Thesis - Hamburg, Helmut-Schmidt-Univ.,2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. Nr. 3472 Wirtschaftswiss. St. Gallen. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 2003. / "January 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 400-422).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 329-344).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-174).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--George Washington University, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [411]-422).

Thesis (M.Eng.)(Industrial)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Summaries in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1933. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [371]-[373]).

The modern automobile industry faces an increasing demand on personalized high quality products. In order to stay competitive the automobile manufacturers have to ensure the customers high quality demands. With the increasing amount of applied parts and components manufacturing processes are becoming more complex. The recent quality assurance of the manufacturers considers only the product quality. Furthermore are with the recent quality assurance methods only punctual integrations of quality assurance tools in production chains possible. These limitations cause a large quality control loop. This leads in case of defective parts to an enormous time and money effort to track the cause for the defect. This project presents an innovative measurement strategy of quality assurance within the modern automobile production which will minimize the control loop and identify the tool causing the defect in the part. It highlights the possibility to integrate equipment for quality assurance directly into the production cell itself and analyse the geometrical conditions within the manufacturing processes. The result of this thesis is a fully automated prototype which is installed into the actual production of the Volkswagen Golf assembly. The prototype system consists on the one hand out of different on the market free available hardware and software components. On the other hand there are specifically for this prototype developed hardware components and software tools. For the first time it is possible to inspect the geometrical conditions of one tool continuously during production and identify, if occurring, deviations in the tool in position direction and size. The installation of similar systems in the production will minimize the control loops of the production. The chance of early recognition of errors will reduce the efforts and cost of error backtracking. In ideal conditions this instrument will identify defective tools before a product is manufactured. This innovative quality tool is the ideal addition to the current quality assurance and is the first link between the product quality and the geometrical conditions of the tools.

M.Comm. / The subject of the study is the way in which the coordinated marketing-logistics interface through the fourteen coordination techniques creates a sustainable competitive advantage. The investigation is limited to the passenger car manufactures in South Africa (SA). The literature has acknowledged that marketing and logistics are inseparable and managers from these functions have been working on the relationship in order to use it as a competitive advantage strategy. The fourteen marketing-logistics interface coordination techniques were identified in order to assist these managers to improve the interface and increase the level of cooperation with the intention of achieving a sustainable competitive through the interface. The use of fourteen marketing-logistics interface was not tested during the identification process of such techniques and it is important to find out if they are used in the passenger car industry in SA. Each of the fourteen coordination techniques differs on the basis of the level of use in the passenger car manufacturing organisations. Some techniques are mostly used in organisations than others. For example, top management support and information sharing are mostly used in these organisations while unified department and third-party intervention are not used and there is no plan to use them. There are techniques that have very high- to-high impact on the interface. It is important for the organisations to focus on those techniques that have very high and high impact on the interface since this can assist in improving cooperation between marketing and logistics and create the interface that can serve as a way to a sustainable competitive advantage. The level of cooperation between marketing and logistics functions in the manufacturing organisations in the passenger car industry was measured followed by questions relating to the use, the impact and the importance of the fourteen marketing-logistics interface coordination techniques in order to build and improve the cooperation and create a sustainable competitive advantage through the interface. Other techniques, except the predetermined fourteen techniques were identified however most respondents stated that organisations use the fourteen existing techniques. Some techniques such as a top management support, joint outings and information sharing were mostly used by organisations. It is interesting to note that mostly used does not imply that the technique has a high to very high impact on the interface. Although joint outing is mostly used it was found to have a moderate impact on the marketing-logistics interface. Recommendations provided should be applied in order to identify the difference in cooperation between marketing and logistics before and after the study. The marketing-logistics interface coordination can be a strategic tool for creating a sustainable competitive advantage if there is high level of cooperation between marketing and logistics through the use of coordination techniques.