M.Tech. (Industrial Engineering) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D. Tech. (Business, Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / The South Africa economy has embraced the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as agents of economic growth and sustainability. However, for SMEs to be more efficient and effective towards the growth of the economy, it is important for SMEs to implement and take cognisance of the global competitive strategy among the so-called “best in class” organisations in order to also sustain and grow their business. The supply chain network with its flexibility has become the most commonly used business strategy worldwide for the improvement of performance in organisations, more especially among larger organisations. In today’s competitive environment, successful organisations are those that have been able to link their business functions within the organisation itself as well as across other businesses outside the organisation. Competitive challenges in the modern business environment have resulted in the need for organisation to integrate business processes strategically across other business units within the supply chain network. Network perspective theory, social network theory, network management theory and relational view theory are discussed to better understand the importance of SMEs supply chain network, flexibility and integration. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of supply chain network, flexibility and integration on the SMEs business performance in the Southern Gauteng region. The research survey was conducted in the Meyerton, Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark and 401 SMEs participated in the study. SPSS 22.0 was used to analyse the data and AMOS 22.0 was used to perform the confirmatory factor analysis. The structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the proposed model fit and to test the statistically significant relationship of the hypothesis. The research study results revealed that supply chain network, flexibility and integration positively influence SMEs business performance. This study contributes new knowledge to the existing literature by providing a research framework that can enhance SMEs performance and also provide practical recommendations based on the research findings for SMEs and for future research. Furthermore, as one of the first studies addressing the influence of supply chain network, flexibility and integration on the performance of SMEs in the southern Gauteng region it has generated new insights and information as well as outlined the strategic reasons for SME owners and managers to improve on their business relationships. / VUT

Small retailers are searching for a basis of competitive advantage to compete against larger retailers. The independent sales representative (rep) may represent such a basis. Little is known about how the role of reps and their performance is perceived by suppliers and retailers. We do not know what is expected from reps, if the reps' performance meets suppliers and retailers expectations, or whether met expectations lead to a basis of competitive advantage. Primarily, the study was designed to identify the role and contributions reps in the interactions between the supplier and retailer in the channel of distribution.

M.Com. (Business Management) / In the field of supply chain, rival organisations compete on the basis of routes to market. The organisation that has the most cost competitive route to market is able to gain dominance and ultimately increase its profitability. Currently Clover is faced with the challenge where its retail customers want to take ownership of the delivery of perishable goods from the manufactures to their retail stores. Such a move would result in considerable loss of revenue to Clover. To retain this business Clover needs to prove to the retail customers that it has the most cost competitive routes to market and that it can deliver to market in the most economical and efficient manner that will benefit both Clover and its retail customers. The availability of appropriate information plays a key role in any activity along the supply chain. This research will focus on Point-of-Sale (POS) data, and how it can strengthen strategic collaborations between Clover and its retail customers in order to achieve cost competitive routes to markets. The research explores the supply chain strategies that can be utilised by the branded food and beverages group to collaborate with its retail customers. The impact of these supply chain strategies on routes to market is established and investigated. The role of information systems, mainly POS data, is highlighted to indicate how it can assist in attaining cost competitive routes to market. A qualitative research approach was adopted in order to solve the research problem with interviews being used as the primary data collection instrument. The data collected through the interviews was coded and analysed according to the themes, time, distance, volume and weight. The research analysed how these identified key themes impact on the cost competitive routes to markets. The research recommendation on how to attain cost competitive routes to market include, strategic collaboration with retailers along distribution channels, where feasible introduction of leaner and agile supply chains,

M. Tech. (Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences) Vaal University of Technology| / The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of knowledge-sharing, business strategy alignment and long-term relationship orientation on supply chain performance in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector. Particularly, the study sought to examine the hypothesis in the context of SME buyers and their suppliers. SMEs are particularly relevant to both developed and developing countries. In South Africa, SMEs are perceived to be an engine for growth for both the economy and the community. As such, the study sought to investigate underlying variables that influence the supply chain performance of SMEs for the purpose of identifying ways in which the Sector can improve performance. A conceptual model was developed, drawing from the theory of relational cohesion. Small and Medium Enterprises in the province of Gauteng, South Africa formed the population of the study. Essentially, the predicting roles of knowledge-sharing and business strategy alignment on the supply chain performance of SMEs were evaluated. Furthermore the mediating role of long-term relationship orientation was examined. A survey was conducted in the cities of Johannesburg, Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark and research data was collected from 341 SMEs. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22 was employed to analyse data as well as Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 22 where Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was undertaken. The results revealed that the research constructs knowledge-sharing, business strategy alignment and long-term relationship orientation influence supply chain performance in a positive way. The findings realized will contribute to the existing body of buyer-supplier relationships literature and increase our knowledge in the field. Pragmatic implications are provided based on the findings as well as recommendations and avenues for future research.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, School of Animal, Plant & Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Global Change Studies. Johannesburg, 2016 / This study examined the retail clothing industry of South Africa and the associated sustainability practices, with particular focus on supply chain management. This study was conducted in order to test the relationship between sustainable supply chains and profitability in the hope that it might provide incentives for managers to adopt sustainability into their supply chain operations. The study made use of a case study analysis through a collection of quantitative and qualitative data of the sample organisations’ integrated reports and financial results to determine if there was a correlation between sustainable business practices and long-term economic profitability. Interviews were also conducted with industry participants in order to gain further insight. The study found that organisations that showed the highest investment along all three pillars of sustainability also experienced the largest and most stable economic growth within the sample. Although this could not be validated due to the limited sample size, the results did infer a positive association between sustainable supply chain management and economic success. It was also found that investing into the social capital of an organisation did have the potential to improve the economic success of an organisation within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. This study identified sustainable supply chain management frameworks that could benefit organisations within this industry financially. Further research is required into this field but it can be inferred that the incorporation of sustainable supply chain management can lend itself towards economic success within the retail clothing industry of South Africa. / LG2017

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / South Africa for more than three decades has been described as the economic capital of Africa because of its level of industrialization, production, interactions and business transactions with other companies locally, nationally, regionally and globally. This situation goes hand in hand with the continual emergence in South Africa of business organizations, notably major international groups or their subsidiaries, other foreign or national large corporations, as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The SME sector has significantly emerged in industries such as retail and manufacturing that produce a wide variety of consumer goods and related services. They produce services and goods that are destined for both local and international consumption. Similarly, they are also sourcing goods and services from local or international suppliers. Consequently, SMEs are involved in a complex supply chain management challenges and are exposed to the chain’s intense logistics activities. The main objective of this study was to determine how outsourcing can improve effectively the logistics performance of wine producing SMEs in the manufacturing sector. The findings from the interviews conducted with 16 personnel responsible for logistics performance from selected small and medium wine producers in Constantia, Stellenbosch, and Paarl, offer support for the assumption that outsourcing is a key to logistics performance in SMEs. The general outcome of the study suggests that logistics performance of SMEs is dependent on their ability to manage outsourcing of logistics services. Thus, knowing beforehand the “what for” of outsourcing is very important determinant for driving logistics performance, especially defining, assessing and measuring the performance objectives the SMEs expect from outsourcing and choosing logistics partners that can meet these objectives.

This research explores the impact of interactive communication on business-to business (B2B) relationships. In the past decade the internet and especially social media as a mode of communication has grown rapidly in both consumer and business markets. Drawing on marketing channels and communications literature this paper identifies the dimensions of interactive communication and develops a theoretical framework to examine their impact on satisfaction, commitment, and advocacy. Media synchronicity theory and the concept of the internet as an alternative to the real world are used to distinguish between digital and non-digital modes of communication. Relationship marketing is used to identify the dimensions of interactivity: rationality, social interaction, contact density, and reciprocal feedback. The framework developed is usedto explore the influence of face-to-face (F2F), digital, and traditional, impersonalcommunications on the dimensions of interactivity.Hypotheses linking the mode of communication: personal, digital, and impersonal with the dimensions of interactivity and relational outcomes are empirically examined with data from the commercial printing and graphic design industry. Confirmatory Factor Analysis is used to analyze the measurement and structural model. Personal, F2F communication has the greatest impact on social interaction, reciprocal feedback, and number of contacts. Digital communication has a weaker effect on these dimensions and impersonal communication has the weakest effect. Personal and Digital have equal impacts on rationality and rationality is the only dimension of interactivity positively associated with relationship satisfaction. Contact density has a negative impact on relationship satisfaction and this negative impact is greater with personal communication that it is with digital. The study shows that affective commitment leads to advocacy in a B2B channel, but trust and calculative commitment have no impact on advocacy. The findings of the study have implications for both managers and researchers regarding the mode and content of communications in B2B relationships. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.

In this dissertation, we aim to investigate some delivery planning problems under different aspects of uncertain conditions in order to present some insights on how to develop more efficient and effective logistics solutions in the challenging, dynamic and competitive industry of express delivery nowadays. / Lastly, we introduce a travel time estimation method which can be considered as an upstream extension on the first delivery planning problem or any routing problems that require travel time in a road network as an input parameter. We realize that different trips may traverse on some links that are transited by other trips as well; and therefore linear and quadratic programming models can be developed to infer the travel time of any road segments which are traversed by more than one trip from the consideration of the common road segments of various trips. Bus routes information is proposed as the data source because of their coverage on the road network and their data available. Robustness of the proposed models is evaluated according to the deviation between the resultant inferences and the means of the segment travel times. It is found that the basic models suffer from a fundamental problem of underspecification issue if the number of observed trips (i.e. constraints) is fewer than the number of road segments (i.e. variables) to be estimated. Therefore, two additional types of constraints are introduced to address these issues. / The focus of the second delivery planning problem addressed in this dissertation is switched to the randomness of the demands at the delivery locations. We consider a single-depot problem in which a large volume of packages have to be delivered in a dense and small area with a lot of high-rise buildings within an extremely tight delivery commitment time window. At each vertex, the package volume (i.e. demand) is a highly stochastic variable and its service time is also dependent on the demand. This version of problem is typically faced by express service providers which offer premium express services to customers that are protected by the money back guarantee (MBG) condition. We name this version of problem as a time-constrained vehicle routing problem with stochastic demands and service times (SVRP-D). Since both the demand and service time of a vertex are stochastic, the vehicle capacity and the commitment-time (i.e. deadline) constraints may not be satisfied after the demands are realized, and recourse action is thus necessary to "rescue" the "infeasible" delivery plan through additional effort and cost. Three typical recourse actions are independently considered: (1) restocking; (2) outsourcing; and (3) reassignment. A two-stage stochastic integer programming is proposed such that the first-stage problem is to determine a set of a priori routes which minimize the vehicle travel cost and the cost for any known recourse actions. Dependent on a first-stage solution, the second-stage problem is to decide the optimal recourse plan with least cost according to the pre-determined recourse action. / Two delivery planning problems and one travel time estimation model under various aspects of randomness are addressed in this dissertation. The first delivery planning problem considers an extension on a well-known problem---the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW), where the travel time required between each delivery location is a stochastic variable, instead of a fixed value. We name this version of the VRPTW as a vehicle routing problem with time windows and stochastic travel times (VRPTWST). A two-stage stochastic integer programming with recourse model is developed and its objective is to minimize the vehicle travel cost together with the expected loss due to the violation of the delivery time windows. An exact branch-and-cut (B&C) algorithm is proposed. This algorithm is effective for small-size problems, e.g. instances with only 8 vertices. For larger-size problems, some modifications on the B&C algorithm are suggested to improve the solution time with only a small deviation from optimality. / Wong Chi Fat. / "May 2007." / Adviser: Janny Leung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-01, Section: B, page: 0596. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-270). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Here, the customer collaborations in product development, their impacts, and contingencies in Chinese manufacturers are explored. A grounded-theory-building cross-case analytic approach is used to acquire a deeper understanding of customer collaboration in product development within the Chinese context. The results show that the firm level analysis in multiple cases helps identify different techniques of customer collaboration in product development. The two coordination dimensions (information exchange and co-development) are clearly demonstrated in three stages (concept generation, project execution, and product usage) and two directions. In particular, it has been found that the focal firms involve cosupplier in the process of customer collaboration. Building on RBV and interorganizational learning theory, a customer collaboration-operational capability model is hereby proposed. Two operational capabilities (supply chain operating capability and integrated product development capability) and contingencies (technology/market familiarity and service proactiveness) are also identified based on case evidences. / In this final study, the impacts of project complexity and novelty on product design collaboration are tested. Three types of involvement activities (customer, supplier, and manufacturing involvement) are identified as product design collaboration in NPD project. A conceptual model is then built based on organizational information processing theory (OIPT). The relationships are tested in the international samples from eight countries, and the results demonstrate the different roles of involvement activities in dealing with project complexity and novelty. Particularly, project complexity has direct impact on manufacturing involvement. Project complexity has indirect impact on customer and supplier involvement through manufacturing involvement. In addition, only project novelty has direct impact on customer and supplier involvement. / In this study, the impacts of internal and external resources, as well as their interactions on the product innovation capability of Chinese manufacturers are investigated. Three internal resources (financial, physical, and human) and two external resources (external expert and cooperated project) are identified as antecedents of firm product innovation capability. The conceptual model is then built based on resource-based view (REV) and absorptive capacity (ACAP). Panel data from the Guangdong Technology and Innovation Assessment Center are used to test the relationships in the model. The results show that internal and external resources have different impacts on product innovation capability. Moreover, the interactions between internal resources and external resources significantly influence product innovation capability. / Study 1: Building Product Innovation Capability of Chinese Manufacturers: A Longitudinal Study / Study 2: Customer Collaboration in Product Development: An Exploratory Study of Manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta of China / Study 3: The Effects of Project Complexity and Novelty on Product Design Collaboration / Supply chain integration and innovation are two highly interrelated strategies firms must apply in order to gain a competitive advantage in the turbulent business environment of today. An increasing number of companies have begun looking beyond their boundaries to explore the use of external resources in creating additional value in their product innovation. Therefore, the process with which firms integrate their supply chain partners in new product development (NPD) has aroused the interest of researchers and practitioners. The three studies in this dissertation address innovation and NPD issues in supply chain management. / study 1. Building product innovation capability of Chinese manufactures: a longitudinal study -- study 2. Customer collaboration in product development: an exploratory study of manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta of China -- study 3. The effects of project complexity and novelty on product design collaboration. / Wang, Zhiqiang. / Adviser: Xiande Zhao. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-143). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.