EVALUATING THE INFLUENCE OF 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ON OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN MANUFACTURING ORGANISATIONS: A CASE OF A MEAT COMPANY

Businesses with daily operations to produce outputs meant to meet or exceed the needs of consumers, be it manufacturing or service providing, must deal with unforeseen situations within and beyond management control. This paper will focus on the 4IR (4IR) as one factor beyond the control of organisational management. However, managers of manufacturing organisations can rather develop strategic approaches to manage the effects it may have in operations and supply chain management to ensure continuous success to fulfil the needs of consumers while maximising profits. This study intends to resolve the issue associated with delays in deliveries which further impact customers and the organisation's sales. This study adopted a qualitative approach in which observations and unstructured interviews were used for data collection. The findings reveal that the organisation under investigation utilises a joint computer system that manages both operations and supply chains and some employees are unable to use the system. Following analysis of the results, the researcher developed recommendations based on the downfalls of the system, which includes learning and development, delivery management and customer management. A further research study can be conducted in a different industry to focus on the influence of 4IR related technologies.