The fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has brought with it an excess of possibilities for automation within various industry sectors. The 4IR will be achieved by using technology to change the way of life, to change how
products/services are produced/provided by manufacturers and to change the mechanics of globalization significantly if not completely. This new way of life will see many occupations being replaced by automation while completely
new ones are created. In the South African context, there is evidence from the banking sector where, occupations that previously required human consultants for customer queries have been replaced with self-service platforms for
consumers. This phenomenon has led some big companies in SA have plans to close down their call center departments. Additional reports on 4IR point to the unfortunate eventuality of job losses in the auditing, legal and health industries just to name a few. This paper looks into the future of this advanced wave of automation in the context of the South African manufacturing sector. It examines the subject of automation in manufacturing in South Africa, a means to gauge the state of automation compared to global competitors. The intention was to determine how this automation has been implemented on a global scale and how this has eventually affected the human operator. The necessary pre-conditions for automation have been investigated. Their linkages with the levels of automation were examined