Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Technical Labour in Manufacturing Companies in Kenya

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TITLE

Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Technical Labour in Manufacturing Companies in Kenya

ABSTRACT

Over the past few decades, manufacturing has evolved from a more labor-intensive set of mechanical processes to a sophisticated set of information based technology. With the existence of various advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs), more and more functions or jobs in the production line are being performed by these machines instead of human labour. This study was undertaken in order to establish the relationship between AMT adoption and technical labour characteristics. The AMT adoption was measured in terms of its investment and integration, while Technical labour (TL) was measured in terms of job satisfaction, organizational involvement, organizational commitment, psychological barriers and employee empowerment. Data from 92 manufacturing companies in Kenya showed that as adoption of AMTs increased, the aforementioned characteristics of technical labour increased. On a scale of 1-5 the study showed that Power generation, electrical and electronics industry had the highest index score in AMT adoption (2.025) and in technical labour (3.91). On the other hand Plastic, packaging and stationary industry had the lowest score index in AMT adoption (1.668) and in technical labour (2.00). Primary finding showed the existence of a positive relationship between the two variables (AMT =1.542 +0.99(TL). It was concluded that the role of current technical labour is bound to diminish and other suitable informational based skills in manufacturing processes will be required as the rate of take-up of technology increases. In line with Vision 2030 the study encapsulates the need for policy makers to align manufacturing engineering training to current technological trend in the industry.

KEYWORDS

Advanced manufacturing technology, Adoption, Technical labour

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Cite this paper

George Makari, Julius Maima. (2017) Advanced Manufacturing Technology and Technical Labour in Manufacturing Companies in Kenya. International Journal of Economics and Management Systems, 2, 254-263