South African producers are constantly facing competition from foreign organisations in their domestic markets. The adverse effects of this competition stem, in part, from the low levels of productivity which characterise South African industry and which is well documented by the National Productivity Institute of South Africa. The concept of continuous improvement offers a proven methodology for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of production processes. Given the situation that faces South African producers, it would seem appropriate to investigate how the concept of continuous improvement can be applied to a specific South African manufacturing organisation, like the Aspen Pharmacare General Facility, in order to improve its effectiveness and efficiency.

With global advances in technology, many organizations are finding it difficult and quite challenging to do business as usual. Japanese companies are on top of the world economy, while many Western companies are struggling to find ways to compete with them (Womack, et al., 1990). The Japanese secret weapon “Lean Production” is no longer a secret; more and more western companies are now learning and adopting Lean techniques to remain relevant and competitive. Lean management is a consistent philosophy and a set of practices that must be maintained over time in order to see the gains (Losonci & Demeter, 2013). Lean is not a quick fix to reduce costs, but a continuous improvement journey that will transform an organization into a cost efficient value-driven system. Lean is still a fairly new phenomenon in South Africa, particularly in the Eastern Cape. The road towards the lean implementation is viewed by many as a challenging and yet rewarding journey. South African organizations are following the trend of implementing lean in order to eliminate waste, improve quality, speed, customer satisfaction and thereby increasing profits. It is however still a long journey towards achieving total perfection. The main challenge facing South African organizations is the ability to sustain the lean improvements over a longer period. This study will focus on identifying and analyzing the main barriers that inhibit many successful organizations from sustaining lean improvement efforts.

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / This dissertation provides a study of productivity improvement to project Scope Change Management (SCM) processes in the Engineer-Procure-Construct (EPC) project environment using lean techniques. The motivation for carrying out this study was, to optimise the typical scope change management systems to improve efficiency and most importantly the process productivity. It aims to present a conceptual approach to reduce bottom line impact brought about by the management of scope change events. A brief literature study of the industry, scope change management systems and the EPC project environment is provided together with an overview on the Value Streams (VS) mapping methodology for lean systems improvement. The improvement study sets out to establish the current status quo of EPC project change management systems through survey and literature study. The assessment establishes a necessary baseline and identifies various aspects within the scope change management system that need to be improved. An improvement effort is made on the current state map using lean principles and Design Structure Matrix (DSM) techniques to establish process efficiency and hence productivity increase. The study presents the results of the lean improvement; this is presented in the form of a process future state map proposal for further lean intervention and implementation. The study concludes with a brief discussion of an implementation plan. Collectively, the study aims to provide tools for VS based improvement and consequently meet the objective of a solution for bottom line productivity improvement in EPC Scope Change Management systems.

M.Tech. / Activities in the manufacturing sector are the bedrock of an economy and the driver of development. Within the manufacturing sector, production operations skills are deficient in a number of contexts and many times are the cause of failures in entrepreneurship development. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the levels of production and operational skills and SMME [Small Medium and Micro Enterprises] sustainability. The gap that has been identified abides in productions operations skills development of SMME entrepreneurs. Building on previously established literature on entrepreneurial skills development, production operations management and empirical findings, a framework was then proposed. Within this framework an instrument was developed and tested for the sole purpose of assessing the level of production operations skills amongst SMME entrepreneurs. Principal literature reviews indicate that, despite South Africa’s [SA] favourable regulatory environment, a high failure rate amongst SMME’s still persists. The analysis of the data indicates that entrepreneurs with no or poor production and operation skills are most likely to be unsuccessful whilst entrepreneurs with production and operation skills are most likely to be successful. The study was limited to the manufacturing SMME’s in the Vaal Triangle Region [VTR] and the sample frame was supplied by the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller [GEP] – Vaal Branch. The implications for policymakers encouraging the development of sustainable entrepreneurs in SA, is that due consideration should be given to factors that would enhance production operations skills and, in so doing, contribute to sustainability. Entrepreneurs, educators and service providers will benefit from a better understanding of how various factors merge into the intent of creating a successful production operation environment. Training entrepreneurs to be aware of the multiple influencing factors will raise the level of skills and the ability to correctly gauge and manage opportunities. Since, thus far, a very limited study has been executed in the field of production operation management, the synthesis of the variables proposed in this framework offers an introductory roadmap to guide future research in this field.

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Includes bibliographical references : (p. [37]-40) Drawing on qualitative data collected during semi-structured interviews with 36 profit centre managers in manufacturing firms in Victoria, Australia, this study seeks to explore the mechanisms used to manage multiple manufacturing performance dimensions arising from the pursuit of profit centre strategy. Where measures capture potentially conflicting influences on the manufacturing cost function, strategy implementation is facilitated by loosening control reactions to cost variances and through explicit attempts to integrate multiple measures. However, a joint emphasis on performance dimensions relating to manufacturing efficiency and customer responsiveness emerges as problematic. In contrast, a joint emphasis on quality and efficiency is relatively easily managed. It is suggested that in the context of responsiveness strategies, the difficulty of designing complete measures inhibits the relevance of performance measurement systems as a facilitator of strategy implementation.