The increased globalisation of the automotive industry of South Africa has brought
with it both opportunities and threats for the various players. Companies taking
advantage of the government's Motor Industry Development Plan have quickly
learned that exporting both components and vehicles is the most suitable way forward.
Toyota SA, in its new role as a global player has strategized that sourcing parts from
local suppliers will give it the competitive advantage to then compete internationally.
The company has planned to increase its local content targets from 40% to around
70% in the next few years.
The question that rises to the fore is "are the local suppliers able to cope in meeting
this challenge?" This study explores the various issues faced by Toyota SA as well as
its local suppliers in attempting to achieve these targets. While Toyota SA has to
deliver the expectations of developed countries, it is faced by a local supplier base that
for many reasons, lags behind the rest of the world. The study adopts classical
techniques for analysis as well as recent techniques in evaluating the suitability of the
increased localisation strategy. Finally, based on the impact of the various forces,
recommendations are made as to the strong and weak points of the strategy.
Poor product development capabilities and technical/operational improvement
requirements at suppliers, the lack of internal resources at Toyota SA and finally the
weak second and lower tier supplier levels all emerge as issues to be addressed. These
issues cannot be ignored for the implementation of the increased localisation strategy
to be successful. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/4065 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Contributors | Thomson, Elza. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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