The AIDC is a subsidiary of the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA), an entity owned by Gauteng Provincial Government’s Department of Economic Development.

It was established as a government support centre to increase the local automotive industry’s global competitiveness and to promote Gauteng as the automotive industry investment destination of choice.

Having met all of its objectives, the AIDC prides itself as a world-class organisation which specialises in Skills Developments and Training, Enterprise Development, Incubation Programmes, and offers state-of-the-art manufacturing support with strategic infrastructure facilities.

The organisation has expedited economic growth within the automotive sector by partnering with key stakeholders such as industry leaders, government, and non-government agencies, among others.

The AIDC in collaboration with the Shareholder, GGDA has decided on the following focus areas, to:

• Attend to automotive industry development interventions that would increase the competitiveness of companies through efficiency, productivity, quality standards, cleaner and leaner production improvement, thus reducing the cost of doing business;
• Address scarce and critical skills in accordance with long-term requirements emanating from the automotive sector’s needs;
• Facilitate enterprise cluster development with particular focus on the lower tier suppliers, and the creation of sustainable SMME’s and co-operatives;
• Establish and manage Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Incubator programmes, through development of the AIDC Incubator Model at the Ford Plant in Silverton as well as the NISSAN Plant in Rosslyn;  and

• Developed and manage world-class infrastructure facilities such as the Automotive Supplier Park in Rosslyn to support automotive industry.

Key AIDC programmes supporting the automotive industry are the following:

Enterprise Development

AIDC’s Supplier & Enterprise Development Department (SEDD) was established to support manufacturing companies to conform to international standards prescribed by the automotive manufacturing industry. The AIDC SEDD specifically focuses on:

• Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Programme,
• Cleaner Production Programme (including all green projects related to the Province’s low carbon economy projects),
• Lean Manufacturing Programme,
• Rapid Process Improvement
• Quality management systems (QMS)

Automotive Incubation Programmes & Township Automotive Hubs

The AIDC Incubation Programme is responsible for launching South Africa’s first Automotive Incubation Centre at Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa’s Silverton plant in 2011 and the Winterveld Enterprise Hub: Automotive in 2014, as well as establishment of the new Incubation Centre located at the NISSAN Rosslyn Plant during April 2018.  The second Automotive Hub was developed in Chamdor within Mogale City, and will shortly be officially opened by the AIDC. The facility will offer after-market services.

Objectives of the AIDC Incubation Programme & Automotive Township Hubs:

• To identify individuals with entrepreneurial aspirations and abilities, thereafter nurture into successful businesses.
• Provide business support, mentoring and training to the incubates,
• Identify opportunities in the automotive sector for new components to be allocated to the incubators, with objective of increasing local content for the sector.
• Provide enabling infrastructure and equipment to Township SMME’s to support their business grow whilst creating jobs for local residents within the facilities.
• AIDC have Master Artisans for different offerings at the facilities who provide training to the youth, as well as on-the-job training to the SMME’s using the facility.

The Skills Development and Training Programme

The AIDC was established with mandate to also built human capacity specifically to address the global challenges pertaining to skills development and deficiency in line with the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act 97 of 1998).needs of the automotive.

Objectives of the AIDC Skills Development Programme:

• To be conduit between government and industry in addressing scarce and critical skills in the automotive sector;
• Developed and launched the Gauteng Automotive Learning Centre in Rosslyn, which caters for the needs of industry’s skills development and training;
• Build talent pipeline programme in line with Human Resources Development Strategy (HRDS) in the automotive sector;
• Support pipeline strategies as feeder into the automotive sector;
• Facilitate collaboration amongst key industry role-players and decision makers to address current skills requirements through establishment of a Skills Advisory Forum;
• Enhance trades and artisan development initiatives key to success of industry;
• Developed the AIDC Trade Test Centre located at the Automotive Supplier Park in Rosslyn to offer trade assessments and testing;
• Align operations in lieu of supporting the automotive sector (OEM’s Tier1, 2 & 3 suppliers) and aftermarket sector.

Automotive Supplier Park

The AIDC also provides support to the automotive industry through development and provision of world-class infrastructure facilities at the Automotive Supplier Park (ASP) located in Rosslyn. The objective of the ASP, is to accommodate automotive component manufacturing suppliers and service providers, and therefore reduce the cost of business, through location closer to the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s).

Benefits of the Automotive Supplier Park to automotive industry include:

Strategic location – The ASP is in close proximity to major OEM plants including BMW (3.3km), Nissan/Renault (1.3km), TATA (0.5km), Ford/Mazda (35km) and IVECO (0.5km).

Shared infrastructure, services and facilities – ASP tenants enjoy the benefit of shared infrastructure and value-added services including facilities management, ICT services, centralised security, logistic services, conference facilities, canteen and healthcare facilities.

State-of-the-art ICT infrastructure – ASP provides advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and services. Tenants are offered a wide range of services including affordable routing IP telephony service, broadband internet and email, server access, back-up and data recovery services, ICT support, access control and CCTV monitoring.

World-class production environment: The design of the ASP is modern gardens and common areas.

Turnkey buildings developed to tenant requirements – Factories are developed to tenant requirements and legislative approvals. The design and finishes of the buildings are governed by the ASP’s architectural guidelines and meet international automotive standards.

Logistics networks – ASP tenants benefit from warehousing and distribution services that are rendered by independent service providers. A significant benefit to ASP tenants is a centrally-located container depot, which is able to handle all inbound and outbound container traffic.

Tshwane Automotive City (TAC)

The Tshwane Automotive City (TAC) concept was started in 2008, as a shared vision between Government and the automotive industry, to transform the City of Tshwane into a leading automotive investment destination. The development of the TAC concept has been made possible through the partnership between the Automotive Industry Development Centre, the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and Tshwane Economic Development Agency.

While the TAC concept aims to assist the local automotive industry to become globally competitive by increasing locally manufactured parts and components, it also aims to boost the Gauteng Province’s economy.  The TAC aims to achieve these by attracting both foreign and local direct investment into multi-billion rand infrastructure programmes that will transform the Rosslyn and Tshwane area into the world’s largest multi-OEM Automotive City.

The TAC development aims to emulate well-established motor cities such as ‘The Autostad’ in Wolfsburg, Germany and Toyota Automotive City in Japan. The TAC implementation will result in the creation of an economic engine that will thrust the South African automotive industry into a globally enhanced competitive position. In line with the objectives of the Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP) formulated by the DTI, the TAC programme is also aligned to Gauteng’s objective and multi-pillar programme which includes radical transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation of Gauteng Province.

CONTACT

Company: AIDC Gauteng

Contact: Matema Masemola

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.aidc.co.za