Following a challenging few years in the manufacturing sector, Kearney is excited to announce the return of the Factory of the Year competition with 2023 entries now open.

The fourth-biggest contributor to South Africa’s economy with a wide-reaching socioeconomic impact, manufacturing is a vital economic sector. Even before the pandemic, the sector was facing a notable decline as several structural issues have been threatening its historic competitive advantage. Now, the sector continues to be challenged as supply chain disruptions and sustainability pressure destabilize the value chain, undermining growth and prosperity. As such, we believe resilience is more important than ever for manufacturers to sustain economic growth.

The Factory of the Year competition is an ideal starting point for manufacturers to identify opportunities for improvement by comparing their performance metrics with those of leading competitor benchmarks.

We encourage all manufacturers interested in participating in the competition to download the application and apply before applications close on 31 July 2023.

About Factory of the Year

The Factory of the Year has become the leading global benchmarking competition for manufacturing firms. The competition launched globally in 1992. It debuted in South Africa in 2018 via a collaboration between Kearney, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Manufacturing Circle, and Manufacturing Indaba.

The bar for competitive manufacturing is constantly evolving, with companies using advanced technologies and big data to improve their performance. The Factory of the Year competition identifies sector leaders and rewards excellence in manufacturing operations. The competition evaluates factories across the following areas:

Value creation
Profitability
Quality
Agility
Digitalization
Sustainability

Hundreds of companies have participated and benefited from the independent, cross-industry feedback provided via the competition. The input has enabled them to analyze their strengths and weaknesses and initiate immediate improvements.