M. Tech. (Department of Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / This study examines the influence of lean supply chain management (LSCM) on supply chain competitiveness in the steel industry in Gauteng, South Africa. The industry suffered a huge blow when imported steel took over the market and collapsed big players within the industry in South Africa.A range of problems hit the market hard, leaving companies applying for section 189 of the labour law to reduce overheads and restructure their organisations. It is evident that organisations need to change their way of thinking,heighten their supply chain strategies and adopt international standards like lean supply chain management practices to become competitive in a broader spectrum. Using a data set of 265 supply chain professionals drawn from the steel manufacturing industry in Gauteng, results showed the importance of proper implementation of LSCM woulddirectly influence SCC, leading to improved organisational performance. The collected quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS version 27.0) statistical software.Techniques such as correlations and regressions were used to test the hypotheses.The results of the study showed that four lean practices, namely Just in Time, Total Quality Management, Strategic Partnership and Waste Elimination all predictthe establishment of a lean culture. However, Human Resource Management was statistically insignificant. The results further showed that Lean culture predicts the competitiveness of the steel supply chain. Thererefore, an emphasis on lean supply chain management in the steel industry is anessential contributor to its success.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The 2008/2009 economic downturn had a major impact on the international steel industry. With economic activities declining, the demand for steel decreased and subsequently, prices started to tumble. This put a great deal of pressure on steel manufacturing companies’ financials and they had to focus on cost reduction initiatives to survive. Steel companies who did not follow a turnaround strategy were not able to keep up with the competition. This research study focused on determining the details pertaining to the ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works turnaround strategy, as it is viewed as one of the most successful in the steel industry. Data was obtained from discussions with various role players and managers at ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works. The aim of the interviews was to get the detail of all the steps taken by the company to turn around its performance. Quantitative data describing the operational as well as financial and cost performance was sourced from the ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system and from financial statements and progress reports. It was found that the basis for the turnaround strategy of ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works was World Class Manufacturing as it provided the vehicles through which improvements were managed with the aid of mainly the Autonomous Maintenance (AM), Professional Maintenance(PM), People Development (PD), Focused Improvement (FI), Product Quality (PQ) and Safety Pillars. The Cost Deployment (CD) Pillar was used to identify the biggest losses that needed to be addressed. ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works moved from one of the highest-cost producers in the ArcelorMittal group during 2010 to the second-lowest-cost producer in the group at the end of 2013. It reduced its total cost of production with $70 per ton over this period, without any major capital expenditure. The study concluded that the turnaround of ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works was successful and it is sustainable. This can be seen from the increase in the overall equipment availability, amount of hot-rolled coil tons produced, as well as the EBITDA figures reported in the study.

M. Tech. (Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / The main purpose of the study was to examine the level of job satisfaction and intention to quit, by employees in a steel manufacturing company. The research methodology used to conduct the study was a combination of a literature review and an empirical study. Due to the small size of the population, no sampling was done although a census had been drawn. The primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The measuring instrument contained 25 items. For the main survey, data from 181 respondents were collected and analysed. Participants in the study involved engineers, operators, technicians, artisans, administrative staff and safety, health and environmental specialists in the steel manufacturing company. Data were analysed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the measuring instrument were computed to establish construct validity. Content validity of the scale was ascertained by pre-testing the questionnaire with employees in the steel manufacturing company. Factor analysis was conducted for variables in Section B of the research instrument. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics on the demographic information of respondents. The results were also interpreted through the factor analysis and correlation analysis. The findings regarding employee’s perceptions or feelings about job satisfaction and employees’ intentions to quit their current organisation revealed that the supervision variable is positively correlated with job variable while it is negatively correlated with intention to quit. In addition, job variable is also negatively correlated with intention to quit. This means that effective supervisors are likely to improve employees’ job satisfaction hence decrease their intentions to quit their current organisation and vise versa. In addition, when employees are satisfied with their job environment, this will decrease their intentions to quit their current organisation and vise versa. Judging from the results from respondents, it is clear that when employees are provided with a job that rewards them for their effort and provides opportunities for advancement, they will be satisfied and therefore more likely to stay in the organisation. Hence, the employees at Babcock Ntuthuko Generations are satisfied and they are not intending to leave the organisation. The research information collected through this study can be used to encourage Babcock Ntuthuko management to continue providing employees with a conducive working enviroment to ensure that current and new employees are retained.

M. Tech. (Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Workplace health and safety is a global concern. South African companies are bound by the stipulations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) (85 of 1993), which regulates employer and employee duties to identify and eliminate hazards, thereby controlling and minimising the risk to health and safety within the working environment. Employees are regarded as the strength of ArcelorMittal. The on-board programme of this employer is designed specifically to support the integration of new employees into ArcelorMittal’s environment and enable them to maximise their contribution to the performance of their team, implementation of a business plan and strategy and realisation of the group’s objectives. This study investigates the perceptions that ArcelorMittal (Vanderbijlpark) employees uphold regarding the effectiveness of the health and safety induction they received. The iron division was identified purposefully for selection of the target population because of its high rate of health and safety incidents. Simple random sampling was used within a quantitative research design to select 317 respondents out of 634 employees. Accordingly, questionnaires were distributed within the demarcated division and a total of 160 questionnaires were completed and returned. The collected data were statistically analysed and presented. The results indicated that the majority of employees perceive the health and safety induction they received to be effective. Respondents also indicated that ArcelorMittal was effective in providing them with the support they need towards their health and safety. Hence, it is recommended that the zero tolerance approach towards safety hazards be reinforced on a continuous basis within the work context of this leading steel manufacturer.

With the current trend of CO2 mitigation in process industries, the primary goal of this thesis is to promote biomass as an energy and reduction agent source to substitute fossil sources in the steel industry. The criteria for this substitution are that the steel process retains the same function and the integrated energy efficiency is as high as possible. This work focuses on advanced gasification of biomass and waste for substitution of fossil fuels in steel industry heat treatment furnaces. To achieve this, two approaches are included in this work. The first investigates the gasification performance of pretreated biomass and waste experimentally using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and a pilot plant gasifier. The second assesses the integration of the advanced gasification system with a steel heat treatment furnace. First, the pyrolysis and char gasification characteristics of several pretreated biomass and waste types (unpretreated biomass, steam-exploded biomass, and hydrothermal carbonized biomass) were analyzed with TGA. The important aspects of pyrolysis and char gasification of pretreated biomass were identified. Then, with the objective of studying the gasification performance of pretreated biomass, unpretreated biomass pellets (gray pellets), steam-exploded biomass pellets (black pellets), and two types of hydrothermal carbonized biomass pellets (spent grain biocoal and horse manure biocoal) were gasified in a fixed bed updraft gasifier with high-temperature air/steam as the gasifying agent. The gasification performance was analyzed in terms of syngas composition, lower heating value (LHV), gas yield, cold gas efficiency (CGE), tar content and composition, and particle content and size distribution. Moreover, the effects on the reactions occurring in the gasifier were identified with the aid of temperature profiles and gas ratios. Further, the interaction between fuel residence time in the bed (bed height), conversion, conversion rate/specific gasification rate, and superficial velocity (hearth load) was revealed. Due to the effect of bed height on the gasification performance, the bed pressure drop is an important parameter related to the operation of a fixed bed gasifier. Considering the limited studies on this relationship, an available pressure drop prediction correlation for turbulent flow in a bed with cylindrical pellets was extended to a gasifier bed with shrinking cylindrical pellets under any flow condition. Moreover, simplified graphical representations based on the developed correlation, which could be used as an effective guide for selecting a suitable pellet size and designing a grate, were introduced. Then, with the identified positive effects of pretreated biomass on the gasification performance, the possibility of fuel switching in a steel industry heat treatment furnace was evaluated by effective integration with a multi-stage gasification system. The performance was evaluated in terms of gasifier system efficiency, furnace efficiency, and overall system efficiency with various heat integration options. The heat integration performance was identified based on pinch analysis. Finally, the efficiency of the co-production of bio-coke and bio-H2 was analyzed to increase the added value of the whole process. It was found that 1) the steam gasification of pretreated biomass is more beneficial in terms of the energy value of the syngas, 2) diluting the gasifying agent and/or lowering the agent temperature compensates for the ash slagging problem in biocoal gasification, 3) the furnace efficiency can be improved by switching the fuel from natural gas (NG) to syngas, 4) the gasifier system efficiency can be improved by recovering the furnace flue gas heat for the pretreatment, and 5) the co-production of bio-coke and bio-H2 significantly improves the system efficiency. / <p>QC 20160825</p>

The main research question pertains to the relationship between time-based manufacturing competence and business performance: Is there a positive relationship between time-based manufacturing competence and business performance. The objective of the study, therefore, is to examine the relationship between time -based manufacturing competence and business performance.

M.Ing. / Columbus Stainless, a subsidiary of Acerinox, manufactures stainless steel in their plant located in Middelburg, South Africa. During the hot rolling operation the steel is rolled on a 4-high finishing mill where strip movement perpendicular to the rolling direction occurs. This movement is undesirable because it causes inferior product quality and may also lead to downtime if the strip moves past the edge of the rolls. In the past the operator made adjustments to the relative alignment of the rolls in the mill in an attempt to limit the sideways movement of the strip. In order to improve product quality and production throughput, the manual action of adjusting the parallelism of the rolls was replaced with an automatic steering control system. Analysis of the process revealed that several variables have an impact on the way the strip reacts to changes in the alignment of rolls in the mill. An adaptive fuzzy logic control system was designed and implemented in the real time control system of the mill. During commissioning the system did not have an adverse effect on production and all initial project criteria were met, as was stipulated in Section 1.4 of this document. The control system improved the strip movement by an average of 11% on various products rolled. Based on production data, the system potentially prevented two coils from leaving the rolls during the month long evaluation period and saved 40 minutes of production time. If the savings in material losses and the potential gain in production time are added the possible anticipated monetary saving is estimated to be about 24 million Rand a year.

Thesis (M.Com. (Development Theory and Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences. / South Africa has been referred to as a country of “geological superlatives” because of its rich and diverse mineral resource base. Despite its unique endowment of precious metals and mineral resources, the country has fallen short of translating these resources into the required economic linkages that will lead to sustainable employment creation and economic emancipation for the majority of its people. Whilst the country has established, successful critical upstream industries based on its natural resource advantage, it has not managed to develop successful downstream value additions in most of its strategic value chains, most notably the chromium mineral value chain. This paper explores the significance of the chromium mineral value chain in the context of South Africa’s economic development trajectory, the dynamics between the mining and manufacturing sectors, the ongoing structural constraints, and the implications all these have on stainless steel fabrication. South Africa is a dominant player in chrome, consuming approximately 80% of the world’s chromite ore reserves and is undeniably one of the major producers of ferrochromium globally, with production accounting for approximately 34% of total world production. Despite a mature ferrochromium industry that boasts world-class ferrochromium manufacturing facilities and contributes massively to the domestic and global economies, a declining market share to China threatens the sector. The availability (or lack thereof) of power supply, high energy costs, uncompetitive domestic prices amongst other structural issues are contributing to this decline. The challenge remains in government, the mining industry, labour and all other affected stakeholders to engage robustly in order to preserve a value chain that possesses enough potential to enhance the development of the country, both socially and economically.

The Law of State Aid Focusing on Steel Industry Abstract The law of state aid is one of the fundamental pillars of the competition law. The task of this branch of law is to ensure healthy competitive environment. State interferences with the economy may, however, create unequal conditions between the competition on the market. It is therefore necessary to ensure and enforce strict regulation of state aid by law. The first part of the thesis focuses on explaining the concept of State aid under Article 107 of the Treaty on Functioning of the European Union in accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Prohibited State aid is granted by State or through state resources, directly or indirectly. In addition, the measure must be attributable to the State and selectively favor only certain sectors. State does not act as reasonable private investor when providing the aid, and is not aimed at maximizing profits but at supporting the undertaking. Lastly, the aid distorts, or has the ability to distort, competition which adversely affects trade between Member State. If the notified or planned measure appear cumulatively, such aid is prohibited and may not be granted. However, the prohibition on providing State aid is not absolute though. The thesis also deals with exemptions from the...

Denna studie har med ett sociologiskt perspektiv ämnat undersöka hur upplevelsen av jämställdhet ser ut bland produktionsanställda inom den starkt mansdominerade stålindustrin. Det studerade företaget är SSAB som är ett svensk-finskt stålföretag vilka är specialiserade på utveckling och tillverkning av höghållfasta stål. Årligen har företaget en produktionskapacitet om cirka 8,8 miljoner ton på sina produktionsanläggningar i Sverige, Finland och USA. År 2018 omsatte företaget 75 miljarder kronor. Av SSAB:s cirka 14 300 anställda runt om i världen så är 81 procent män, vilket inte gör företaget unikt sett till könsfördelningen inom stålindustrin. SSAB arbetar aktivt med att försöka förändra dessa siffror genom att rekrytera fler kvinnor. Detta som ett led i företagets långsiktiga jämställdhetsmål med tron på att kunna skapa en bättre prestationskultur och bättre kunna tillgodose kundernas behov genom en jämnare könsfördelning. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur produktionsanställda upplever jämställdhet på arbetsplatsen. Detta gjordes genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med produktionsanställda på SSAB:s koksverk i Luleå. Resultatet tyder på att den upplevda jämställdheten bland de anställda främst handlar om att företaget rekryterar fler kvinnor och att det synliga därför blir hur fler kvinnor tillträder arbetsplatsen. Detta uppfattades av en del vara ett uttryck för att SSAB kvoterar kvinnor till företaget. Därför upplevdes detta jämställdhets initiativ vara negativt eftersom kompetens och kvalifikationer åsidosatts enligt anställda. Det efterfrågades även initiativ rörande förändringar av attityder, normer och värderingar, vilka ansågs ha inverkan på rådande arbetsplatskultur som under lång tid formats av män. Arbetsplatskulturen och jargongen uppfattades av många som hård, men samtidigt rolig och grunden för trivsel bland de anställda. Däremot uppfattades den även som gränslös och att en minskad chefsnärvaro på grund av en tidigare omorganisation kunde vara grunden till den upplevelsen vilket även synliggjorde en önskan om förändring på arbetsplatsen. De anställda menar att en förändring skulle kunna innebära ökad acceptans mellan kollegor och bättre jargong på arbetsplatsen. / This study aims to investigate, from a sociological perspective, how the perception of gender equality appears among production employees in the highly male-dominated steel industry. The company studied is SSAB, which is a Swedish-Finnish steel company, specialized in development and manufacturing of high strength steels. Each year, the company has a production capacity of approximately 8.8 million tonnes at its production facilities in Sweden, Finland and the USA. In 2018, the company had sales of SEK 75 billion.   Of SSAB's approximately 14 300 employees around the world, 81 percent are men, which does not make the company unique in terms of gender distribution in the steel industry. SSAB is working actively to try to change these figures by recruiting more women. This as part of the company's long-term gender equality goal, with the belief that it can create a better performance culture and better meet the needs of customers through a more even gender distribution.   The purpose of the study was to investigate how production employees experience gender equality in the workplace. This was done by performing qualitative semi-structured interviews with production employees at SSAB's cookery plant in Luleå. The result indicates that the perceived gender equality among the employees is mainly about recruiting more women and that the visible is thus becoming more women taking up the workplace. This was perceived as an expression of SSAB quoting women to the company. Therefore, this initiative of gender equality was perceived to be negative, as the skills and qualifications were neglected according to employees.   Initiatives were also requested concerning changes in attitudes, norms and values, which were considered to have an impact on the prevailing workplace culture that has long been shaped by men. The workplace culture and jargon were perceived by many as hard, but at the same time fun and the basis for well-being among the employees. However, it was also perceived as limitless and that a reduced managerial presence due to a previous reorganization could be the basis for that experience, which also made a wish for change in the workplace. The employees believe that this could mean increased acceptance between colleagues and better jargon in the workplace.