Tailoring a lean product development framework for the South African automotive industry
- Authors: Mund, Klaudia
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Lean manufacturing , Automobile industry and trade -- South Africa , Production management -- South Africa , Globalization
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DTech
- Identifier: vital:8792 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1015737
- Description: Globalization in the automotive industry exerts enormous pressure on automotive manufacturers and forces many global companies to expand into emerging markets, which results in adopting new ways to manage product design and development. Excellence in product design and development offers an opportunity to gain competitive advantage and can be achieved by implementing Toyota´s Lean Product Development System (LPDS). Although in the last three years Toyota has been severely challenged by the global economic crisis, by a series of recalls resulting in reputation damage and also by natural disasters such as the recent tsunamis - the world can still learn from Toyota´s successes embodied in the lean concept and practices, which are integral to Toyota´s ‘way of life’. The LPDS model (Morgan & Liker 2006) has captured the attention of academics worldwide (including this researcher) thanks to the following key characteristics: shorter development times, less engineering hours involved in development, lower manufacturing costs, higher customer satisfaction and fewer defects reported. In the academic world, lean product development (LPD) is a new field of exploration and thus relevant literature and numbers of studies available are limited. However, scientists are asking questions about successful adaptation and adoption of this model to other environments beyond Toyota. Similarly, the researcher aimed in this thesis to find answers to its main research question, namely: ‘What would be a suitable LPD model for the South African automotive industry?’ South Africa (SA) is a country with a strong manufacturing tradition and although the automotive sector is the third-largest segment in the South African economy and its vehicle market is the largest on the African continent in a global perspective SA´s contribution is relatively small as it produces only 0.61percent of the global motor vehicle volume (OICA 2011). While the country strives to secure sustainable development for the automotive industry and seeks to improve its global competitiveness, companies operating in SA are currently faced with several unique challenges and problems. Lean has been expanding slowly in SA and some companies in the local automotive industry have implemented the lean concept into production areas to improve their operational excellence and performance. However, it is a search for excellence in product development (PD) that could best contribute to improved sustainability for the automotive industry and also provide an important strategic spur towards global competitiveness. The primary intention of this research was to develop an integrated LPD framework tailored for SA´s automotive industry. Considering this, it was necessary to determine current PD capabilities at domestic and international companies operating in SA´s automotive industry so as to examine levels of adaptation of LPD practices. A questionnaire survey and personal interviews involving all seven locally operating Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), including Toyota, as well as 36 local automotive suppliers provided an empirical base for this investigation. This study indicates that SA plays an important supportive role in the global PD context. In spite of a strong manufacturing focus and very limited PD capabilities, SA´s automotive companies have already achieved a high level of ‘leanness’ in product engineering processes. However, on the downside, it appears that industry leaders and senior managers are sceptical about current and future capabilities and opportunities for SA in the designing and developing of global products.
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- Date Issued: 2011
The development of best practice guidelines for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism in the motor manufacturing industry
- Authors: Werner, Amanda
- Date: 2005
- Subjects: Sick leave , Absenteeism (Labor) , Contingency theory (Management) , Automobile industry and trade -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DTech
- Identifier: vital:9379 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/160 , Sick leave , Absenteeism (Labor) , Contingency theory (Management) , Automobile industry and trade -- South Africa
- Description: The research problem in this study was to identify best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. To achieve this goal, the following actions were taken: A literature study was conducted to identify the scope and impact of health-related absenteeism on organisations and the legal parameters within which health-related absenteeism should be managed. A literature study was also conducted to identify strategies to prevent and reduce health-related absenteeism and strategies to ensure the continuous provision of products and services in periods of high absenteeism. The theoretical study focused on the management of absenteeism, wellness, ill-health/mental problems and HIV/AIDS, as well as contingency strategies aimed at maintaining production and service provision. iii The findings from the literature study were integrated into a model of best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. This model was used as a basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to determine whether senior human resources practitioners, occupational health practitioners or line managers, who were responsible for the management of health-related absenteeism in organisations, agreed with the best practice guidelines developed in the study. The survey was conducted in the motor and motor component industry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropole. The empirical results from the study showed a strong concurrence with the best practices guidelines developed in the study, with the exception of the strategies aimed at maintaining undisrupted production and service provision during periods of high absenteeism. In particular, disagreement was shown with regard to alternative work arrangements such as flexible work-hours, a compressed workweek, telecommuting and job-sharing. Absenteeism, in general, is an issue that organisations are challenged with on a daily basis. The proliferation of various diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS, is contributing to this problem. An integrated and strategic approach is required to deal effectively and constructively with the immediate and expected future impact of health-related issues on absenteeism. Organisations could use the best practices guidelines, identified in this study, as a mechanism to benchmark how well they manage health-related absenteeism
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- Date Issued: 2005