The primary objective of this study was to identify and investigate the main restrictions automation suppliers encounter when attempting to promote and sell their products into the local Vaal Triangle manufacturing industry. Through the literature study that was conducted, a general investigation into the supply chains of some of the most prominent manufacturing industries within the geographical demarcation were analysed. Two manufacturing industries were chosen namely Sasol and Rand Water. The different criteria upon which they qualify their suppliers were identified and the reasoning behind it discussed. The identified criteria included product compliance restrictions; commercial restrictions as well as limitations placed on suppliers by the consumer themselves where suppliers are restricted to only a few per product or service. The commercial restrictions were identified as the only restrictions the supplier has total control over and for this reason, was investigated in detail. These commercial restrictions included the supplier's NOSA, ISO and CIDB rating, as well as their BBBEE status. After the literature review, an empirical study was conducted by making use of a questionnaire which was developed alongside the conduction of the literature study. This questionnaire was sent out to the top management of the identified local automation suppliers to be filled out. The completed questionnaires were analysed by the Statistical Consultation Services of the North-West University (Potchefstroom campus). After the reliability and validity of the questionnaire had been determined, the basic demographical information of the respondents was analysed. An assessment of the 12 constructs measured in the study was done and the relationships between the demographic variables and the constructs were identified. Following the detailed analysis, conclusions on the demographic information of the respondents as well as between all the demographic variables and the constructs measured which had practical significance were discussed. Practical recommendations regarding compliance to the commercial restriction studied were made. The success of the study was determined mainly based on the achievement of the primary and secondary objectives. The study concluded by making suggestions for further research on the topic at hand. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The primary objective of this study was to identify and investigate the main restrictions automation suppliers encounter when attempting to promote and sell their products into the local Vaal Triangle manufacturing industry. Through the literature study that was conducted, a general investigation into the supply chains of some of the most prominent manufacturing industries within the geographical demarcation were analysed. Two manufacturing industries were chosen namely Sasol and Rand Water. The different criteria upon which they qualify their suppliers were identified and the reasoning behind it discussed. The identified criteria included product compliance restrictions; commercial restrictions as well as limitations placed on suppliers by the consumer themselves where suppliers are restricted to only a few per product or service. The commercial restrictions were identified as the only restrictions the supplier has total control over and for this reason, was investigated in detail. These commercial restrictions included the supplier's NOSA, ISO and CIDB rating, as well as their BBBEE status. After the literature review, an empirical study was conducted by making use of a questionnaire which was developed alongside the conduction of the literature study. This questionnaire was sent out to the top management of the identified local automation suppliers to be filled out. The completed questionnaires were analysed by the Statistical Consultation Services of the North-West University (Potchefstroom campus). After the reliability and validity of the questionnaire had been determined, the basic demographical information of the respondents was analysed. An assessment of the 12 constructs measured in the study was done and the relationships between the demographic variables and the constructs were identified. Following the detailed analysis, conclusions on the demographic information of the respondents as well as between all the demographic variables and the constructs measured which had practical significance were discussed. Practical recommendations regarding compliance to the commercial restriction studied were made. The success of the study was determined mainly based on the achievement of the primary and secondary objectives. The study concluded by making suggestions for further research on the topic at hand. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

La mise sur le marché de nouveaux produits constitue un enjeu stratégique pour les entreprises et notamment pour les PME&PMI. Les projets de développement de produits sont en règle générale bien maîtrisés localement au sein des entreprises mais sont confrontés à de réelles difficultés dès lors qu’ils requièrent une étroite collaboration des partenaires. L'idée force dans cette recherche est liée au fait que pour accroître l’efficacité de tout projet de développement de produits il est impératif de prendre en considération, le plus tôt possible, les contraintes liées au réseau de partenaires support à son exécution. Notre contribution s'inscrit dans le cadre de la méthodologie Co-Evolution Produit et réseau de partenaireS (CEPS) développée au sein de notre laboratoire. Cette thèse explore les dépendances entre les partenaires du réseau et propose une méthode d’évaluation a priori de l’intégrabilité de tout nouveau partenaire. Cette méthode est supportée par un prototype d'aide à la décision utilisable par les décideurs. / Abstract

O crescimento populacional, a industrialização e a expansão da agricultura no último século vêm acarretando problemas de escassez e degradação dos recursos hídricos. Desta forma, a gestão das águas passou a fazer parte das discussões políticas, sociais, econômicas e acadêmicas. A noção atual é a de que a água é um recurso finito, escasso e valorizado economicamente. Assim, a necessidade desse recurso leva fornecedores e usuários a negociarem no ambiente institucional vigente. A pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar a influência da institucionalização da cobrança da água no mercado de fornecimento para a lavoura orizícola na Região Hidrográfica do Litoral do Rio Grande do Sul. Para atender este objetivo, foram utilizados procedimentos metodológicos qualitativos, tendo como alvo produtores orizícolas e experts, distribuídos em 47 entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Inicialmente foram identificadas e caracterizadas as dimensões do arranjo institucional dos recursos hídricos e, esses resultados permitiram a construção de cinco cená rios: realista, pessimista, otimista, conformista e resistente para a cobrança pelo uso da água. Esses cenários revelaram que o mercado de fornecimento de água para a lavoura arrozeira já está legitimado socialmente. Não há intervenção do Estado, nem dos comitês de bacia hidrográfica nas negociações entre usuários e fornecedores dos serviços de irrigação. Assim, percebe-se que a cobrança do uso da água poderá afetar a formação de preços nesse mercado, mas o poder de barganha entre as partes permanecerá àque le que já está institucionalizado. / Population growth, industrialization and expansion of agriculture in the last century have caused problems of shortage and degradation of water resources. This way, water management started making part of political, social, economic and academic discussions. The current notion is that water is a finite, scarce and economically valuable resource. So, the need of such a resource leads suppliers and users to negotiate in the ongoing institutional environment. This research’s goal was evaluating the influence of the institutionalization of water tariff charge in the market that supplies rice croplands in the Hydrographic Region of Coastal Rio Grande do Sul. In order to reach that aim, qualitative methodological procedures were used, having as goal both rice growers and experts, distributed in 47 half-structured interviews. At first, one identified and characterized the dimensions of the institutional arrangement of water resources, and such results allowed the construction of five scenarios: realistic, pessimistic, optimistic, conformist and resistant about the tariff charge for water usage. These scenarios reveal that the water-supplying market for rice growing is already socially legitimized. There is no intervention either by the state or by the committees of the hydrographic basin in the negotiations between users and suppliers of irrigation services. So, it can be noticed that tariff charging on water usage may affect the formation of prices in this market, but the bargaining power between the parties will remain the one that is already institutionalized.

The clothing industry is multifaceted and is characterised by garments with a short life cycle, unstable customer needs and varying fashion styles. This affects the accuracy of demand planning. In SA, the clothing industry has experienced a decline in the number of clothing manufacturers and manufacturing outputs as well as fluctuations in employment. This study investigates demand planning practices in the Gauteng clothing industry. A descriptive and exploratory study was conducted based on a semi-structured questionnaire. The structured data was descriptively analysed using SPSS and inferentially analysed using the Kruskal‒Wallis test as well as content analysis for the unstructured questions. The findings revealed that demand planning practices in the Gauteng clothing industry are conducted using the hierarchical and optimal demand planning approaches. The results also revealed that there are certain factors which affect the way demand planning is conducted in the clothing industry in Gauteng. These factors includes: scheduling, fashion clothes, point of sale system, imports, estimation, recession and lead time. Furthermore, the study revealed that there are differences in the factors affecting demand planning regarding the three key clothing stakeholders (fabric suppliers, clothing manufacturers and fashion designers). The study revealed that key demand planning practices employed in the Gauteng clothing industry are production planning, uncertainty prevention, forecasting and production machine capabilities. These practices are important attributes of the hierarchical and optimal demand planning approaches. The study recommends that the hierarchical demand planning approach is more effective when planning for basic clothes (which involved planning horizon of twelve months), while the optimal demand planning approach is effective when planning for fashion clothes (which involved planning horizon of six months). The study recommends that the Gauteng clothing industry should consider factors which affect demand planning when planning for customers' needs as they affect the level of productivity in the organisation. / Entrepreneurship Supply Chain Transport Tourism and Logistics Management / M. Com.(Logistics)

The business environment is impacted by technology both negatively and positively. To this extent, therefore, it is only prudent that the business environment adopts technological platforms, such as e-commerce, but there is a need to ascertain the risks involved, in order to optimize the benefits. This study set out to determine the impact of e-commerce on corporate governance in the retail sector in Zimbabwe. The corporates under investigation were Total Zimbabwe, Complete Solutions Architects, Venturecom and Kenac. The study included gathering the views of suppliers, customers, employees, government, and trade as well as investors. It employed a quantitative research design which involved the ultimate determination of the regression equation and a qualitative design which used interviews from stakeholder respondents. Some of the notable results from the questionnaire indicated poor customer relationship management on e-commerce platforms, a more stringent control than regulatory requirements and inadequate monitoring of the behaviour and activity of clients on e-commerce platforms. The investors also felt that the impact of electronic commerce impact on shareholder activity was not satisfactory especially with regards to meetings, but they indicated satisfaction with the enhancement of resources with regards to the generation of organizational profits. The regression equation finally revealed that for overall satisfaction, as a proxy for good corporate governance, as the dependent factor the statistically independent factors were investors and government as a trade, which could imply that these are the definitive stakeholders. From the interviews, there was indication some of the salient issues about e-commerce that were indicated included the untrustworthiness of intermediaries, the difficulty in describing physical goods and the difficulty of eliminating unethical practices on electronic commerce platforms. Inter-organizational compliance between the organizations and their stakeholders was also revealed as being a major factor that was needed in order to reduce the contagion effect. This action was followed by the view that the boards’ responsibilities and roles of the corporate boards needed had to change to manage risk on e-commerce platforms. The study concluded by suggesting a longitudinal study of the same topic incorporating more stakeholders and including more hypotheses to test all the possible and proposed relationships. More time is also recommended to cater for the fast development of ecommerce and IT in general / M. Sc. (Computing Science (Information Systems)) / School of Computing

The diploma thesis is focused on the performance evaluation of key suppliers in the terms of quality in selected cosmetic company. The aim of this thesis is to propose a solution of the assigned project task, based on short-term internship and theoretical knowledge, concerning the graphical visualization of key suppliers performance evaluation. The work is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part describes basic information about management quality system, it´s principles, conceptions and tools. There is also a closer look at the importance of purchasing department and the suppliers performance evaluating methods. The practical part includes characteristics of selected cosmetic company and processes of the quality control department are described, including laboratory tests. Withing the given project, the practical part is further divided into 6 tasks. The main task involves designing a platform for a simple and effective evaluation of the key suppliers performance in terms of quality. Other sub-tasks involved the compilation of strategic suppliers, a proposal for categorizing suppliers, and for the needs of the organization, also a procedure for communication with suppliers in case the quality requirements were not met.

O crescimento populacional, a industrialização e a expansão da agricultura no último século vêm acarretando problemas de escassez e degradação dos recursos hídricos. Desta forma, a gestão das águas passou a fazer parte das discussões políticas, sociais, econômicas e acadêmicas. A noção atual é a de que a água é um recurso finito, escasso e valorizado economicamente. Assim, a necessidade desse recurso leva fornecedores e usuários a negociarem no ambiente institucional vigente. A pesquisa teve como objetivo avaliar a influência da institucionalização da cobrança da água no mercado de fornecimento para a lavoura orizícola na Região Hidrográfica do Litoral do Rio Grande do Sul. Para atender este objetivo, foram utilizados procedimentos metodológicos qualitativos, tendo como alvo produtores orizícolas e experts, distribuídos em 47 entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Inicialmente foram identificadas e caracterizadas as dimensões do arranjo institucional dos recursos hídricos e, esses resultados permitiram a construção de cinco cená rios: realista, pessimista, otimista, conformista e resistente para a cobrança pelo uso da água. Esses cenários revelaram que o mercado de fornecimento de água para a lavoura arrozeira já está legitimado socialmente. Não há intervenção do Estado, nem dos comitês de bacia hidrográfica nas negociações entre usuários e fornecedores dos serviços de irrigação. Assim, percebe-se que a cobrança do uso da água poderá afetar a formação de preços nesse mercado, mas o poder de barganha entre as partes permanecerá àque le que já está institucionalizado. / Population growth, industrialization and expansion of agriculture in the last century have caused problems of shortage and degradation of water resources. This way, water management started making part of political, social, economic and academic discussions. The current notion is that water is a finite, scarce and economically valuable resource. So, the need of such a resource leads suppliers and users to negotiate in the ongoing institutional environment. This research’s goal was evaluating the influence of the institutionalization of water tariff charge in the market that supplies rice croplands in the Hydrographic Region of Coastal Rio Grande do Sul. In order to reach that aim, qualitative methodological procedures were used, having as goal both rice growers and experts, distributed in 47 half-structured interviews. At first, one identified and characterized the dimensions of the institutional arrangement of water resources, and such results allowed the construction of five scenarios: realistic, pessimistic, optimistic, conformist and resistant about the tariff charge for water usage. These scenarios reveal that the water-supplying market for rice growing is already socially legitimized. There is no intervention either by the state or by the committees of the hydrographic basin in the negotiations between users and suppliers of irrigation services. So, it can be noticed that tariff charging on water usage may affect the formation of prices in this market, but the bargaining power between the parties will remain the one that is already institutionalized.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissABLS.pdf: 818147 bytes, checksum: e33a5c52f04685e2c15d88c2eb81643c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-10 / This research aims to understand how white goods company s production strategy affects structural and relacional aspects of supply chain management, in specially those relatives of first tier suppliers. A reason for this research is the importance of understanding the dynamic of companies supply chain, constantly requested to serve all kinds of different markets. It couldn t be found a referential model to analyze this research, so a hypothesis is used: production strategy decisions influences the structure and relationship of supply chain management by execution of business process with suppliers. So, based on some aspects of production strategy and supply chain management literature, this research seeks to determine some elements capable of management tools to find out if that hypothesis is correct.The managemently elements are taken because they promote the integration of business process, bonding focal company and suppliers. This research is characterized by explorative and qualitative search and the way to get information is done through interviews with purchase and products development managers of focal company and production managers of suppliers companies. The main contribution of this research is to find out that production strategy s focal company influences the structure and relationship of supply chain management. This occur by conformation of managemently elements that allow cooperation of first tier suppliers, due to those stand the execution of business process of focal company. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo entender como a estratégia de produção de uma montadora do setor de linha branca afeta os aspectos estruturais e relacionais de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, em especial aqueles relativos aos fornecedores de primeira camada. Uma justificativa para a condução deste trabalho é a crescente relevância do entendimento sobre a dinâmica da cadeia de suprimentos de uma empresa, cujo gerenciamento é requerido para se atender as constantes exigências de mercado. Como não há um modelo de referência já difundido para suportar a proposição analítica desenvolvida nesta dissertação, parte-se da hipótese de que a estratégia de produção influencia a estrutura e as relações de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos mantidas com membros da cadeia a partir da execução dos processos de negócios estabelecidos com fornecedores. Assim, utilizando-se a literatura de estratégia de produção e gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, definem-se alguns elementos gerenciáveis para verificar, por meio de um estudo de caso, se tal hipótese pode ser considerada plausível. Os elementos gerenciáveis foram escolhidos por fomentarem a integração de processos de negócios entre empresa focal e seus fornecedores. Tal abordagem caracteriza a pesquisa como exploratória e qualitativa em que o principal meio de obtenção de informações foram entrevistas realizadas com pessoas de nível gerencial das áreas de compras e desenvolvimento de produto na empresa focal e com os gerentes de produção de seus fornecedores. A principal contribuição deste trabalho é a verificação de que a estratégia de produção da empresa focal influencia a estrutura e as relações de sua gestão da cadeia de suprimentos. Isso ocorre por meio da conformação dos elementos gerenciáveis que permitem obter maior cooperação dos fornecedores de primeira camada, uma vez que esses apóiam fortemente a execução dos processos de negócios da empresa focal.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4268.pdf: 1388418 bytes, checksum: 83f73969216181e55c65b055af48ea29 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The changes occurred in the agricultural scenario after the markets deregulation have resulted in the need for public policies to family farmers. Through a Federal initiative, in the 2003 Food Purchase Program PAA has started, in this program family farmers sell their production at the municipal institution, as the Municipal Agriculture and Food Supply-SMAA in São Carlos city. The purchased products from the PAA are intended for popular restaurants and the food bank in the city. The PAA development became necessary to have a model that constantly evaluates the suppliers performance. To this end, this dissertation proposes a model for the suppliers evaluation using a scorecard to evaluate and to rank the performance of family farmers in the PAA in São Carlos city SMAA. In the theoretical framework the themes related to family farming, logistics and supply chain management, measurement and evaluation of performance and perfect order fulfillment were used. In order to develop the case study, the data were collected from the SMAA through interviews and semi-structured questionnaires applied to the program equip. Supported on the information obtained, we designed a model that seeks to reconcile the needs of the SMAA with the requirements of a perfect order. The model evaluates suppliers through the indicators of uniformity, maturity level, pests and diseases, timely, complete delivery and future delivery. These indicators are given different weights according to the importance assigned by the SMAA. The application of the pilot test occurred in a sample of eight suppliers and it resulted in some modifications in order to facilitate its application. The model application can provide higher quality products, meeting the demand of popular restaurants and food bank and allow the SMAA seek improvement actions with suppliers and contribute to the supply of products served is constant to this segment of the population. / As mudanças ocorridas no cenário agrícola após a desregulamentação dos mercados resultaram na necessidade de políticas públicas voltadas aos agricultores familiares. Por meio de uma iniciativa Federal, surgiu em 2003, o Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos - PAA, no qual os agricultores familiares comercializam sua produção junto aos órgãos públicos municipais, como a Secretaria Municipal de Agricultura e Abastecimento - SMAA do município de São Carlos. Os produtos adquiridos pelo PAA são destinados aos restaurantes populares e ao banco de alimentos do município. Com o desenvolvimento do PAA, tornou-se necessária a existência de um modelo que avalie constantemente o desempenho dos fornecedores, ou seja, dos agricultores familiares. Para isso, esta dissertação teve com objetivo propor um modelo de avaliação dos fornecedores utilizando um scorecard que avalie e classifique o desempenho dos agricultores familiares do PAA da SMAA do município de São Carlos - SP. Como marco teórico foram utilizados os temas referentes à agricultura familiar, logística e gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, medição e avaliação de desempenho e pedido perfeito. Para o desenvolvimento do estudo de caso foram coletados dados junto a SMAA por meio de entrevistas e aplicação de questionários semi-estruturados aos envolvidos no programa. Com base nas informações obtidas, foi elaborado um modelo, que busca conciliar as necessidades da SMAA junto aos requisitos de um pedido perfeito. O modelo avalia os fornecedores por meio dos indicadores de uniformidade, nível de maturidade, pragas e doenças, pontualidade, entrega completa e entrega futura. Estes indicadores receberam pesos distintos, de acordo com a importância atribuída pela SMAA. A aplicação do teste piloto ocorreu em uma amostra de oito fornecedores e resultou em algumas modificações com o objetivo de facilitar sua aplicação. A aplicação do modelo poderá proporcionar aumento da qualidade dos produtos, atendimento da demanda dos restaurantes populares e banco de alimentos e permitirá à SMAA buscar ações de melhorias junto aos fornecedores e contribuir para que o abastecimento de produtos servidos à esse segmento específico da população seja constante.