Background – In the Western Cape region of South Africa, the tooling sector generates jobs and income for several thousand workers. However, the South African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that make tools are increasingly outperformed by foreign companies, especially those in China. These firms are able to deliver products that exceed South African performance in both lead time and price.  An entire sector, made up of many individual suppliers, is threatened because of its poor competitiveness in the global market.

Project – The Western Cape Tooling Initiative contracted Swisscontact to implement a Market Development Program for the sector. The prime objectives are to improve the competitiveness of SMEs in the tooling sector and strengthen their market share. The two-phase project started with a thorough analysis of the sector.  This allowed Swisscontact to identify gaps in the skills and expertise of the SMEs and to identify what assistance was needed for the South African toolmakers to produce more reliable tools at a better price and in less time. The second phase of the project engages eight selected companies by providing the owners with support over a five-month period. The specialists who implement the project alongside Swisscontact train and support the SMEs in technical as well as managerial skills. Swisscontact also fosters networking between the tool makers and tool buyers, which consist mainly of factories using custom-designed tools for their production. This can lead to a much stronger South African tooling industry which is able to compete with foreign companies and create more sustainable jobs and income.