Abstract
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)
South Africa is a developing country, which makes it a very attractive country for investors. This opportunity for investment poses a challenge for companies in the market to create an operating system and a culture that will deliver and satisfy demand. At the rate at which South Africa is growing, the understanding and the ability to implement engineering principles such as Lean Manufacturing (LM) is essential. The study objective is therefore to identify gaps towards successful implementation of LM in an international rail transportation manufacturing company in order to improve product quality and customer satisfaction. Due to confidentiality, the name of the company is withheld and the access to conduct a survey on Ford and Toyota with the employees were denied.
The study included a thorough literature study, analysis and comparison of how companies such as Ford and Toyota implemented LM. Subsequently research questions focusing on Lean were formulated in order to determine how: (i) the best way forward the rail transportation manufacturing company should apply the lean principles to improve their product quality output; (ii) how other well-developed such as Ford and Toyota implemented LM compared to the said company, (iii) barriers / gaps can be identified in order to eliminate the risk of not successfully implementing LM principles.
In total 25 (n=25) knowledgeable participants were selected in terms of lean application to participate in the study. The study reveals that there are distinct shortcomings in implementing LM in the company in terms of lean versus implementation at Ford and Toyota. Furthermore the results of the study indicated that 48% of the participants believed that limited lean principles has been implemented, whilst 36% indicated that it has not been implemented, whilst 16% are unsure. The results also identified that that 84% of employees experienced wastage. A major concern is that 60% of the employees believe that customer requirements are not met. In conclusion, the study paves a way towards improvement in lean application at the company and as such a starting point in resolving and improving the quality output of their products. The study results assisted the organisation to utilise the information gathered to determine gaps and barriers in their systems and application of lean.