Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: World Class Manufacturing (WCM) was first introduced into Nampak in 1990, and since then, there have been three attempts by the organisation to re-implement WCM in the organisation. In the last 23 years, 1990-2013, no formal assessment has been done with regard to evaluating whether the introduction of WCM was effective or not in the organisation, according to the goals and objectives set when the projects were initially implemented. The aim of this research report was to evaluate whether the implementation of WCM was effective in the Nampak Plastic Rigids (PRs) clusters and the study focused on only three operations namely; Nampak Tubes, Closures and Megapak. Secondly, the research aimed to establish what elements were required to successfully implement and sustain WCM in an organisation. Through the research it was established that in order to implement and sustain WCM successfully the following elements are required; strategy alignment, strategy implementation or execution, benchmarking, employee involvement, change management and the correct selection of continuous improvement tools and tactics. The three operations selected in the study were then evaluated against these elements through a survey, in order to gauge their alignment against each element. The research found that none of the three operations met the ideal state of 85 per cent in aligning themselves to the six elements. Nampak Tubes was the only operation that came close to the required ideal level of 85 per cent, as the operation had re-implemented WCM in 2011 and as a result, the operations performance in terms of the selected KPIs was better than that of the other two. However, on average none of the three operations reached the 85 per cent ideal range. This was an indication that the PRs were not aligned to the required six elements in their attempt to implement WCM, and despite the three previous attempts, success had not been achieved. The elements could prove complex as regards their comprehension and implementation as guided by the literature review and research, thus leadership should take careful note of the relationship between all of them. The organisational leadership is responsible for ensuring that the WCM strategy is driven centrally and adopted by all the stakeholders in the organisation, as all the elements require a leadership intervention. World Class Manufacturing is more than a concept or a project; it is a philosophy which should be treated as a way of life, if organisations are to be successful in being competitive.

Thesis advisor: Thomas Chemmanur / My dissertation is comprised of three chapters. The first chapter studies the impact of government spending on corporate innovation output. By exploiting the changes in Senate committee chairmanships as a source of exogenous variation in state-level federal government expenditures, I find that firms headquartered in states with increases in government spending significantly reduce their innovation output, as measured both by patent count and patent citations. These reductions are mostly concentrated in industries that need more labor input for innovative activities and firms headquartered in states with lower unemployment rates. I also analyze three possible channels through which an increase in government spending may affect innovation output: resource reallocation by corporations and individuals from innovative to non-innovative activities; partial movement of innovative activities from the corporate to the government sector; and a reduction in inventor productivity due to a labor-leisure trade-off. My evidence provides the strongest support for the resource reallocation channel. In the second chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur and Karthik Krishnan, we analyze the relationship between the human capital or “management quality” of firms and their long-run performance, using panel data from the BoardEx database on firms' top management characteristics and a management quality index constructed using common factor analysis on individual proxies for various aspects of management quality. We control for the potential endogenous matching between firm and management quality using a plausibly exogenous shock to the supply of new managers as an instrument. Using this instrument, we find a causal relationship between firms' management quality and future operating performance, market valuations, and stock returns. In the third chapter, co-authored with Thomas Chemmanur, Karthik Krishnan, and Qianqian Yu, using panel data on top management characteristics and a management quality factor constructed using common factor analysis on individual management quality proxies, we analyze the relation between the human capital or “quality” of firm management and its innovation inputs and outputs. We control for the endogenous matching between firm and management quality using a plausibly exogenous shock to the supply of new managers as an instrument, thereby finding a causal relationship between management quality and innovation activities. We show that higher management quality firms achieve greater innovation output by hiring more and higher quality inventors. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

Objective Healthcare system now, with global budget payment, is facing an increasing challenge mainly due to patient oriented environment, more demand for service quality and organizational re-arrangement. Also due to the high cost of personalle and equipments in the operation room , it is quite important to maintain the high efficiency of management to encompass high volume of surgeries. Staffing and scheduling is the most important issue in the management of the operating room and has direct impact on the operational efficiency, cost and revenue. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of staffing and scheduling of the operating room on its efficiency. How we control the sum of the patients requiring operation under present circumstances lies on whether or not we have efficient management of the operation room. The most important part among it depends on the ability of schedule arrangement, which directly influence the performance audit and cost. Materials and Methods:The purpose of this study is to discuss the impact of schedule arrangement on cost in the operation room of one medical center. Retro spective descriptive design. Those first operations performed from July 1st, 2003 to June 30th, 2004 were collected into the controlled group while those performed from July 1st, 2004 to June 30th, 2005 were gathered into the experimental group. Indicators of the effect including the sum of the patients receiving operation, the utilization rate of the operation room, the cancellation rate of scheduled operation, the number of overtime nursing staff and overtime payment, the delayed rate and time of the first operation. We use ANOVA, x2 test, multiple logistic regression and t test to analyze these data. We will discuss issues as the followings to smooth our operation schedule: the arrangement of the fist operation by program manager, setting up a flow chart for nursing staff while admitting the patients, establishing a check-in flow chart for patients of out-patient department and deployment of pageboys. Results: The data showed that the incidence of delaying surgery were decreased by 8.4% in the experiment group as compared to the control group. The operation room occupation rate increased to 84.3% in control group, as compared to 78.25% in experiment group. There is 0.76% decrease in the rate of canceling operation schedule . The number of nursing staff who worked overtime and the overtime payment decreased significantly. The time needed from patients entering operation room to the operation began also decreased significantly. The rate of delaying the first scheduled operation decreased from 52.8% to 12.3%. Conclusion: Operation room managers, leader in department of surgery, and hospital managers could take our results as reference in improving efficiency and decreasing cost.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006.

Acceptable product quality is one of the central pillars of customer satisfaction, which is key to customer retention and business success. The quest to improve and maintain good product quality is as old as mankind himself. In the beginning of time, quality involved selecting edible plants, to craftsmanship then later to mass production. As time went on, various individuals and institutions made valuable contributions to quality control methods, tools and techniques as we know them today. The International Organisation for Standardisation initiated quality management standards, provide requirements, specifications and guidelines that can be used to ensure materials and products meet a certain quality level. These quality management systems were adopted by the global automotive organisations, adapted and tailored to suit their requirements. The result was the development of ISO/TS 16949, which is a requirement for all direct manufacturing suppliers to the automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), like BMW, TOYOTA and GM. Some OEMs specify additional requirements their supplier base, in case of General Motors, Quality Systems Basics (QSB) is a mandatory quality management systems requirement. QSB is designed by GM to help suppliers reduce product defects, improve internal efficiencies and improve supply chain processes. A quantitative approach was chosen, which utilised an explorative and descriptive survey questionnaire in order to complete the research study. The study will show that the majority of the respondents believed that the implementation of QSB has resulted in positive implications in their manufacturing process and supply value chain.

Introduction: The global burden of diabetes can be minimised by interventions focusing on the control of glucose levels. Effective self-management and quality of care have improved diabetes outcomes such as glycaemic levels. However, few studies directly evaluate the relative importance of individual aspects of self-management and quality of care on glycaemic control. Therefore, I evaluated the individual contribution and relative importance of specific aspects of self-management and quality of care on the glycaemic control of Mexican patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: A longitudinal cohort study was conducted. Consecutive patients were recruited from the waiting rooms in five primary care practices in the city of Aguascalientes, Mexico (from December 2009 to April 2010). These practices are part of the largest social security institution in Mexico (the Mexican Institute for Social Security). Predictors of glycaemic control were measured from medical records and interviews with patients at baseline. Self-management was measured using four questionnaires: the Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ-24), the Medical Prescription Knowledge Questionnaire (MPKQ), the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA), and the Diabetes Self Efficacy Scale. Quality of care was measured using three questionnaires and by extracting data from medical records to evaluate an index of continuity of care (MMCI) and treatment intensification. The questionnaires used were the continuity of care scale from the General Practice Assessment Questionnaire (GPAQ), the Patient–Doctor Communication Scale (PDCS), and the Patient Satisfaction with Diabetes Care scale (PSDC). Glycaemic control (HbA1c levels) was measured at two time points: baseline and six month follow-up. The main analysis was a multivariate regression model with HbA1c at six-month follow-up as the dependent variable and with self-management and quality of care as predictors and demographic and clinical factors as covariates. A secondary analysis considered the interaction between self-management and quality of care in the prediction of HbA1c at six-month follow-up using a multivariate regression model including HbA1c at baseline in the model. Results: The multivariate linear regression model, that included all variables, was significant and explained 36 % of the variance (P <0.01). Patients had lower HbA1c at follow-up if they had lower levels of HbA1c at baseline, received care at one particular practice in the city, had diabetes of shorter duration, and were prescribed monotherapy. When HbA1c at baseline was removed from the model it explained 14% of the variance (P <0.01). Practice and medical prescription remained significant. In addition, lower levels of HbA1c at follow-up were related to the patient undergoing appropriate treatment intensification by their general practitioner. In the secondary analysis, the interaction showed that if treatment was not intensified, good self-managers had lower HbA1c (P <0.01) but if treatment was intensified, the level of self-management had no effect. Conclusions: Treatment intensification was the main predictor of lower HbA1c levels at follow-up. Although none of the self-management predictors was significantly related to HbA1c, an exploratory analysis of self-management/quality of care interactions showed that patients who did not receive treatment intensification but performed more self-management behaviours had lower HbA1c levels at follow-up.

This work deals with the status of quality in strategic management of organizations in industry, services, small and medium-sized enterprises, public organizations and administration. It reflects the development in the Czech Republic in the last 25 years in terms of quality. It concerns establishment processes contained in the Blue Guide and the NLF in the Czech Republic, including some instruments such as certification, accreditation and conformity assessment. The second area of the work deals with the National Quality Policy in the Czech Republic, defined by the Council of quality of the Czech Republic. The main objective is the realization of research and determination / verification, whether the strategic management of organizations polled is used and in what way. What modern management concepts do these organizations use and how are their strategies contained in the individual quality requirements. The results were compared with results of similar research carried out not only in the Czech Republic in the past years, so it would be possible to confirm the trends I´ve observed. The results will be used as a guidance for Czech organizations in respect of the aforementioned topics.

The study has defined the position with regard to existing and evolving United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) legislation, world trade agreements and institutions, global trade in chicken meat and market Quality Assurance (QA) standards in a series of peer-reviewed published papers and working papers. The development of global food supply chains can be a key driver in the harmonisation of international legislation, product and private assurance standards. Indeed compliance with legislation and retailer requirements has been a key market driver in the development of private assurance standards. The key objectives of the research were to examine current assurance schemes within the integrated poultry meat supply chain and the influence of regulation and external market drivers within the integrated poultry meat supply chain; develop and test a QA model for the poultry meat supply chain with a view to both baseline and higher level standards including the development of a business benchmarking system utilising a pre-requisite programme (PRP) and key performance indicators (KPI); and to assess the ability of the QA model to deliver regulatory and policy compliance whilst meeting varied business and market needs for an internationally traded product. This study has shown that a QA model is capable of providing a framework within which the poultry meat supply chain can operate. The legislative and performance requirements have been translated into quantifiable performance indicators which can be used to measure supply chain performance. This can assist differentiation of products at the point of consumption and give a quantifiable measure of the extrinsic value that has been added. This approach will therefore aid the communication of the benefits of differing methods of poultry meat production and afford the consumer the opportunity to make a more informed choice when purchasing meat products.

published_or_final_version / Surveying / Master / Master of Science in Construction Project Management

The third generation of mobile communication systems introduce interactive Multicast and Unicast multimedia services at a fast data rate of up to 2 Mbps and is expected to complete the globalization of the mobile telecommunication systems. The implementation of these services on satellite systems, particularly for broadcast and multicast applications to complement terrestrial services is ideal since satellite systems are capable of providing global coverage in areas not served by terrestrial telecommunication services. However, the main bottleneck of such systems is the scarcity of radio resources for supporting multimedia applications which has resulted in the rapid growth in research efforts for deriving efficient radio resource management techniques. This issue is addressed in this thesis, where the main emphasis is to design a dynamic scheduling framework and algorithm that can improve the overall performance of the radio resource management strategy of a UMTS compatible satellite network, taking into account the unique characteristics of wireless channel conditions. This thesis will initially be focused on the design of the network and functional architecture of a UMTS -compatible satellite network. Based on this architecture, an effective scheduling framework is designed, which can provide different types of resource assigning strategies. A functional model of scheduler is defined to describe the behaviours and interactions between different functional entities. An OPNET simulation model with a complete network protocol stack is developed to validate the performance of the scheduling algorithms implemented in the satellite network. Different types of traffic are considered for the OPNET simulation, such as the Poisson Process, ONOFF Source and Self Similar Process, so that the performance of scheduling algorithm can be analyzed for different types of services. A novel scheduling algorithm is proposed to optimise the channel utilisation by considering the characteristics of the wireless channel, which are bursty and location dependent. In order to overcome the channel errors, different code rates are applied for the user under different channel conditions. The proposed scheduling algorithm is designed to give higher priority to users with higher code rate, so that the throughput of network is optimized and at the same time, maintaining the end users' service level agreements. The fairness of the proposed scheduling algorithm is validated using OPNET simulation. The simulation results show that the algorithm can fairly allocate resource to different connections not only among different service classes but also within the same service class depending on their QoS attributes.