Profit margin and Quality Products.

[Justloadit]

Well you can attribute it to higher wages being paid in the manufacturing sector.
Your wish for higher wages is showing what the domino effect is creating, cost of any hardware is going to climb very quickly.

[tec0]

Well you can attribute it to higher wages being paid in the manufacturing sector.
Your wish for higher wages is showing what the domino effect is creating, cost of any hardware is going to climb very quickly.

Fact is that an international company is going head to head with all the small time locals and the locals are losing out heavily. Secondly our suppliers are adamant with their prices and keeping the prices high thus the reseller suffers more and more. There is a domino effect here but I don’t think Lonmin is to blame...

If you can actually import parts from England cheaper then what you can buy it here you need to ask questions...

[Justloadit]

If you can actually import parts from England cheaper then what you can buy it here you need to ask questions...

I do not understand your line. I suspect you meant, If you can buy it cheaper in England, why you can not buy it here...

Simple, let me paint you a scenario which I personally experienced. This is not here say.
We were contracted to upgrade a 3 layer co-extruder which manufactures plastic bags. To do this we required some special equipment to monitor the thickness of the plastic while the machine is in motion. A Swiss company had a product which they manufactured. We went to visit the factory. When we arrived at the factory, we were amazed to find that there was only one operator per extrusion machine, and he did everything, from collecting the pellets from stores, loading the hoppers, controlling the machine, packing the completed rolls, labeling the rolls, printing the invoice, and attaching it to the rolls, and delivering to dispatch. Granted this chap was being paid extremely well, as much as a local shop supervisor.

The equivalent machine at the South African manufacturer, required some 9 employees to do most of what the single Swiss chap was doing, and excluding the paper work trail. The total wage bill was far higher than the Swiss chaps salary.

On the face of it, our workers as individuals are cheaper, but collectively, they were more expensive, and required constant supervision, and excluded the errors that were made, resulting in scrap and redoing the job. Remember now there is also all the other support required, like coffee, lunch, over alls, change rooms, showers, clocking cards, wage klerks, medical aid, etc.

The product from Switzerland was cheaper and better quality than what was being manufactured here.

So, with this huge increase in wages, so the running cost is climbing and climbing, so where is this going to leave manufacturers...........

[Blurock]

... we were amazed to find that there was only one operator per extrusion machine, and he did everything, from collecting the pellets from stores, loading the hoppers, controlling the machine, packing the completed rolls, labeling the rolls, printing the invoice, and attaching it to the rolls, and delivering to dispatch. Granted this chap was being paid extremely well, as much as a local shop supervisor.

The equivalent machine at the South African manufacturer, required some 9 employees to do most of what the single Swiss chap was doing, and excluding the paper work trail. The total wage bill was far higher than the Swiss chaps salary.

On the face of it, our workers as individuals are cheaper, but collectively, they were more expensive, and required constant supervision, and excluded the errors that were made, resulting in scrap and redoing the job. Remember now there is also all the other support required, like coffee, lunch, over alls, change rooms, showers, clocking cards, wage klerks, medical aid, etc.

The product from Switzerland was cheaper and better quality than what was being manufactured here.
So, with this huge increase in wages, so the running cost is climbing and climbing, so where is this going to leave manufacturers...........

Proves my point. We do not require cheap, uneducated labour. Illiterate people are a burden on our economy and resources. We need trainable people that can understand instructions and that can educate and better themselves, aspiring to better positions with more responsibility and thus better remuneration.

Our education system needs to be improved and both government and industry will have to find ways to provide adult education for those that were left behind for whatever reason.

[Justloadit]

Proves my point. We do not require cheap, uneducated labour. Illiterate people are a burden on our economy and resources. We need trainable people that can understand instructions and that can educate and better themselves, aspiring to better positions with more responsibility and thus better remuneration.

Our education system needs to be improved and both government and industry will have to find ways to provide adult education for those that were left behind for whatever reason.

Hi Blurock,

Could not agree more with.

Unfortunately the lack of any education being implemented was recently highlighted by the text book debacle in the Limpopo province. One would think that after 19 years, the education department would be humming like a well oiled machine, but its failure is now being blamed on Verwoed, who has been dead almost 50 years.

[tec0]

Hi Blurock,

Could not agree more with.

Unfortunately the lack of any education being implemented was recently highlighted by the text book debacle in the Limpopo province. One would think that after 19 years, the education department would be humming like a well oiled machine, but its failure is now being blamed on Verwoed, who has been dead almost 50 years.

There are massive problems within our education sector. It is really scary to think that because or irregularities you may fail a subject. But it happens... I am working on a second Thread and will post it accordingly.

Getting people educated is a must it is the only this country can go forward.

[Blurock]

Hi Blurock,

Could not agree more with.

Unfortunately the lack of any education being implemented was recently highlighted by the text book debacle in the Limpopo province. One would think that after 19 years, the education department would be humming like a well oiled machine, but its failure is now being blamed on Verwoed, who has been dead almost 50 years.

I agree apartheid was wrong, but the ANC has this racist fixation to destroy everything that the previous government has built or put in place. The reality is that it is because of the votes of many white people that blacks were given the vote and effectively allowed the ANC to come into power.

The ANC should realise that not everything white is evil. We had an education system that worked. In stead of using it and improving on it, they destroyed it and introduced apartheid style bantustan education. Why did they have to close teachers colleges and training centres? Why the racist discrimination against white teachers? Now we sit with uneducated teachers who are too lazy to work and interested only in their misguided union and political activities. All this at the cost of our future; the youth of South Africa.

We should realise that we are all South Africans. Lets not accept this lazy mediocracy. Lets speak up for the rights of the youth of South Africa. They have a right to a better education and a better future. The government is now schooling car guards and labourers. What we need is doctors and engineers!