Utilisation of wireless versus wired access technologies in the South African food-related manufacturing industry

The primary aim of this research paper is to assess the degree to which wired and wireless technologies are being utilised within the South African food-related manufacturing industry. Literature suggests that companies in industry are faced with the great challenge of selecting an appropriate access technology that is tailored to their specific requirements. As a result, often the incorrect selection is made and difficulty is experienced. This can be due to the ill-consideration of all aspects in access technology that need to be considered. Thus, a qualitative approach was undertaken in an attempt to gain insight into companies´ access technology implementations. This was achieved by means of open ended, semi-structured questions as part of a narrative interview structure. The objective was to identify the utilisation of both wired and wireless access technology and the context in which a specific technology is being employed. The results suggest that while both wired and wireless access technologies are used extensively, limitations are still experienced. It is thus recommended that companies employ failover systems to mitigate costly access technology failures as well as introduce informative procedures to inform companies of appropriate access technologies.