Industry pioneer appointed to lead Chamber’s ‘prototype’ industrial park project
The Cape Chamber has appointed textile industry stalwart Graham Choice to lead a flagship project aimed at setting up a new kind of labour intensive industrial park.
Project stakeholders have already identified a site for the first Scaled Labour Intensive Manufacturing (SLIM) industrial park, with other potential sites on the horizon should the prototype prove successful.
Choice has extensive textile industry experience as founder of Prestige Clothing and later as MD of The Foschini Group’s ( TFG) Supply Chain. He believes the SLIM concept has the potential to significantly boost both the local textile industry and other light manufacturing sectors.
“This is a proof of concept and we are engaging with all the necessary parties to ensure we successfully blueprint a successful and compliant alternative to achieving a far improved manufacturing minute rate. This will address many of the inhibiting factors negatively affecting our local manufacturers,” Choice said this week.
The project will be phased over the next six months, with the first phase involving consultations to help set parameters and prepare for concept implementation. “We want to better understand all the advantages that SLIM can provide, and work through with affected parties any perceived disadvantages and challenges,” Choice said.
The concept involves collaboration between a range of public and private stakeholders to reformat the modus operandi of manufacturing plants within the park.
Some of the standout features include: a 4x4 work rotation system with a worker four day week; plant open throughout the year only closing on holidays; low factory rentals and more affordable green energy; a range of workplace training opportunities; and other location-specific benefits such as well-located staff housing. This smarter operating model is expected to deliver a significant saving in operating costs, thereby making the site potentially attractive to investors.
“I think my biggest job is convincing local and international retailers that this substantially improved value add is possible with the right level of demand,” Choice said
The concept is based largely on the work of Professor Justin Barnes -- local manufacturing expert, consultant and academic -- who forms part of the project team.
Barnes is also a Cape Chamber board director: “We are only starting the journey, but the intention is to prove a revolutionary concept that can create and then sustain thousands of labour-intensive manufacturing jobs. If we can prove it in a well-run municipality in the Western Cape, maybe it can be rolled out more broadly,” Barnes said.