Lean manufacturing is a term that we have been hearing very often in many sectors and areas. Lean started as a manufacturing system and philosophy that was first developed by Toyota using key production principles that were introduced by Henry Ford. After successful implementations and great results in quality, cost and service levels, lean is now considered as a business system or as a culture. Lean principles and tools are widely used in every step of an entire process, from customer service to supply chain management. Although there are a lot of success stories about lean implementations, many companies are also struggling to adapt their culture towards the implementation of lean principles. In this thesis, standardization of lean manufacturing is studied and an analysis is provided to discuss if standardization would help eliminate the major obstacles that hinder successful lean implementation. Potential benefits and disadvantages of having standards for lean enterprises are analyzed. As a part of the research a survey was conducted to get feedback from lean professionals about standardization. The survey results suggest that there is an overall support for lean standardization. However, there are both positive and negative views about the potential benefits and disadvantages of using lean standards as an implementation guide. A case study is also provided to measure the benefits of lean and to understand how lean standards may help companies implement lean principles. Based on a simulation model that was develop to verify the benefits, a 15 % reduction in inventory carrying cost and a 5% reduction in total queue time was predicted.

The nature of range ¡§ automobile ¡§ has high technology and traditional science both together. It expands living habit and areas for the human beings but also lead hazard and risky on environment and safety. What is the value of competition about the automobile? What are the cons and pros on traditional manufactures with United States, Japan and Germany? Any structure change from then until now? The subject essay is based upon the automobile research report, which was issued on 1990 by MIT, analysis of GM with The United States, Toyota with Japan and Volkswagen with the Germany 1991-2005 financial statements and volume production strategy to continue the analysis. The automobile manufactures were following the model of productions TPS after MIT research report was announced. The above companies were not being able to follow and copy the model very successfully. Because that past successful enterprise cultural was difficult to abandon and among different countries cultural background and basis were total different and individual. They could only practice the fur of Japanese Toyota. For example, GM was combined with Toyota to build up factory as issue; looks like GM have had good flow and function on inventory turn over percentage and cost of sales volume. After operation factors were getting worse even turn their inefficiency out to the fact. The traditional craftsman¡¦s art with Germany were become the sign of obstacle to the TPS.

<p>EDI as well as XML are the basic communication standards used in B2B e-commerce. With special interest to transaction processing systems. According to the specific attributes EDI and XML provides. There could be some common and merely different features derived. But also there could be the impact of considerations from the business organisation domain with additional issues which determine the use of EDI or XML.</p><p>In this study the particular interest is in the finding of a set of reasons, not only in the single sight of the performance of the two techniques. The study surveys the impact of business processes, the found business environment settings and the choose of standards with special reference to the scrutinised area.</p>

Lean Manufacturing (LM) is widely accepted as a world-class manufacturing paradigm, its currency and superiority are manifested in numerous recent success stories. Most lean tools including Just-in-Time (JIT) were designed for repetitive serial production systems. This resulted in a substantial stream of research which dismissed a priori the suitability of LM for non-repetitive non-serial job-shops. The extension of LM into non-repetitive production systems is opposed on the basis of the sheer complexity of applying JIT pull production control in non-repetitive systems fabricating a high variety of products. However, the application of LM in job-shops is not unexplored. Studies proposing the extension of leanness into non-repetitive production systems have promoted the modification of pull control mechanisms or reconfiguration of job-shops into cellular manufacturing systems. This thesis sought to address the shortcomings of the aforementioned approaches. The contribution of this thesis to knowledge in the field of production and operations management is threefold: Firstly, a Multi-Agent System (MAS) is designed to directly apply pull production control to a good approximation of a real-life job-shop. The scale and complexity of the developed MAS prove that the application of pull production control in non-repetitive manufacturing systems is challenging, perplex and laborious. Secondly, the thesis examines three pull production control mechanisms namely, Kanban, Base Stock and Constant Work-in-Process (CONWIP) which it enhances so as to prevent system deadlocks, an issue largely unaddressed in the relevant literature. Having successfully tested the transferability of pull production control to non-repetitive manufacturing, the third contribution of this thesis is that it uses experimental and empirical data to examine the impact of pull production control on job-shop performance. The thesis identifies issues resulting from the application of pull control in job-shops which have implications for industry practice and concludes by outlining further research that can be undertaken in this direction.

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sugarcane is a tropical perennial grass species belonging to the Poaceae (true grasses) family. Mature sugarcane is comprised mostly of sugarcane stalks, which accumulate high amounts of sucrose, a fact that has led to its wide cultivation of sugarcane for sucrose production. Sugar yields from sugarcane have been improved in the past by either creating transgenic sugarcane or through using traditional breeding methods. Increasing sugar yields in sugarcane is still of interest and new cisgenic strategies are being considered to alleviate consumer concerns over transgenic plants. This thesis consists of two parts. The first was aimed at understanding the relation between trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P) synthesis and sucrose accumulation in sugarcane. In this study the E. coli genes involved in trehalose synthesis, otsA and otsB, were overexpressed in sugarcane in order to observe their effects on soluble sugar accumulation. Nine otsA and two otsB overexpressing lines were created, confirmed by gDNA insertion PCRs, sq-RT-PCR and immuno detection of encoded enzymes. Preliminary measurements of soluble sugars showed that four out of the nine otsA lines had significantly decreased and one line significantly increased sucrose concentrations. Correlating sq-RT-PCR results with soluble sugar measurements suggest that trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) expression affects sucrose levels in sugarcane, but further research of TPS activity is required before a conclusion can be reached. Further analysis of mature cane material in regard to relevant enzyme levels, carbohydrate levels and gene expression should contribute to more conclusive results. Three novel sugarcane TPS encoding sequences were isolated and proven to be functional through complementation of the growth defect in tps1Δ yeast grown on glucose as a carbon source. Sugarcane TPS isoforms named SoTPSa, SoTPSb and SoTPSc, were isolated by successful application of 5‟ RACE alongside standard PCR using primers based on other monocotyledonous TPS sequences. The encoded SoTPSa contains a 25 amino acid insertion within the partial TPP domain. The encoded SoTPSc contains a 126 amino acid long N terminal truncation, which removes one of the thirteen amino acids found within the active site of the TPS domain. Future characterization of the encoded enzymes will determine the effects of these modifications on TPS activity. The second part of this thesis describes initial efforts made in attempting to develop a cisgenic in vitro selectable marker system for sugarcane, S. officinarum callus, which uses a diphenylether type (DPE) herbicide as a selection agent and a sugarcane protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPO) gene as a selection marker. Firstly the plastid targeted PPO from tobacco (NtPPO-1) was isolated and mutagenized, to mimic the double mutated Arabidopsis PPO, used by Li et al., (2003) in maize. However, sugarcane calli transformed with the double mutated NtPPO-1 and grown on media containing fomesafen herbicide, were incapable of regenerating. Future efforts will utilize a N-terminal sequence that is targeted to the plastid organelle, so as to ensure translocation of the enzyme to that subcellular location. Also, random mutations were induced in the NtPPO-1 gene to screen for mutations that confer DPE herbicide resistance, however this work is currently on hold until a heme deficient E. coli can be obtained. Secondly, attempts were made to isolate a putative sugarcane plastid targeted PPO gene, so as to eventually use this in developing a cisgenic strategy. 5‟ RACE was successful in revealing additional nucleotide sequence adding 1006 bp to the already known partial sugarcane PPO sequence. However the fragment isolated was still a partial sequence. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suikerriet is 'n tropiese meerjarige gras spesie wat deel is van die Poaceae (ware grasse) familie. Volwasse suikerriet bestaan hoofsaaklik uit suikerrietstamme, wat hoë hoeveelhede sukrose akkumuleer, 'n feit wat gelei het tot die wye verbouing van suikerriet vir sukrose produksie. In die verlede is suikeropbrengste vanuit suikerriet verbeter deur die skep van transgeniese suikerriet óf die gebruik van tradisionele teelmetodes. Toenemende suiker opbrengste in suikerriet is steeds van belang en nuwe cisgeniese strategieë word oorweeg om verbruikerskommer oor transgeniese plante te akkommodeer. Hierdie tesis bestaan uit twee dele. Die eerste deel is daarop gemik om die begrip van die verhouding tussen trehalose-6-fosfaat (T6P) sintese en sukrose ophoping in suikerriet te verstaan. In hierdie studie is die E. coli gene wat betrokke is in trehalose sintese, otsA en otsB, ooruitgedruk in suikerriet ten einde die uitwerking daarvan in die opgaar van oplosbare suiker te bestudeer. Nege otsA en twee otsB verhoogte uitdrukkings lyne is geskep, bevestig deur gDNA bygevoegde PKR, sq-RT-PKR en immuno opsporing van geïnkripteerde ensieme. Voorlopige metings van oplosbare suikers toon dat vier van die nege otsA lyne ʼn beduidende afname in sukrose vlakke en een lyn „n beduidende toegeneem in sukrose vlakke getoon het. Korrelerende sq-RT-PKR resultate met oplosbare suikermetings dui daarop dat trehalose-6- fosfaat sintese (TPS) geenuitdrukking sukrose vlakke sal affekteer, maar verdere navorsing van TPS aktiwiteit is nodig voordat 'n gevolgtrekking gemaak kan word. Verdere ontleding van volwasse riet materiaal met betrekking tot relevante ensiem vlakke, koolhidrate vlakke en geenuitdrukking, behoort by te dra tot meer volledige resultate. In hierdie studie is drie nuwe suikerriet TPS gene geïsoleer en dit is bewys as funksioneel deur die komplimentering van die groeidefek van tps1Δ gis, gegroei op glukose as 'n koolstof bron. Suikerriet TPS isoforme, genoem SoTPSa, SoTPSb en SoTPSc, is geïsoleer deur die suksesvolle toepassing van 5 'RACE, in kombinasie met standaard PKR, deur van spesiaal ontwerpte primers, gebaseer op ander eensaadlobbige TPS gene, gebruik te maak. Die gekodeerde SoTPSa bevat 'n 25 aminosuur invoeging binne-in die gedeeltelike TPP domein. Die gekodeerde SoTPSc bevat 'n 126 aminosuur lange N terminaal afkapping, wat een van die dertien aminosure binne die aktiewe terrein van die TPS domein verwyder. Toekomstige karakterisering van hierdie geïnkripteerde ensiemes sal die effek van hierdie veranderinge op TPS aktiwiteit bepaal. Die tweede deel van hierdie tesis beskryf die aanvanklike probeerslae wat gemaak is in 'n poging om „n cisgeniese in vitro selekteerbare merker vir suikerriet, S. officinarum kallus te ontwikkel. Hierin word gebruik gemaak van 'n difenylether tipe (DPE) onkruiddoder as 'n seleksie agent, en 'n suikerriet protoporphyrinogen oksidase (PPO) geen as 'n seleksie merker. In 'n poging om dit te bewerkstellig is daar eerstens plastied geteikende PPO van tabak (NtPPO-1) geïsoleer en geteikende mutagenese suksesvol daarop uitgevoer. Mutasies wat geinduseer is, is gegrond op die dubbele gemuteerde Arabidopsis PPO, wat gebruik was in mielies deur Li et al., (2003). Alhoewel die suikerriet kallus getransformeer is met die dubbele gemuteerde NtPPO-1 konstruk en geselekteer is op media wat fomesafen onkruiddoder bevat, was die kallus nie in staat om te regenereer nie. In toekomstige pogings sal probeer word om 'n N-terminale volgorde, geteiken op „n plastied organel, te benut sodat translokasie van die ensiem aan die plastied organel verseker kan word. So ook is toevallige mutasies veroorsaak in die NtPPO-1 gene om te soek vir nuwe mutasies wat DPE onkruiddoderweerstand verleen, maar hierdie werk is tans gestop totdat 'n heem gebrekkige E. coli mutant verkry kan word. Tweedens, is pogings aangewend om 'n vermeende suikerriet plastied geteikende PPO gene te isoleer, om uiteindelik te gebruik in die ontwikkeling van 'n cisgeniese strategie in suikeriet. 5 'RACE was suksesvol in die onthulling van bykomende nukleotiede volgorde deur 1006 bp by te voeg by die reeds bekende gedeeltelike suikerriet PPO fragment. Nie teenstaande is die fragment wat nuut geïsoleer is, steeds slegs 'n gedeeltelike volgorde volgens vergelykings met ander bekende plant PPO gene.

The purpose of the project: The aim of this project was to finish the current BOM-list that already existed so it could be sent to X-ponent. When that was done it got possible to identify the non X-ponent products from other suppliers. These products had to be order by the needs to build walls, roof, and etc. When all the products were on place on the BOM-list the next goal was to send it back to X-ponent so they could buy them and then start to build different car-riages/boards by knowing who to call. The last step was to plan a delivery based on the most effective way by identify the risks. Make sure that the existing BOM-list is finished with the most suitable tools/ equip-ment’s and how to strategically buy them from X-ponent. How can X-ponent buy the non X-ponent products effective from the suppliers? How will these assembled products arrive effective from X-ponent to Husmutterns facil-ity?  How will these products be financed?Sum: A plan for the purchaser on Husmuttern AB so he/she just have to call X-ponent only once and to tell them a thought date for the products to be on place.Method: To achieve with these tasks, the author had to do a literature study on lean and six sigma tools. The comparison that was done between Husmuttern AB and XX gave a clear im-age about how respective companies purchasing process are. When these studies were done it became easier to handle these tasks, sush as fill in the rest on the BOM-list, knowing how transport the goods effective and also know what to take up on the attended meetings with the suppliers and to communicate through email and phone.Study results: The result for this project was to fill the required equipment’s/tools for the company that is thought to be purchased, considering the best products for these types of car-riage/boards. When all the tools/equipment’s were covered and finished the result was how to strategically buy them from this supplier (X-ponent). The author had to find the best logistics company to deliver these products and therefore was the delivery time estimated and founded based on Google maps estimated time to travel from Phils to X-ponent and then to Husmuttern AB:s facility. To transport the goods from X-ponents facility to the truck was estimated based on earlier experience out of the seller on X-ponent and CEO on husmuttern. The total price for each product from X-ponent:The exact price exkl moms:1 Instruction carriage/board: XXkr2 Tool/equipment carriages/boards: XXkr1 Charging carriage/boards: XXkr1 Unloading carriage: XXkr1 Unrolling stand: XXkr16 Pallet carriages: XXkrThe estimated price for the fixtures:1 Roof fixture: XXkr1 Wall fixture: XXkr1 Inner wall/inner roof fixture: XXkr1 Floor fixture: XXkr1 Corner fixture: XXkrThe estimated delivery price for the total transport: XXkrA total estimated price for the whole process: XXkr excl VATRecommendations: When the facility is on place and is producing the houses, it is important that the staff on the company evaluate the products that was bought, so if they know if any changes will be done or not. This will also help them to save money so they do not have to buy same tools/equipment over and over again. If you see it from another perspective, it will make4 (67)it possible for Husmuttern to tell X-ponent that the products they bought is not good as they thought and that will help X-ponent to fix the coming problems, and maybe make a discount to other Husmuttern facilities that probably be established in the coming future.It is also very im-portant that the company always looks what the market has to tell, and be very aware what the costumers needs in the coming future.

Developing high quality software is difficult. Traditional software engineering methods emphasizes on structured and linear workflow of activities methods that have been criticized due to their rigid and inflexible nature. Recently, agile software engineering approaches such as Scrum have gained popularity in the software industry. These methods emphasize flexibility, speed, transparency, and teamwork aspects. In this thesis, investigation and comparison of three modern production practices and principles done, these include; Kanban, the 5S workplace organization method and Toyota Production System (TPS). The goal has been to identity features of these production philosophies and analyzed how they might contribute to software engineering processes, particularly to improve Scrum. The study indicates that many principles from these production approaches have been implemented in Scrum. However, the Kanban, 5S and TPS principles of Visibility are just partially implemented in Scrum. Scrum overlooks many aspects of programming that need to be visualized such as code quality aspects (testing) and representations of the actual software structure under development.

EDI as well as XML are the basic communication standards used in B2B e-commerce. With special interest to transaction processing systems. According to the specific attributes EDI and XML provides. There could be some common and merely different features derived. But also there could be the impact of considerations from the business organisation domain with additional issues which determine the use of EDI or XML. In this study the particular interest is in the finding of a set of reasons, not only in the single sight of the performance of the two techniques. The study surveys the impact of business processes, the found business environment settings and the choose of standards with special reference to the scrutinised area.

Abstract  Denna kunskapsöversikt har genomförts för att få svar på frågan “Vilka metoder för kooperativt lärande används i matematikundervisningen i Sverige samt resten av världen, och hur effektiva kan de vara?”. Översikten ser över flera olika metoder och koncept, dessa är; TPS, STAD, TAI, peer collaboration och Jigsaw. Även hur de används i de olika länderna som studierna gjorts i, undersöks. Dessa metoder och koncept valdes då flera studier satte dessa i fokus. Kunskapsöversikten ser även över ifall metoderna är effektivare än den traditionella undervisningen som används i dessa länder.  Kunskapsöversikten har utförts med hjälp av en sökprocess i sökmotorn “LibSearch”. Sökorden “cooperative learning” och “mathematics” har varit utgångspunkten för sökningar kring frågan. Även sökordet “methods” har använts när studier kring metoder i kooperativt lärande var viktigt att hitta.  Resultaten visar att kooperativt lärande samt deras metoder är mer effektiva än traditionell undervisning i matematik. Kooperativt lärande kan även delas in i två olika beskrivningar; ett metodfokuserat arbetssätt, som fokuserar på att använda den bästa metoden, och ett kooperativfokuserat, som fokuserar på att arbetsformen för eleverna uppfyller kravet för att ses som kooperativt. Länder som inte arbetat kooperativt men infört det får även en högre effekt än länder som redan har infört det, men skiftar metod. Det identifierades även att TAI och STAD var två metoder som fungerade bra i de klassrum där kooperativt lärande introducerades. Fortsatt jämförande av de två metodernas arbetssätt är något som kan forskas vidare om för att få ytterligare information om någon metod är den mest effektiva.  Nyckelord: Jigsaw, kooperativt lärande, peer collaboration, samarbete, STAD, Sverige, TAI, TPS

The rapid rate of increase in competition among the manufacturing industries has caused many organizations to continuously seek improvement in the quality of the products they manufacture to meet and exceed customer expectations. Organizations are under pressure to minimize the production costs to offer competitive prices for their products. The success story of Toyota Motor Company in implementing Lean Manufacturing (LM) has inspired many organizations around the world to adopt LM in order to improve their operational performance. There are, however, mixed results on the impact of LM on operational performance. Some studies have shown that its implementation increases operational performance while others have shown little to no improvement or even negative results. Institutional and contingency theories may provide insight into some of these contradictions and give a perception of why the implementation of LM has yielded different results on operational performance. The institutional theory states that organizations mimic the actions and practices of other organizations because of the pressure to remain competitive. Organizations in the developing countries also seem to have been imitating the Toyota Motor company that has been successful in implementing LM. On the other hand, the contingency theory states that corporations are organized according to external situations. Related to the contingency theory is the effect of Industry Clockspeed (IC). Some industries are transforming at a high speed while others are transforming at a low speed. The high IC industries are characterized by the quick development and release of new products, shorter development time and frequent changes in organizational structures. Low IC industries, however, manufacture products with a long life cycle, thus the products, processes and organizational structures for these industries change only after a long period. This study opines that the environment under which an organisation operates may affect the results of LM implementation process. The research was conducted in three parts and each of these parts is presented as chapters in this thesis. The first part (Chapter 4) gives a review and classifies the impact measurement models that have been used by various researchers to measure the success of implementing LM. These models can be classified as quantitative, qualitative, simulation-based and graphical measurement models. Pareto analysis is used to select the type of measurement model and Lean practices that are frequently used by researchers to develop Lean measurement models. The qualitative measurement model was preferred for evaluating the effect of implementing LM on operational performance because of its ability to use question structures that allow qualitative data collection for a rich analysis of opinion. With a proper structure, the questionnaire items can also be parsed and analyzed quantitatively with modern statistical techniques like Structural Equation Modelling. The Lean practices selected were Just In Time (JIT), Jidoka, People integration and Stability and standardization for building the model. This part concludes by developing a structural model that can be used to measure the impact of Lean implementation in industry, using Zimbabwean industry data. The second part (Chapter 5) evaluates the effect of implementing LM tools on operational performance across various industries in Zimbabwe. The major goal of this chapter was to develop an operational model (based on the lead from chapter 4) and test it in manufacturing organizations across various industries. A structured survey questionnaire was used for the collection of data in identified companies and 214 useful responses were obtained. The results of the study indicated that operational performance was improved by implementing the selected LM tools. The performance improvement variables that were significantly influenced were speed, flexibility and dependability. The third part (Chapter 6) analyzed the moderation effect of IC on the relationship between LM tools and operational performance. The industries grouped under low IC were pharmaceutical, agrochemicals, steel, automobile, timber production, battery, chemical and plastics. The high IC industries were food, beverage, electronics and garment. A structural equation model was proposed and investigated across the two groups. A structured survey questionnaire was used to collect empirical data from manufacturing companies. The data obtained from the responses was analysed using Smart PLS 3 and SPSS version 25. The results of the study showed that IC had a moderating effect on the relationship between LM practices and operational performance for both low and high IC industries. The last chapter summarises the findings, made recommendations and proposes directions for further research. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) / Industrial and Systems Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted