Bibliography: pages 129-132. / Considerable imminent in change on the this country. political and economic front is There is constant demand on businesses to improve productivity in the face of rising inflation, a trend that is unlikely to reverse given expected high wage demands. The liquor market is consider-ably influenced by government legislation and the state of the economy, hence companies operating within the liquor market are challenged with improving productivity in a changing environment. In order to facilitate productivity improvement, sales and production requirements need to be ascertained. The objective of this thesis is to design personal computer- based sales forecasting planning system that will aid a brewery productivity and minimise costs, through an integrated and production to maximise an ability to accurately forecast beer sales and translate such forecasts into efficient production plans. Fundamental to ensuring that the optimum production scenario is achieved is the need to generate a number of production scenarios for comparative purposes. To this end, the sales forecasting and production planning systems must be fully integrated, thereby allowing for the efficient generation of "what if" type analyses.

Education should be one of the highest priorities of any country. The ability to pass on knowledge and understanding effectively is a sign of a good educational system. From an engineering perspective, better teaching tools allow for greater understanding by the students making them better engineers. Educational aids have been with us for a long time. Inventions from the abacus to the personal computer, have aided engineering students in faster understanding and application of their work. These aids are costly and sometimes become affordable only when outdated and redundant. A low-cost device that does not date would be the educationalist's ideal solution. To this end, a concept model of a conveyor sorting system was developed using Lego as the design medium. The model is a conveyor belt along which coloured blocks are sorted into bins by pneumatic cylinders. The model is controlled by a personal computer and the Lego interface box. The software is written in Visual Basic.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 154-163). / This thesis cont a ins a descriptive research concerning the Building Industry in South Africa and Quality Assurance. The study identifies the Building Industry and investigates the process of quality management. The thesis does not attempt to solve any problems in the industry but shows the need for the application of quality assurance to the industry. Through experience the author has identified this need, which is not confined to the Building Industry alone. The urgency of this need is what has prompted research in this area.

This thesis is concerned with the effectiveness of change agents within organisations. The argument presented is that the effectiveness of change agents depends on their ability to develop an understanding of the complex situations they are faced with. This includes a rich understanding of their own role within the situation. The systems approach described by Churchman (1971, 1979) and further developed by Ulrich (1983) provides methods that aid the development of a rich understanding of, inquiry into, and intervention in complex socio-technical situations. The structure of the paper will take the following form: Part 1: Appreciative systems and the systems approach. Performance criteria for change agents are declared. The key role of appreciation ineffective change management is highlighted. An explanation of appreciative systems and how the systems approach can make them more effective is presented. Finally an appreciative frame for human populated (social) systems is explained. Part 2: Investigating sources of purpose in traditional Business Process Reengineering (BPR).Before developing the complete the appreciative framework in Part 3, our understanding will be consolidated by applying the human populated systems frame to organisational change (business process reengineering) as a system.

Bibliography: p.91-95. / Increases in productivity in construction contractin0 since 1960 have not been proportional to the large amounts of money spent on mechanization and on the training of labour. Little consideration has been given during this same period to behavioural techniques and the motivation of manpower and it was therefore felt that the adoption of a behavioural approach would result in a significant increase in productivity in the industry. Since any behavioural theoretical generalization requires empiric information about any particular situation, it was necessary to collect data on certain socio-organizational characteristics of construction contracting. Data was collected mainly by means of two attitude questionnaires distributed amongst middle to lower management personnel employed in main contractor and sub-contractor companies in the Western Cape. The analysis of the data centred on the socio-organizational characteristics of contracting, their effect on motivation to obtain increased productivity on both the macro and micro levels, and the relationships between main contractor and sub-contractors. It was apparent that ample scope still existed for the development of behavioural management techniques in construction contracting.

Includes bibliography. / This thesis addresses institutional investment management regarding mining capital investment (analysis, decision-making and administration). Emphasised is information processing and computer strategy to support mining investment recommendations. The topic is inter-disciplinary: mining, investment and information system/ computers. It is non-innovative in these individual areas. However, their integration here into a comprehensive strategy contributes to a poorly documented management area. This strategy minimises differences between mining and non-mining institutions as investors. The documentation avoids the theory of economics, investment techniques, stock exchange operations, minerals technology and computers. In deriving a total strategy, the objectives are to: * Identify practical problems in mining investment analysis. * Formulate the broad framework for problem solution. * Examine the existing analytical and administrative procedures. * Provide guidelines for more effective and efficient procedures. * Forecast technical developments over the next decade. The objectives were examined against personal observations during a diversified career in mining and commerce: The thesis was conceived after three years in active mining investment analysis. It matured subsequently in the commercial computer environment; but is firmly rooted in twelve years of earlier practical experience in mineral exploration and mining. The opinions expressed were influenced by contact with technical and financial mining directors, stock brokers, economists, mining and other sector analysts, portfolio and investment managers.

Orientador: Miguel Juan Bacic / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T16:28:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Campos_JorgedePaiva_M.pdf: 4861029 bytes, checksum: f261c5789c45114d334c39f798e08bca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar as possíveis formas de organização das pequenas e médias empresas, quando organizadas e articuladas sob a forma de redes de empresas e pólos industriais para a ação conjunta. Investiga-se como se formam, como funcionam, qual a influência das ações conjuntas na competitividade e os fatores restritivos e impulsionadores deste tipo de organização. Entende-se que a junção e organização das várias firmas instaladas numa dada região contribuem para a sua transformação econômica, principalmente quando levam a cabo o propósito inicial de atuar conjuntamente nas várias frentes possíveis. O trabalho apresenta um estudo destacando um projeto prático de ação conjunta aplicados às pequenas e médias empresas, exeqüível e de fácil entendimento. Como destaque, são apresentados os passos necessários para a formação de associações de empresas, o passo inicial para qualquer tipo de atuação conjunta, de acordo com a legislação. Entende-se que a junção das pequenas firmas pode resultar em benefícios para todos os participantes e também para o entorno. Os exemplos dos distritos industriais italianos, as redes de empresas e o trabalho comunitário mostram as vantagens do trabalho associativista / Abstract: The focus of this study is to analyze the possible ways of small and medium companies organization, when organized and articulated as a net of companies and industrials poles for a joined action. This study verifies how the net is created, how it works, what is the influence of the joined actions in the competitively, the restrictive features and what stimulate this kind of organization. It is known that the organization of many companies installed in one region contributes for their economic transformation, mainly when these companies have the initial of purpose acting together in all market areas. This study emphasizes a pratical project based on a joint effort applied to the small and medium companies, of easy understanfing and execution. Distinctively, it presents the necessary steps for the formation of joint ventures, the first necessary step to any kind of joined action, according to the legislation. As a result, the joining of small companies can bring benefits for all participants and also to the region. The example of Italian industrial districts, the nets of companies and the communitarian work show the advantages of the associative work / Mestrado / Gestão da Qualidade Total / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica