Kostas Samaras, Autodesk Territory Director for Africa
Manufacturers in today’s globally competitive marketplace are under more pressure than ever to optimise their return on investment, safeguard the bottom line and remain relevant. A data management solution for optimising investment and industry-specific design solutions tailored to meet business challenges are at the top of the agenda.
We’ve noticed a greater need than ever before for manufacturers to create, manage, and share design data across the entire manufacturing process, in order to bring better-quality products to market faster.
Manufacturers mostly design, simulate, visualize, and manage their products digitally to help create competitive advantage. Autodesk solutions help at every stage of the product development process by streamlining workflows and collaboration between teams.
This has become especially relevant in the South African market as weak demand conditions globally and domestically continued to weigh on the manufacturing sector’s performance in 2015. According to the Industrial Development Corporation, the average physical volume of production and value added (GDP) remaining virtually unchanged from 2014 levels.
Weak growth in household spending impacted on producers of consumer goods and both the iron and steel and the basic metal products subsectors recorded significant declines in production.
The subsectors producing food and beverages, electrical machinery and transport equipment performed relatively better. One of the main reasons for this is that these sectors have evolved quickly enough and included the latest design and engineering software on the back-end to sustain their businesses.
More so, South Africa has developed a diversified manufacturing base which has proven to be resilient – with a potential to compete in the global economy. This was enough reason for the Autodesk’s University Extension event, held on September 1 in Cape Town, to further expose a range of manufacturers to the latest thinking from a design and data management perspective.
Supported by an agenda that surfaces a way for manufactures to create communities where, as an industry, positive and lasting change can be made, the event encompassed experts who illustratedhow key role players such as Autodesk are developing technological innovations that will drive the industrial world to new levels of operation.
About Autodesk
Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you’ve ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you’ve experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. For more information visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk.
