South African businesses are facing unforeseen opportunities and threats following the country’s remarkable political transformation that culminated in its first non-racial, democratic elections in April 1994 (Krüger, 1997: 138). The objective of this paper was to understand what core competences a South African motor vehicle assembler requires to survive this era of declining protectionism and increasing competition. It is argued in this paper that organisations that want to compete with the best in the world market needs to adopt lean manufacturing principles. This paper is concerned with the core competences of an organisation and how an organisation identifies and utilises these in order to become a lean enterprise. The qualitative research method was identified as the most appropriate for the study. Two methods of data collection were used i.e. interviews with senior and middle management and a detailed literary study on the subject. The senior management interviews were aimed at identifying what they perceived to be the core competences a motor vehicle assembler requires in order to be a world-class lean manufacturing enterprise. The literary study was the base for the understanding of core competence and lean manufacturing. Finally, a second round of interviews with middle management was conducted to obtain clarity on the perceived role of middle management in the selected organisation’s quest to be a lean manufacturing concern. This paper concludes that if an organisation wants to survive it needs to identify and assess its core competences. These competences need to be developed or discarded in the organisation’s aims to be a lean manufacturing enterprise by eliminating all forms of non-value added activity. The programmes or projects that the selected organisation embarked on were primarily driven from the top down, placing middle management in the centre with the resistance coming from the lower levels in the organisation. Middle management should be given the necessary tools to overcome the resistance and assist the company to make smooth transitions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:10834 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Maritz, Louis Wiehahn |
| Publisher | Port Elizabeth Technikon, Faculty of Management, Business Administration |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MTech |
| Format | xiv, 122 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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