Identifying and eliminating the root causes of the undesirable effects present in small manufacturing business production systems

The manufacturing industry in South Africa is presently experiencing severe competition from cheap imports from the east. Furthermore, the present high interest rate and newly legislated business and labour laws have created unfavourable conditions for small manufacturing businesses. For small manufacturing businesses to survive in this competitive market and under unfavourable conditions, they require increased performance in lead times, product innovation, product and service quality, manufacturing flexibility and responsiveness and, reduced manufacturing costs. To attain sustainable improvements requires a comprehensive understanding of problematic situations present in small business manufacturing systems. The aim of this project was to identify the major problems present in small business manufacturing systems, to highlight the difference between, and show the causality relationships between, "symptoms" of problems and their root causes, and to propose ways of eliminating the problems.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

1999

Author dc:creator

• Almeleh, Marc R

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lister, Gordon

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9057

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9057