Submitted in partial fulfillment of Master’s Degree in Management Sciences (Business and Administration), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa (SA) contribute significantly to job creation, wealth, social stability and economic growth. Growth is stimulated endogenously, through motivation, while employment is a natural consequence of a larger number of SMEs as well as the expansion of small businesses into larger enterprises. Although it has been noted that SMEs are viable avenues through which jobs can be created, relatively few studies have explicitly investigated the link between intrinsic motivation and small business growth; this study filled the gap by exploring the impact of intrinsic motivation on SMEs’ growth. This is particularly important when one considers that the failure rate of SMEs in SA is very high and it is of great importance to investigate the factors that can impact on the growth of SMEs. Why some individuals are more successful in business than others is a major question in SME research. The common view is that there are a numbers of factors involved related to the entrepreneur or business owners and the business and the business environment. Building on the concept of human capital and psychological theories, this study investigated the influence of intrinsic motivational factors in SME business growth in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area, in South Africa. The target population for this study was SMEs in the furniture manufacturing sector. Based on census study, the sample size of the study was 68 owners of SMEs in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area. Both primary and secondary data sources were used in the study. A quantitative research design was adopted to conduct this research. The survey method, by way of a self-administered questionnaire, was used to collect primary data. Various techniques such as descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variances (ANOVA), factor analysis, Chi-square, and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings of this study revealed that intrinsic motivational factors of SME managers positively impact on the growth of SMEs in SA. The findings further revealed that creativity and necessary entrepreneurial skills influence implementation of sustainable growth of SMEs, and the entrepreneur’s success depends on the identification of crucial entrepreneurial skills for starting a business as well as for helping the business to survive and grow in the early years. Therefore, capacity building for SME owners to sustain business growth is recommended. / M

A importância da inovação, para o desenvolvimento socioeconômico de uma região, reside na capacidade de transformação econômica, porém é necessário que a empresa adote a inovação como parte de sua estratégia e que isto esteja atrelado a um padrão setorial de comportamento inovador para ampliar a capacidade competitiva da organização, neste sentido o Arranjo Produtivo local (APL) tem um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento das empresas e da região. A inovação tem sido tema de estudos em vários setores da atividade econômica, emergindo como resposta à melhoria da performance competitiva das organizações. As empresas, na busca de uma melhor posição no mercado, se valem da inovação, utilizando e desenvolvendo novas tecnologias, produtos, serviços e métodos de gestão. A indústria moveleira do Rio Grande do Sul tem seu principal APL situado na Serra Gaúcha. Neste contexto do setor moveleiro, a utilização racional de recursos estratégicos e a geração de .inovações têm sido usados como meio de manter e ampliar a posição de mercado das organizações, portanto o tema fundamental desta Tese é a inovação de produto e os recursos estratégicos sob a ótica da resource based view, em uma perspectiva destes tornarem-se fonte geradora de vantagem competitiva sustentável. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral mensurar e analisar a relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas da indústria moveleira, na perspectiva da vantagem competitiva. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa é um estudo do tipo quantitativo, descritivo, através de uma survey. Os meios de investigação utilizados para a coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de uma entrevista estruturada, com um questionário aplicado a 423 empresas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (Structural Equation Modeling). Através de resultados aferidos nesta pesquisa, obteve-se a análise da relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas no APL Moveleiro da Serra Gaúcha. A contribuição para as pesquisas acadêmicas deste estudo reside nos resultados obtidos para avaliar a relação entre os recursos específicos (Sistema de Informação, Pessoas, Gestão do Conhecimento, Aliança) com a inovação de produto e deste com o Sucesso do Novo Produto. No estudo empírico observou-se que a inovação de produto é resultado do uso de recursos, os quais configuram antecedentes da inovação. A comunidade empresarial encontra neste estudo um método para avaliar os antecedentes de inovação de produto, considerando que as empresas possuem recursos capazes de produzir inovações e impactar na performance frente a outras organizações. Neste estudo as empresas da indústria moveleira encontram informações relativas ao uso de recursos estratégicos, que ampliam a capacidade inovativa. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-11-24T12:01:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Julio Cesar Ferro de Guimaraes.pdf: 3922205 bytes, checksum: 97076280ed29fd0f8fc28102e198497f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-24T12:01:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Julio Cesar Ferro de Guimaraes.pdf: 3922205 bytes, checksum: 97076280ed29fd0f8fc28102e198497f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES. / The importance of innovation to socio-economic development of a region, lies in the ability of economic transformation; but it is necessary that a company adopt innovation as part of its strategy and that this is linked to an industry standard for innovative behavior, to expand its competitive capacity. In this sense a Local Productive Arrangement (LPA). Has a key role in the development of the enterprises and the region. Innovation has been the subject of stuc\ies in various sectors ofthe economic activity, emerging as a response to improve the competitive performance of organizations. The companies, in search of a better market position, believe that innovation is worth using and develop new technologies, products, services and management methods. The furniture industry of Rio Grande do Sul has its rnain LPA located in Serra Gaúcha. In the context of the furniture sector, the rational use of strategic resources and the generation of innovations has been used as a means to maintain and expand the 'market position of organizations; so the fundamental theme of this thesis is to study product innovation and strategic resources from the perspective of resource based view, as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This research aims to measure and analyze the overall relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies in APL Furniture Serra Gaúcha, from the perspective of competitive advantage. The methodology used in this research is a quantitative and descriptive study, through a survey. Means of investigation used for data collection occurred through' structured interviews with a questionnaire to 423 companies. For data analysis, was used Structural Equation Modeling methods. Through the results, was obtained the analysis of lhe relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies of the furniture industry. The contribution of this study for future academic research lies in the results obtained to assess the relationship between specific resources (System lnformation, Human Resource, Knowledge Management, Alliance) with product innovation and with New Product Development Success. The empirical study showed that product innovation is a result of the use of resources, which constitute the conditions for innovation. The business community will find from this study a new method to evaluate the history of product innovation, considering that companies have resources capable of producing innovations and impact performance against other organizations. From this study, the firm's furniture industry finds information on the use of strategic resources, which increase the innovative capacity.

A importância da inovação, para o desenvolvimento socioeconômico de uma região, reside na capacidade de transformação econômica, porém é necessário que a empresa adote a inovação como parte de sua estratégia e que isto esteja atrelado a um padrão setorial de comportamento inovador para ampliar a capacidade competitiva da organização, neste sentido o Arranjo Produtivo local (APL) tem um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento das empresas e da região. A inovação tem sido tema de estudos em vários setores da atividade econômica, emergindo como resposta à melhoria da performance competitiva das organizações. As empresas, na busca de uma melhor posição no mercado, se valem da inovação, utilizando e desenvolvendo novas tecnologias, produtos, serviços e métodos de gestão. A indústria moveleira do Rio Grande do Sul tem seu principal APL situado na Serra Gaúcha. Neste contexto do setor moveleiro, a utilização racional de recursos estratégicos e a geração de .inovações têm sido usados como meio de manter e ampliar a posição de mercado das organizações, portanto o tema fundamental desta Tese é a inovação de produto e os recursos estratégicos sob a ótica da resource based view, em uma perspectiva destes tornarem-se fonte geradora de vantagem competitiva sustentável. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo geral mensurar e analisar a relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas da indústria moveleira, na perspectiva da vantagem competitiva. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa é um estudo do tipo quantitativo, descritivo, através de uma survey. Os meios de investigação utilizados para a coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de uma entrevista estruturada, com um questionário aplicado a 423 empresas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a Modelagem de Equações Estruturais (Structural Equation Modeling). Através de resultados aferidos nesta pesquisa, obteve-se a análise da relação entre a inovação de produto e os recursos utilizados pelas empresas no APL Moveleiro da Serra Gaúcha. A contribuição para as pesquisas acadêmicas deste estudo reside nos resultados obtidos para avaliar a relação entre os recursos específicos (Sistema de Informação, Pessoas, Gestão do Conhecimento, Aliança) com a inovação de produto e deste com o Sucesso do Novo Produto. No estudo empírico observou-se que a inovação de produto é resultado do uso de recursos, os quais configuram antecedentes da inovação. A comunidade empresarial encontra neste estudo um método para avaliar os antecedentes de inovação de produto, considerando que as empresas possuem recursos capazes de produzir inovações e impactar na performance frente a outras organizações. Neste estudo as empresas da indústria moveleira encontram informações relativas ao uso de recursos estratégicos, que ampliam a capacidade inovativa. / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, CAPES. / The importance of innovation to socio-economic development of a region, lies in the ability of economic transformation; but it is necessary that a company adopt innovation as part of its strategy and that this is linked to an industry standard for innovative behavior, to expand its competitive capacity. In this sense a Local Productive Arrangement (LPA). Has a key role in the development of the enterprises and the region. Innovation has been the subject of stuc\ies in various sectors ofthe economic activity, emerging as a response to improve the competitive performance of organizations. The companies, in search of a better market position, believe that innovation is worth using and develop new technologies, products, services and management methods. The furniture industry of Rio Grande do Sul has its rnain LPA located in Serra Gaúcha. In the context of the furniture sector, the rational use of strategic resources and the generation of innovations has been used as a means to maintain and expand the 'market position of organizations; so the fundamental theme of this thesis is to study product innovation and strategic resources from the perspective of resource based view, as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This research aims to measure and analyze the overall relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies in APL Furniture Serra Gaúcha, from the perspective of competitive advantage. The methodology used in this research is a quantitative and descriptive study, through a survey. Means of investigation used for data collection occurred through' structured interviews with a questionnaire to 423 companies. For data analysis, was used Structural Equation Modeling methods. Through the results, was obtained the analysis of lhe relationship between product innovation and the resources used by companies of the furniture industry. The contribution of this study for future academic research lies in the results obtained to assess the relationship between specific resources (System lnformation, Human Resource, Knowledge Management, Alliance) with product innovation and with New Product Development Success. The empirical study showed that product innovation is a result of the use of resources, which constitute the conditions for innovation. The business community will find from this study a new method to evaluate the history of product innovation, considering that companies have resources capable of producing innovations and impact performance against other organizations. From this study, the firm's furniture industry finds information on the use of strategic resources, which increase the innovative capacity.

Text in Afrikaans / Professionele etiek word nie altyd in ag geneem met besigheidsbesluite nie. Die vordering van kredietversekeringspremies is waarskynlik 'n voorbeeld daarvan. Die uitneem van kredietversekering is dikwels 'n voorwaarde vir die verlening van krediet deur sommige meubelhandelaars. Geweldige finansiele voordele wat voortspruit uit kredietversekeringskemas lei tot uitbuiting van die publiek deur sekere meubelhandelaars. Die verskillende kredietversekeringskemas wat in die meubelhandel toegepas word, voldoen nie aan die vereistes van die Woekerwet, 1968, en die Versekeringswet, 1943, nie. Hierdie oortredings het dikwels 'n wesenlike uitwerking op die geopenbaarde finansiele inligting van verskeie meubelhandelaars. Dit is die ouditeur se verantwoordelikheid om die statutere vereistes met die vordering van kredietversekeringspremies in ag te neem, aangesien dit 'n onwettige optrede, asook 'n onreelmatigheid kragtens algemeen aanvaarde ouditstandaarde is. Die ouditeur behoort toepaslik verslag te doen oor gevolglike wanvoorstellings van die finansiele inligting van die betrokke meubelhandelaars. Hierdie verantwoordelikheid word egter nie deur alle ouditeure nagekom nie. / The taking out of credit insurance is often a condition for the granting of credit by certain furniture traders. Enormous financial gains arising from credit insurance schemes result in exploitation of the public by certain furniture traders. Various credit insurance schemes in the furniture trade contravene the Usury Act, 1968, and the Insurance Act, 1943. These contraventions often materially affect financial information disclosed by certain furniture traders. It is the auditor's responsibility to consider the statutory requirements for the collection of credit insurance premiums, as this is an illegal act and an irregularity in terms of general accepted auditing standards. The auditor's duty is to appropriately report on resulting misrepresentations of financial information of such furniture traders. Some auditors however, do not comply with this responsibility. / Auditing / M. Compt. (Auditing)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:40:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gregory Adad Kravchenko.pdf: 2387737 bytes, checksum: 7f0d123085ec774cc12e9dfdfa8d022f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-20 / The furniture industry employs as raw material inputs that come from renewable resources such as wood, natural fibers, leather and also non-renewable materials such as metals, glass, polymers and chemicals. All these inputs are directly related to a major postproduction waste generation by the industries that may cause soil and water sources contamination and generate air pollutants. The technologies end-of-pipe are no longer sufficient to evolve toward sustainability and an efficient proactive stance is needed like the environment integration throughout the product development process, one of the Industrial Ecology s role. This paper attempts to trace the panorama about the environmental issue in the furniture industry, especially about the use of raw materials and the waste disposal during production, and above all, analyzing its destination. Based on environmental concepts of Eco- Efficiency, Ecodesign and Environmental Management System, a review of the literature was held in order to analyze the most relevant strategies and tools of industrial processes, supporting a quantitative research about the furniture production market of the State of Goiás. The evaluation of the research shows that the practice of Industrial Ecology is poorly employed inside the industries studied and they don t follow the applicable law strictly, highlighting the lack of information about the influence that their activity can cause to the environment and about the actions that can be implemented aiming the integration of industries and nature on behalf of sustainability. / As indústrias moveleiras utilizam como matérias-primas insumos que provêm de recursos naturais renováveis como as madeiras, fibras naturais, couros e também de materiais não renováveis como os metais, vidros, polímeros e químicos. Todos estão diretamente relacionados a geração de resíduos pós-produção pelas indústrias, podendo causar contaminações do solo, dos mananciais hídricos ou gerando poluentes atmosféricos. As tecnologias de fim-de-tubo já não são suficientes para evoluir em direção à sustentabilidade, fazendo-se necessárias atitudes proativas eficientes como a integração do meio ambiente ao longo do processo de desenvolvimento dos produtos, uma função da Ecologia Industrial. Este trabalho busca traçar o panorama acerca da questão ambiental junto às indústrias moveleiras, sobretudo com o uso da matéria-prima na fase de produção e no descarte dos resíduos, analisando principalmente sua destinação. Utilizando como premissas os conceitos ambientais da Ecoeficiência, Ecodesign e de Sistema de Gestão Ambiental, foi realizada a revisão da literatura com o objetivo de conhecer as estratégias e as ferramentas relevantes para os processos industriais, subsidiando a realização de uma pesquisa quantitativa com o setor produtivo de móveis do Estado de Goiás. As análises desta pesquisa demonstraram que as práticas da Ecologia Industrial são pouco empregadas nas indústrias avaliadas e que não há cumprimento íntegro da legislação aplicável, evidenciando a carência de informações sobre a influência que sua atividade produtiva pode causar ao meio ambiente e sobre as ações que podem ser implementadas com o objetivo de integrar as indústrias e a natureza em prol da sustentabilidade.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:36:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 11 / Nenhuma / No Brasil existem cerca de cinco milhões de micro e pequenas empresas, grande parte destas não tem conhecimento do comércio internacional. Até há pouco tempo, atuar em mercados externos era para as grandes empresas. Hoje, os pequenos negócios estão ganhando espaço e exportando seus produtos para diferentes países. Sabe-se da limitação de recursos financeiros, de pessoal e informações que impedem o crescimento destas em atuar no mercado externo. No entanto, estas barreiras podem ser superadas através de alianças estratégicas. Este estudo busca analisar a internacionalização de nove empresas, a partir de um consórcio de exportação no setor de móveis, situado na Serra Gaúcha. O consórcio de exportação é um tipo de aliança estratégica, no qual empresas de pequeno porte buscam através de uma união solucionarem problemas comuns. O método seguido neste trabalho é o estudo de caso. Para a sua elaboração foram entrevistados o presidente e o gerente de vendas do consórcio, dois diretores e dois gerentes de exportação / There are approximately five millions of small companies in Brazil. Among them, the majority have no knowledge on international markets. Until recently, only large companies sought to develop actions related to internationalization. Today, small businesses also are seeking this type of opportunity through exports to different countries. It is well known that the scarcity of financial resources, skilled people and information are constraints for these companies. However, those constraints may be overcome through strategic alliances. This study aims to analyze the internationalization of an export consortium from the furniture industry located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The export consortium is a type of strategic alliance. One of this objective is to face shared problems. The research method was a case study. We interviewed: the chairman and the sales manager of the consortium; two directors and two export managers from the companies of the consortium; and two directors of companies that no lo

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T18:39:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 29 / Nenhuma / O objetivo deste trabalho é o de analisar aspectos favorecedores e dificultadores aos processos de aprendizagem que ocorrem durante a internacionalização de um grupo de empresas moveleiras da Região da Serra do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil). Os casos das empresas participantes do estudo e sua internacionalização são descritos. Os processos de aprendizagem organizacional e interorganizacional vinculados à internacionalização são descritos com base no modelo dos “4Is” e nas relações entre processos de aprendizagem e estágios de internacionalização. O estudo de caso é de natureza exploratória e descritiva e a estratégia de pesquisa é um estudo de caso único incorporado, com 4 unidades de análise. A descrição dos processos de internacionalização sugere que as empresas adotam a perspectiva da aprendizagem experiencial como estratégia de internacionalização. Para o processo de intuição – prospecção de oportunidades, a exportação aparece como opção a ser considerada. Para o processo de interpretação e integra / The objective of this work is to analyze aspects that support and impose difficulties to the processes of learning that occur during the internationalization on a group of furniture companies from Mountains Region of Rio Grande do Sul state (Brazil). The participant of the study companies’ cases and its internationalization are described. The processes of organizational and interorganizational learning tied to the internationalization are described based on “4Is” model and in the relations between processes of learning and stages of internationalization. The case study is of exploratory and descriptive nature and the research strategy is a study of an incorporated single case, with 4 analysis units. The description of the internationalization processes suggests that the companies adopt the perspective of the experiential learning as an internationalization strategy. For the intuition process – opportunity prospection, the exportation appears as an option to be considered. For the interpretation and integratio

This dissertation examines the material culture of the Sino-British furniture trade in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the British East India Company began importing a large quantity of furniture made in Canton (Guangzhou), China. As the trade between Britain and China became standardized around 1720, this furniture became a part of the private trade carried out by merchants associated with Company. Unlike other objects of the China trade that fed into the vogue of chinoiserie, export furniture crafted with hardwoods from the Indian Ocean was produced in European designs of the time and thus was often indistinguishable from its Western counterparts. What cultural and economic values did export furniture represent in the early modern maritime trade and how did it reify the trans-regional movement of knowledge and taste between China and Britain? Going beyond the conventional perspective on export Chinese objects oriented toward European reception, I connect production with consumption in order to follow the trajectory of export furniture from its origins in the intra-Asian timber trade to its requisition and manufacture in Canton to its reception and use in both Britain and China, highlighting how this process linked the disparate spheres of commerce, knowledge production and distribution, and cultural practices. In the course of exploring these multiple dimensions of the object’s material life, this dissertation underscores export furniture’s bicultural and transcultural characteristics. Utilizing diverse sets of visual, material, and textual sources, each chapter of the dissertation investigates different aspects of the movement of furniture as an assemblage. Chapter 1 reconstructs the itinerary of export furniture as a commodity from the EIC timber trade between India and China to the ordering and shipping of the furniture for the British market. I show how the character of export furniture was shaped by the constraints of space and the economic, environmental, and epistemic contingencies of long distance travel and communication. Chapter 2 examines the influence of imported Asian rosewood – an important cabinet timber from which most hardwood Chinese export furniture was made – on early modern British arboreal knowledge. If the knowledge of rosewood in the seventeenth century was grounded in classical texts that defined it as a subshrub growing in the eastern Mediterranean region, in the eighteenth century the term came to refer to a hardwood species imported from tropical Asia. I argue that this change allowed rosewood to obtain a new status as a universal category in the botanical taxonomy, which collected, pruned, and ordered heterogeneous cultural and natural information associated with it into a neatly classified “cabinet” of universal knowledge. Chapter 3 returns to Canton to investigate Cantonese cabinetmakers and the production of export furniture. By reading the joinery of extant export furniture pieces, I show how Chinese artisans recreated foreign forms by mobilizing their embodied knowledge of craft rather than by imitating European joinery constructions. The details of this material translation not only reflect the flexibility and resilience of traditional Chinese craft but also illuminate the tacit knowledge and craft patterns of early modern Chinese artisans. Chapters 4 and 5 turn to the domain of consumption in Britain and China, respectively. Chapter 4 explores how Chinese cabinets were experienced in early modern Britain. Comparing lacquered and hardwood display cabinets, I show that Chinese cabinets were not just exotic objects; they played an active role in the evolution of the cabinet as a type of furniture in the domestic material culture and created an affective space both within themselves and in their ambient space that invited the bodily experience and imagination of the user-beholder. The final chapter examines the movement and adaptation of European round tables in mid-Qing Chinese material culture. Introduced by European mariners to Canton, the round tables quickly found their niche in local everyday life and eventually spread beyond Guangdong. I show how they partook in the formation of a new social dining practice that conveyed a new political vision of equality. As a whole, my dissertation argues that export furniture was a Eurasian object that embodied cross-cultural knowledge of craft and nature, and engendered new ideas of utility and sociability.

O setor de produção de móveis residenciais em madeira e derivados remodelou-se ao longo das duas últimas décadas, na década de 90 através da ampliação do comércio mundial de móveis e componentes, e a partir de 2000 pela ampliação do mercado interno. O presente trabalho pretendeu traçar um panorama atual desta produção no Brasil, voltada ao mercado interno, identificando sua base produtiva, fornecimento de insumos, produção e comercialização. Buscou-se reconhecer a dinâmica setorial e localizar no processo produtivo o desenvolvimento e apropriação de inovações. As investigações identificaram o paradigma produtivo atual (que tem como base o uso de painéis de madeira reconstituída, principalmente MDF e MDP), os critérios de diferenciação de produtos (por estratos sociais) e a interação entre os agentes. Procurou-se relacionar estas características à formação histórica do setor. / The branch of industry for the production of residential furniture made out of wood and derivatives was restructured on the last two decades, in the 90\'s through the widening of international trade, and from 2000 on, through the growth of the internal market. The purpose of this work is to present an overview of this production in Brazil, nowadays targeted to the internal market, and identify its productive basis, the supply of inputs and raw materials, production itself and sale. An attempt was made to follow the branch\'s dynamics, and to seek and localize the development and appropriation of innovative practices along the whole process. The investigations revealed: the current productive paradigm based on the generalized use of reconstituted wood (mainly medium density fiberboard - MDF, and medium density particleboard - MDP); the criteria for product differentiation according to social strata and the interaction between the agents involved in the productive process. There was also a concern in locating historically these recent changes undergone in the branch.

Denna magisteruppsats har genomförts vid Spaljisten AB och behandlar produktionsfilosofin Lean-produktion och produktionskonceptet TPM. Huvudobjektet för studierna var en maskinlinje för sågning, kantlistning, fräsning och borrning av planmöbeldetaljer (Homag VI). En nulägesanalys genomfördes för att kartlägga stopporsaker och OEE-talet (35,9 %). Inom samtliga klasser av stopptider är det framförallt kortvariga avbrott (81 %), vilket tyder på kroniska fel i linjen. Tillsammans med maskinlinjens personal genomfördes en störningsanalys (Ishikawadiagram). Nulägesanalys och störningsanalys visar på en förbättringspotential av 33 % för ökad tillgänglighet. Vidare genomfördes en SMED-analys där själva analysarbetet genomfördes tillsammans med personalen av maskinlinjen. Vid en närmare analys kunde det föreslås en klassificering av IED respektive OED samt förenklingar som innebär en minskning av tidsåtgången med 55 min. och 43 sek för omställningen. Utöver detta studerades bland annat verktyg som Lean-uppstart och kommunikation, operatörsunderhåll, 5S och ständiga förbättringar. Det genomfördes en effektivitetsanalys av förbättringsgruppenverksamheten. Vid den sistnämnda analysen konstaterades motivationsproblem hos personalen, som har sin huvudförklaring i ett saknande av en organisatorisk plan och en planering för införandet av nya produktionsformer. Uppsatsen rymmer en utförlig sammanfattning på svenska, engelska och tyska. / The master thesis has been realized in direct contact with the host company Spaljisten AB, Åseda Sweden and is dealing with the production philosophy Lean production and the production concept TPM. Main object for the studies was a machine line for processing of furniture details (Homag VI). An actual condition analysis has been done to determinate stop reasons and the OEE (35.9 %). In all classes of stop reasons occur mainly short stops (81 %) those indicate chronic problems in the line. Together with the employees of the line Homag VI was a fault analysis done (Ishikawa diagram). Actual condition analysis and fault analysis can generate a potential of improvement of 33 % for increased availability. Furthermore was a SMED analysis done where the main work of analyzing was done together with the employees of the line. By a deeper analysis a classification of IED and OED respectively could be done including even simplifications that led to a reducing of time for set up of 55 minutes and 43 seconds. Also tools like the Lean start up and communication, operator’s maintenance, 5S, constant improvements have been studied. An efficiency analysis of the kaizen groups was done that shows that a lack of motivation exists among the employees. The main explanation for this is that the company does not have a plan for the organisation structure and neither a plan for implementation of new production forms. The work contains an extended summary in English, German and Swedish.