to constrained demand and production constraints, the sector has declined by 74.9% in Q2 of 2020 as reported recently by StatsSA.

While production output across key sectors is starting to show noticeable signs of steady improvement, social distancing restrictions continue to challenge traditional ways of working.

With this in mind and after careful deliberation on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the sector and the health of all participants, Kearney has decided to postpone the 2020 Factory of the Year competition.

“While we understand the gravity of the situation for all manufacturing professionals who use the Factory of the Year competition to benchmark their company performance and make meaningful connections, in the interest of safety and practical constraints, the competition will resume when reasonably safe to do so in 2021” says Mark Saunders, project manager for Factory of the Year at Kearney

Saunders added “We encourage all manufacturers interested in participating in the competition to be on the lookout for future announcements of the competition dates and we look forward to awarding and celebrating with all future winners of the competition in person.”