Intensive Kaizen Coaching Doubles Labour Productivity at South African Auto-Parts Suppliers

South Africa's automotive component sector faces intense competitive pressure from lower-cost producers elsewhere, and local suppliers often lack the lean-production know-how used by Japanese and Asian competitors. JICA's long-running Kaizen programme, already active in several African countries, was extended to South African auto-parts suppliers through the government-backed Automotive Industry Development Centre (AIDC).

Between 2016 and 2019, AIDC and JICA experts delivered intensive, on-site Kaizen coaching — covering shop-floor layout, work-in-progress control, quality inspection and delivery scheduling — to eight automotive component suppliers across Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, ranging from small firms of 10–100 workers to larger firms of over 250.

Researchers tracking the same firms from 2015 to 2018 found average labour productivity more than doubled, with one firm's productivity rising fourfold; lead times fell to just 38% of 2015 levels; work-in-progress inventory 'almost disappeared' at three firms; required manpower for given output fell 26% on average; and the average rejection rate fell from 3.3% to 2.2%. Average employment across the firms grew from 135 to 193 workers over the same period, evidence the productivity gains did not come at the cost of jobs.

The study's authors are explicit that, with only eight participating firms and no separate control group, the results are descriptive rather than causally identified — a limitation quantified openly rather than hidden. The findings nonetheless align with the larger, RCT-based Kaizen literature from Tanzania and elsewhere, and AIDC has continued to offer Kaizen coaching to further cohorts of South African automotive suppliers since the study period.