QUESTION $1[8$ Marks$]$

According to the article, $$The cobalt expansion is largely thanks to billions of dollars of investment by Chinese firms on refineries that dish out a chemical cocktail containing cobalt as well as nickel. The biggest global nickel producer Tsingshan Holding Group, cobalt refining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and the top battery manufacturer known as CATL are among investors.$$

With the aid of a comprehensively labelled diagram of the $$Input$-$Transformation$-$Output$$ process, discuss the operations of a Cobalt refinery. In your discussion, highlight the importance of cobalt as a valuable metal, which is extensively used in a wide range of industrial and military applications and Africa $($i$.$e$.,$ Republic of the Congo$)$ as the leading producer of cobalt globally, the main transformed and transforming inputs, and the outputs of the transformation process. Please note that a generic discussion of the transformation process without relating it to the operations of a Cobalt refinery is not acceptable.

QUESTION $2[12$ Marks$]$

A commodity analyst has made available the following information about the cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of Congo $($DRC$)$ in $2021.$

The country produced $120000$ tonnes of cobalt with the following resources:

Labour:

$1200000$ hours @ R$250\mathrm{.}00$ per hour

Energy:

R$8000000$ per month

Capital costs:

R$160000000$ for the year

Expenditure on suppliers and Supplies:

R$120000000$ for the year

Required:

$2\mathrm{.}1.$ Calculate the labour productivity per labour$-$hour in terms of tonnes of cobalt produced in the DRC during the $2021$ financial year $($round off answer to one decimal place$).$

$2\mathrm{.}2.$ In relations to cobalt production in the DRC during the $2021$ financial year, determine the multifactor productivity. Assume an average selling price of R$60000$ per tonne $($round off the answer to two decimal places$).$

$2\mathrm{.}3.$ Assuming that the capital costs and the energy bill in relations to cobalt production were reduced by $50\%$ and $30\%$ respectively in $2022$ without cutting production or changing any other input, determine the percent change in multifactor productivity? $($Assume an average selling price of R$55000$ per tonne of cobalt in $2022).$

$(3)$

$(4)$

$(5)$

QUESTION $3[10$ Marks$]$

As manufacturing firms seek new ways to develop their service factors to realise more values and increase their competitiveness, servitization of manufacturing continues to be a topic of growing importance and interest to both the research and practice communities. For both communities, an overriding challenge is to understand and manage the transformation processes that manufacturing companies must undergo to compete through services rather than through products alone $($Kowalkowski et al$.,2017$ Baines et al$.,2017).$

Considering the observation above and by scoping the literature on servitization, critically discuss the concept of servitization, the transformation processes that manufacturing firms undergo to successfully servitize their operations. In your discussion, inter alia, highlight the transformation processes, including the significant organisational change involving operating processes, capabilities, and platforms as well as the main industry $4\mathrm{.}0$ technologies highlighted in the literature as enablers of servitization.