NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

• Corne Schutte Editor: SAJIE Department of Industrial Engineering, Stellenbosch University http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0119-720X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7166/30-2-2223

Abstract

“You are all dreamers. You are wonderful dreamers and visionaries that want to be creators. You are deeply immersed in the future and understand the power of turning dreams intoreality.”

- Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa

The above quote, from President Ramaphosa speaks to the hearts and souls of every engineer in the world.

Never before have Industrial Engineers been better positioned to make a change that affects our future as a community. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has become a popular focus of today. At the Digital Economy Summit in July, the President said the South African (SA) government had committed itself to a skills revolution that will give SA the human capital required in the digital economy. Technical orientated subjects that will now form a part of our school curriculum are Data Science; Digital Content Production; 3D Printing; Cybersecurity; Drone Piloting; Software Development; and Cloud Computing. It is exciting that Industrial Engineers are already in the forefront of many of these technologies, and that our visionary Industrial Engineering schools are already focusing on many of these topics.

SAIIE is organising its annual conference for 30 September to 2 October – this time in Port Elizabeth. The theme for the conference supports Ramaphosa’s vision. From the very creative Call for Papers:
“Industrial engineering professionals are very tall people, with their feet firmly on the ground and their dreamy heads in the clouds. To express this duality, we introduce our theme:

• Real Alternatives, every day industrial engineering, designing and implementing solutions that make a difference, and
• Alternative Realities, our dream-scape in which we can build on our futurist ideas and conceive a world undreamt before.

SAIIEneXXXt brings together the finest thinkers, doers, dreamers and learners in the field of making things run better.”

As in the 3 previous years, we plan to continue with a special edition in 2019, where the best contributions in this conference, identified during the peer review process, are selected for the Special Edition.

This second edition of SAJIE for 2019 includes 14 articles. Of the 14 articles, eight are from authors with South African connections and the balance from international authors.

If you have suggestions on how we can take this journal forward, please let me know.

C.S.L. Schutte: Editor