KGOMOTSO MAKAKASE: Senior Manufacturing Manager at Hesto Harnesses

#AutomotiveAllies: Kgomotso Makakase, nominated by Mahesh Iyavoo and Rajen Naidoo, is a Senior Manufacturing Manager at HESTO Harnesses. Kgomotso holds 21 years of experience in Learning and Development in the telecommunication, transport, food and automotive sectors. In 2017, Kgomotso’s career took a turn as she took a leap of faith into the unknown and began a career in manufacturing as a Senior Manufacturing Manager. This is a position Kgomotso has held for three years.

Kgomotso’s thoughts on #ThingsIWishIKnew and #TheFutureIsFemale:

#ThingsIWishIKnew: Team effort and or a multidisciplinary team is key to achieve great results for achieving efficiencies, engineering changes, model changes and KAIZEN improvements. Become a learning organisation and share information. We are all important pieces of a puzzle and together we complete the puzzle effortlessly.

Kgomotso’s advice to other women in the sector:

• He who risks nothing achieves nothing. Life is about risk. Sometimes you don’t need to take that calculated risk but you need determination, passion, resilience and open mind to take you through the journey of the unknown.
• Understand your strengths and use them daily to do your job, then you will love what you are doing.
• Do not hurry the process. Take one step at a time. Time is a good teacher, builder of character, refiner of skills and fountain of knowledge.
• Know and understand who you are, you are unique, stand firm and focus.