adminProductivity Column Eng. William M Goriwondo
Advanced Manufacturing Technologies involves the use of technology to improve products and/or processes. The world keeps moving in many aspects and all nations have to catch up with the swiftness with which any such movement is happening. One aspect of mention is the advances that are happening in manufacturing technologies. These advances are exacerbated by further and swift advances in information and communication technologies. All organisations need to know and realise the technologies that are available in their areas of specialisation. This should be done by some form of benchmarking. That way, there will be reason to map the way forward.
Manufacturing is basically the transformation of raw materials from their form to a more value-added form as output. When this happens, there is utilisation of equipment to facilitate the transformation. Processing equipment is also manufactured and over the years, models of equipment transform. It will be a disaster if your organisation is stuck in the past. An organisation can be stuck in the past by not adopting or accepting new technologies that are developed. The year is 2013 and you are still using equipment that was manufactured in 1962. I refer to this specific year because I have seen one such machinery in industry being used.
The important aspects of product improvement include products that have high levels of design and innovation. It is those products that meet customers’ needs at affordable costs. Products that are reliable and more exciting are what the customers want. As such innovation needs to be incorporated in products. This will not be achieved at the same level of technology that was in operation 20 if not 30 years ago.
The important aspects in process improvement basically lie in computer technology improvement. The computer has made a big impact in the way we do business. There is no point in ignoring the technologies that are associated with computers like what many organisations are doing. Such improvements include Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), Automation and Computer Control systems. This is just to mention a few of the many technologies that have been developed and which I feel are being underutilised by organisations in Zimbabwe.
There are many disadvantages that accrue to a nation or to organisations that are stuck with old technology. Firstly, any old machinery or equipment uses old processing methods. Research, Innovation and Development have brought about many improvements in products and processes that results in improved methods, quality, cost effectiveness and efficiency. Your organisation may definitely be one that needs to be competitive and the dimensions with which to compete include quality, cost and efficiency. How then can one improve on these if they ignore advances in manufacturing technology?
Organisations need to know the technology that they are using and compare it to the best technology in that area. Such an audit requires a full benchmarking exercise since it will be the basis for strategy formulation. If one looks at the equipment that they have, they need to know the performance of that equipment.
Performance can be in the form of output in much the same way it can be looking at the quality of products. The output is basically the number of units that come out. Machinery is prone to wear and tear and it has a life span. Beyond its life span, many problems begin to emerge and it becomes uneconomic to run such equipment.
Secondly, old machinery uses old technology and in some cases, old technology is wasteful. A good example is the case of mine dumps that contained waste which is now being reworked to recover more minerals using new technology. This goes to show that when processing was being done, the technology in use had limitations which have now been overcome by advances in technology and are capable of recovering more. This can be proven true for other situations but unfortunately others do not keep dumps of waste but dispose of it as soon as it is generated.
There are few companies in Zimbabwe that capitalise on advanced manufacturing technologies. There is an apparent lack of proper and structured Research and Development initiatives. If the nation is to move forward and be a global player, the need to have vibrant Research and Development teams is quite important. Such departments would be quick to notice and also may be tracking technological changes in real time. The important aspect of knowing these changes is that it creates an important pool of needs and technologies that should be developed and fully utilised.
Research outputs may also be useful to an environment when they are based on findings from that environment. Over the years, we have relied on research that has been done elsewhere and in a different environment. It is also sad to note that we have implemented some of the findings blindly. This kind of situation does not get us far. Let’s we have localised research and development teams that are conducting research in the local environment. Solutions that come from such informed research would be relevant.
While technology is fast changing and improving, Zimbabwe has abundant resources that are being sent out in their raw state. The reason may be lack of capacity to process these or it may be lack of the appropriate technologies required. My earlier call for research and development can now be put into use. This way, we may need to focus on whatever intellectual and other resources that we have and develop such technologies. Again I emphasise that there is unutilised capacity at higher learning institutions and the nation need to capitalise on it. Industry and academia should form strong research partnerships that deliver real results. This is short of calling for utilisation of the intellectual capacity and the high literacy rate that the country prides of.
The drive to capitalise on Advanced Manufacturing Technologies is important because of the globalisation phenomenon. The companies that are competing on the global market place are geared to capture increased market share and they do so by improving on their products and processes in an innovative way. Those that do not improve will stagnant to death. As such there is motivation for all organisations to check for and adopt advances in technology. Adding Value to the resources that we have will create wealth for us. Sending them out in their raw state will create loss for us.
Eng. William Msekiwa Goriwondo is a Lecturer at Nust in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. He is a World Class Manufacturing principles consultant at The Business Profitability Excellence Consulting (BPEC). He is also an Expand Your Business (EYB) trained trainer.
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