The world has become one small global village. This is a result of globalisation, the advancement in technology and many other contributing factors. Economic incidents and outlook in Europe, Asia and America have a direct and immediate impact on the developing countries and Africa in particular. Positive economic growth in Africa’s major trading partners has direct positive implications on Africa’s economy. Negative economic growth in Africa’s major trading partners has undesirable consequences on Africa’s economy. As a developing country with a diversified economy which mainly relies on exports and imports, South Africa’s economy is at the forefront of this economic risk. Globalisation has effectively resulted in the Republic of South African’s (RSA) export driven tank container industry being at direct economic and financial risk from global financial melt downs, volatile exchange rates, fluctuating steel prices, souring labour costs, and more importantly competitiveness risk. In the history of the industrial era, never has it been more important to have and maintain a competitive advantage. This is achieved through, inter alia, the development and successful implementation of a competitive strategy. A competitive advantage assists an organisation to financially survive, expand its operations, grow market share and achieve set corporate objectives and goals. A successful organisation has a massive social impact and economic contribution in a country. It is therefore no surprise that the field of competitive strategy has received vast academic interest. Amidst the ever changing world and markets, a competitive strategy needs to be fine-tuned, revised and reinvented. What has worked in the past will not ensure tomorrow success. The purpose of this research treatise is to investigate the factors that led to a sustained competitive advantage for a tank container manufacturer. This was achieved by applying various scientific methodologies. A case study approach was used as the most appropriate research methodology for this study. This approach entailed the use of a phenomenological paradigm. An extensive literature review on competitiveness and of strategy formulation and implementation was conducted, which has led to the development of research propositions. The study entailed a case study of a single tank container manufacturer in the RSA. The study contributes positively to the academic field of competitiveness and to the existing academic body of knowledge. It also makes a positive contribution to tank container manufacturing academic literature on competitiveness and organisational strategy formulation and strategy implementation.

Tank track pads have been known to degrade rapidly under adverse conditions, especially during cross country service where the average life has been estimated to be 500 miles. Several factors have been identified as being the cause for such low service life. One of these is the 'quality of dispersion' which plays an important role in the performance of any rubber compound. In order to evaluate the effect of the quality of dispersion on the service life of rubber compounds, a controlled blending experiment was carried out with a recipe modeled on a standard track pad formula. Mechanisms of failure produced by a bad dispersion have been identified. Two interesting observations were made, one of which was the formation of voids and the other was crack propagation along flow lines which are directly relatable to processing conditions. / Master of Science