In response to South Africa’s recent power outages brought about by electricity public utility, Eskom, major concerns have surfaced amongst manufacturers regarding the sustainability of their operations along with the ripple effect it will have on the country’s economy. The Manufacturing Indaba 2019 is set to unpack promising solutions that manufacturers can employ in an attempt to recover their losses resulting from the nation’s rolling blackouts.

Uninterrupted and sufficient electricity supply is imperative to yield successful manufacturing output in any economy. Intermittent power supply compromises productivity as manufacturers are forced to stop production because of power cuts. This in turn, affects gross domestic product (GDP) as production stops or becomes more expensive. The negative impacts of load shedding on manufacturers are extensive and span from loss of material; downtime to reheat machines; damages to mechanical and electrical systems of machines owing to sudden power loss as well as maintenance call-outs after hours.

The negative impacts of load shedding on manufacturers are extensive. They span from loss of material; downtime to reheat machines; damages to mechanical and electrical systems of machines owing to sudden power loss as well as maintenance call-outs after hours.

Additional issues emerging for the energy-intensive manufacturing units as a result of rolling black outs include loss of sales and customers due to delayed delivery stemming from interruptions in production; time wasted as machines need to be restarted, opportunity costs associated with increased development lead times, the fact that 2 hours of load shedding translates to 5 hours of downtime along with the significant loss of income. Furthermore, there is the issue of worker compensation for idle time. Workforces are required to make up for lost production, so overtime is a necessity and the associated costs inevitably accumulate.

However, amidst all these setbacks, South African manufacturers have proven resilient, time and time again when confronted with electricity challenges. In the past, they have turned to back-up generators, transformers and the like. However, the advent of this recent power crisis and the new digital age have presented manufacturers and businesses with a multitude of new solutions.