Manufacturing in South Africa constantly face competition from both local as well as foreign entities. Productivity growth is viewed by many executives and business leaders as the key element in maintaining competitiveness in the global economy. The success of the South African manufacturing and its global competitiveness lie in its productivity. By focusing on promoting productivity, South African manufacturers will establish a source of sustained competitive gains, while labour will establish a sustainable source of income growth. The Eberspacher South Africa Port Elizabeth (ESA) is not in any way immune to the level of competition that impacts all businesses in South Africa. ESA not only competeswith other local catalytic converter companies in terms of a high level of productivity, but also with other manufacturing plants within the Eberspacher Group globally. In Eberspacher all exhaust manufacturing plants are constantly benchmarked, comparing productivity levels, quality levels, cost and delivery. This data is used not only to determine goals, but also forms a key determinant as to where any new business is placed. The internal competition encourages all manufacturing plants within Eberspacher to continously improve plant productivity within group. A company is competitive if it is able to produce products that are either cheaper or better than those of other firms. Most of ESA customers are internal final assembly plants from Europe, USA, India and China. ESA therefore constantly have to ensure that they are competitive in all aspects of business, including productivity. In ESA, the overall productivity performance of the manufacturing plant is of utmost importance to ensure the ability to supply all the customers with cost competitive products, at the right time and with zero defects. Productivity in Eberspacher is used as a vital measurement to the sourcing decision for any new business awarded to the group. The main purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of productivity improvement initiatives at the Eberspacher Port Elizabeth Manufacturing Plant.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8782 |
Date | January 2011 |
Creators | Zerbst, Nicolaas Jacobus |
Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
Format | xiv, 153 leaves, pdf |
Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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