Contextualising the Industrial Engineering Body of Knowledge within red-meat cattle production systems in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

South Africa has many cattle farmers providing food security and job creation. Farmers aim to manage their farms to maximise profit while maintaining a sustainable farm to pass on to the next generation. Industrial engineering is a scientific discipline and has tools and technologies that can potentially help farmers. The problem is that Industrial Engineering research has not been aligned with the beef cattle industry, thereby limiting the development of pragmatic solutions to food security challenges. This research aims to contextualise the Industrial Engineering Body of Knowledge (IISE-BOK) within red-meat cattle production systems in KwaZulu-Natal, thus initiating transdisciplinary collaboration between industrial engineering and red-meat cattle production to address food security challenges. This study used a case study approach, limited to the Midlands and Highveld regions of KwaZulu-Natal. To achieve this aim, a scoping review was conducted to identify overlaps in the literature between industrial engineering and beef cattle production. Of the 308 records retrieved across three databases, 95 studies were analysed after screening. The review found that the existing literature focuses on isolated technical problems, with limited evidence of integrated farm-level application. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with 14 cattle farmers, including smallholder and commercial producers. The interview transcripts were analysed inductively using thematic analysis to identify key challenges and their interconnections from a systems perspective. The findings showed that these challenges do not occur in isolation, but are interconnected, often resulting in cascading effects that influence overall farm performance. Afterwards, the interview data were analysed again deductively, using the IISE-BOK as a coding framework to develop an IISE-BOK Cattle Production Contextualisation Matrix (CPCM). This matrix maps the challenges reported by farmers to the relevant industrial engineering knowledge areas, connecting how existing farming practices align with established engineering concepts, even where these are not explicitly recognised. The matrix was evaluated through expert review, where consensus confirmed its validity and relevance. The study showed that many challenges in cattle production correspond to established principles of industrial engineering, but these relationships have not been previously explored. By contextualising IISE-BOK within cattle production systems, this research provides a foundation for future application of Industrial Engineering methods to improve productivity, sustainability, and resilience in the red-meat sector.