The Manufacturing Excellence Programme aims to enable improved knowledge and application of manufacturing best practices.

The DAC provides individual firm level benchmark assessments to provide firms with insights into their strategic and operational performance, in turn informing the focus of improvement interventions.

The cluster hosts four study tours in the KZN region annually. Each session focuses on a topic relevant to the automotive industry, followed by a guided tour on the topic at a firm/s which perform well in the given area.

The aim of the Quality Circle (QC) programme is to facilitate and encourage an improved focus on QCs as a robust mechanism that supports continuous improvement and enhanced competitiveness at firms, while encouraging a focus on improved processes, quality awareness and communication. All firm participants involved in the sessions are equipped to facilitate a QC at their firms.

Enterprise Development is intrinsically valuable to the automotive industry, in terms of growing the supply base, maintaining and improving B-BBEE levels of existing firms, as well as transforming the sector and introducing new black-owned suppliers. The DAC looks to support various black-owned enterprises in improving their competitiveness and productivity levels.