Abstract
D.Ing.
During the last pre-millennium decade South African engineers were involved mainly in
military product development. The downscaling of development within the military arena,
forced the engineering as well as other industries to refocus on commercial product
development and marketing (the engineers in the military environment were not the only
ones influenced by the change in the economic climate. Many others were also affected,
but for the sake of explanation, the military environment was used). This stage led to the
creation of various small- to-medium enterprises (SMEs), which were set up by creative,
determined engineers and entrepreneurs.
However, by the latter part of the last decade, these initiatives ended sadly in the liquidation
of quite a number of companies. These ongoing liquidations are a result of various aspects,
such as cash flow restrictions, growing currency value and a low national- growth figure.
The research done in fulfilment of this thesis, addresses some of the events of the last
decade and offers general, practical suggestions on how to overcome some of these hurdles
within the current economic climate. It illustrates that experience enables an entrepreneur
to develop methods and provide suggestions on how to create, establish, survive and grow
within a high-technology driven SME.
Shortfalls, methods and products are discussed by means of case studies. The products
discussed in the thesis, are all classified among the field of mobile, portable and static
electronic power-conversion. Thirty high-technology companies participated in a survey in
support of the research statements.
As a summary, it is shown that various aspects often restrict new product development
(NPD) for SMEs. Optimum and effective usage of knowledge and experience in areas of
technology, marketing, human resources, organisational, operational, manufacturing and
financial management is required to achieve goals successfully and to survive in today’s
industry. An investigation was done to determine the relationship between these interdivisions
of an SME.
In conclusion, methods and models are presented to optimise the techniques that are
currently used within SMEs. These techniques are then further expanded on and presented
as guidelines for business discussions. Practical examples are presented in support of the
actual models.