Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / The storage and distribution of goods in warehouses have been around for centuries. Information systems and technology have enabled business to run various different functions, like accounting, successfully. Companies soon realised the additional benefits technology can bring to their operations. Increase in product throughput and increase in product range are some of the examples that add additional complexity to the warehousing and distribution functions. In order to cater for the additional complexity, to gain improved customer service levels and gain a strategic advantage in delivering the right product, in the right place at the right time, companies are implementing warehouse management systems (WMS). However, the WMS implementations are complex and involve various different stakeholders. Failed WMS implementations can negatively affect the operations. There are many risks associated with the WMS implementations and many companies have had to issue profit warnings in the past due to failed implementations. Various viewpoints on project success exist but this research report has aimed to provide a framework of key success criteria which organisations can use to evaluate the success of their implementation. Since WMS are generally rolled-out across various sites within a specific supply chain, measuring and evaluating the success of the first project can guide the project team to achieve more project success in the future, eliminating the risks associated with failed implementations. This study clearly defines the difference between project success, project management success, critical success factors and key success criteria. Literature on the topic is limited and therefore this study looked at various sources like peer-reviewed literature, popular literature and case studies. The findings of the report indicate that there is a list of ten different key success criteria which organisations can focus on in order to measure and improve their project success. Taking ownership, change management, managing stakeholder expectations, communication, training and testing are some of the key success criteria that were identified. This study concludes by presenting a framework which organisations can use to measure the success of their WMS implementation.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This report details the critical success factors for consideration in developing a quick response (QR) supply chain strategy for fashion apparel retailers in South Africa. Quick response is the recent supply chain management development that supports a fast fashion business model most evident within the North American and European fashion apparel market. A QR supply chain strategy differs from previous supply chain management principles as it utilises consumer data to create a demand driven network in order to co-ordinate functions through the supply chain. This differs from the standard ‘push’ model evident within the normal fashion apparel cycle and follows a more consumer-centric approach to product demand. The continued success and growth of four of the global fashion apparel, retail organisations as listed by Deloitte’s Global Powers of Retailing 2014 survey, is attributed to the ability of these retailers to respond in season to consumer demand. These leading organisations have effectively adapted and incorporated a QR strategy into their broader competitive offering. South African fashion apparel retailers have recently begun introducing the philosophy and operational strategy of QR to their overriding business strategy, however, current implementation is limited and the full advantages of QR practises in comparison to the northern hemisphere markets is not being realised. Based on the limited amount of local retail and manufacturing QR information, limited availability of sales data for statistical analysis, increasing levels of competition and slow economic growth, a clear understanding of QR is needed. Critically, phased implementation of QR in South Africa requires a clear understanding of the critical success factors (CSF) needed for upfront engagement between retailers and manufacturers. The primary research question was therefore, what are the critical success factors for QR implementation in the South African fashion apparel sector? The purpose of this research was to define a priority list of critical success factors for consideration by defining the scope of QR thinking within business and clarifying the degree and level of application in northern hemisphere markets as lessons for the local sector. Three research aspects were conducted in determining the critical success factors for South Africa. An academic literature review was used to describe the development of QR and identify those factors within the field of supply chain management. This was used to define the scope of questions and themes for interviews with local industry professionals. The results of these interviews were then compared to insights from case studies of global, fast fashion retailers in order to define the priority list of factors. The primary findings for the South African retail sector were: that effective QR implementation should be strongly aligned to the strategic positioning of retail and manufacturing cluster of organisations. Detailed consideration of the benefits for both supply chain members, as well as the level of communication and exchange of information was critical in developing the responsiveness required from the supply chain. Collaborative product design featured frequently within the research and required new processes and organisational structures to be implemented effectively. The findings of the research provide a concise, viable set of factors for retail and manufacturing engagement. These factors can be used to structure long term, sustainable quick response practises to enable greater adoption and implementation within the South African sector. This will encourage more close-to-home product development and enable retailers to better utilise local manufacturing resources while remaining competitive.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

The National Health Service (NHS) is a uruque organisation which expenences continual change, making the management of the supply chain a particularly challenging area. Key relationships at the two ends of the supply pipelines between NHS buyers and their suppliers and between local NHS supplies managers and their customer base are therefore crucially important. Following the 1990 reforms and the introduction of the NHS internal market, an environment has been created in which managers are generally much more cost conscious and customer orientated. The net effect of these changes has been to raise the profile of the buyer-supplier and Supplies Manager-customer relationships. A review of the current literature has highlighted aspects of relationships that can be applied to those within the NHS supply chain as well as identifying some conceptual gaps. Initial exploratory surveys of supplies managers, NHS buyers, suppliers and end customers were undertaken with the emerging themes being further investigated through semi-structured interviews. Two relationship review tools were constructed and an action research approach adopted to evaluate the tools which involved Scottish NHS buyers with their suppliers and Scottish Supplies Managers with their end customers. The experience of the case studies suggest that the tools are a useful way of continually reviewing relationships which is necessary given the dynamic nature of the NHS. The research also suggests that purchasing relationships between NHS buyers and the suppliers currently exist along the whole of the relationship spectrum - from adversarial to partnership type - depending on the influence of particular factors. Both extremes have a place in the NHS buyer's "relationship portfolio", the challenge is to recognise when and how to adopt a particular type. The research suggests that the tool devised specifically for use by NHS Supplies Managers and their customers assists Supplies Managers in their task of identifying a means of ensuring flexible packages of care are offered to meet the increasing expectations of all customers.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa passed in 1996 created three spheres of government - national, provincial and local governments. The local government sphere is at the coal face of service delivery as it is closest to the local communities. The goods and services required by the state to provide services to communities are procured from the private sector. Section 217 of the Constitution stipulates that procurement should be done by a supply chain management system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost effective. The Constitution made provisions for the creation of supply chain management departments in municipalities whose policies would be guided by the ideals of Section 17 of the Constitution. This study explores the nature and role of local government and provides insight into the concept of service delivery in the South African context. The aim of the study was to provide insight into public sector procurement supply chain management in order to determine how an effective supply chain performance management system could possibly improve service delivery by local government. The nature of this study is descriptive and exploratory. Primary data was collected using in-depth interviews with eight participants at four metropolitan cities. The literature review section of this study discusses three aspects: (1) the nature, roles and responsibilities of local government; (2) supply chain management in the public sector; and (3) performance management. The literature review revealed that local government has a constitutional mandate to deliver quality services to communities using effective and efficient supply chain management processes. Monitoring of and reporting on projects is critical as it informs future planning and budgeting. Feedback is given on progress and where necessary control measures are introduced to ensure effective service delivery to local communities. The findings of this study indicate that all the participating cities follow the prescribed requirements of the Public Finance Management Act, Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act amongst others. Challenges identified include: weak internal controls, inadequate contracts management, lack of performance monitoring and reporting, lack of proper and integrated planning, and unresponsive supply chain processes. It is suggested that internal controls need to be strengthened in all areas of supply chain management. Personnel should be held accountable for their actions at all times. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

This study addresses how transformational organisational change can be enabled by dispersing and distributing leadership to change teams. It responds to the research challenge set by Caldwell (2003; 2005) to investigate change teams and explores issues raised by some authors that understanding of dispersed change agency (Buchanan et al., 2007) and distributed leadership (Gronn, 2002) may offer some insights regarding the management of complex organisational change processes. The study focuses on the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in a Multi-National Corporation (MNC). It is accepted that failure rates for this type of technological change process are high and that most ERP implementations fail to achieve their objectives (Caruso, 2007; Aiken & Keller, 2009). In this study, a processual methodology (Pettigrew, 1985: Dawson, 1994; 2003) was employed and qualitative methods used, to unravel the complexity and develop rich and critical insight into the roles, relationships and competencies of three types of change teams. Research findings identify how change leadership was dispersed to three types of change team and how this led to rapid ERP implementation which was judged as ‘on time and in budget’. From this analysis, we develop a typology of change teams which identifies three types of change team: a control team; translation team; and a trouble shooting team. This typology characterises their roles, competencies and optimum conditions for interaction. In particular, we demonstrate how change teams working in concert demonstrate specific competencies, use complementary methods and employ specific political tactics to enable rapid improvisation of the implementation strategy and the ERP software.

The purpose of this study was to investigate supply chain relationships within the apparel retail product development process under a single site case study setting. Relationship determinants (i.e. drivers, facilitators and barriers) that facilitated or impeded the degree of collaborative efforts between the retailer and the supply chain members were identified. As the retailer integrated its product development process with its suppliers, a triangular relationship was formed between the retailer, the overseas manufacturers, and the designated suppliers. The study found that the retailer sought operational efficiency in its business relationships with supply chain members, but continued to seek long-term commitment in these relationships to establish a virtual vertical company.

Effective supply chain management gains much attention from industry and academia because it helps firms across a supply chain to reduce cost and improve customer service level efficiently. Focusing on one of the key challenges of the supply chains, namely, demand uncertainty, this dissertation extends the work of Zhao, Xie, and Leung so as to examine the effects of forecasting method selection coupled with information sharing on supply chain performance in a dynamic business environment. The results of this study showed that under various scenarios, advanced forecasting methods such as neural network and GARCH models play a more significant role when capacity tightness increases and is more important to the retailers than to the supplier under certain circumstances in terms of supply chain costs. Thus, advanced forecasting models should be promoted in supply chain management. However, this study also demonstrated that forecasting methods not capable of modeling features of certain demand patterns significantly impact a supply chain's performance. That is, a forecasting method misspecified for characteristics of the demand pattern usually results in higher supply chain costs. Thus, in practice, supply chain managers should be cognizant of the cost impact of selecting commonly used traditional forecasting methods, such as moving average and exponential smoothing, in conjunction with various operational and environmental factors, to keep supply chain cost under control. This study demonstrated that when capacity tightness is high for the supplier, information sharing plays a more important role in effective supply chain management. In addition, this study also showed that retailers benefit directly from information sharing when advanced forecasting methods are employed under certain conditions.