David Kruger

Process integration and improvement in a higher education institution in South Africa

Process utilised in service organisations are justly regarded as crucial resources. Each process utilised in rendering a service appreciably play a role in the cost of managing the organisation. Processes impacts on the service levels customers expects and experience from the service provider. Higher Education providers are not immune from poor performing and costly processes. The researched institution is as a result not an exception. Due to the business model of the institution, Open Distance Learning, it is imperative for the organisation to have effective and efficient processes to service 350 000 students. Due to failures of critical processes at inopportune moments, management decided processes should be improved utilising scientific and systematic improvement tools. The researcher was requested to investigate processes and affect changes that would improve the performance of said processes. Various lean change methodologies was utilised in investigating, mapping and improvement of processes. Some of the lean methodologies utilised was the Ishikawa diagram, seven service wastes, the five why principle and root cause analysis. The purpose of the study was to create processes fit for purpose, effective integration and acceptance of the improved processes and ensuring processes was effectively engineered. Standard Operating Procedure was produced for each of the improved processes.

Assessment of the reasons for failure and critical success factors implementing CI projects: Case study results from the South African Apparel and Manufacturing industry

Utilizing case studies the paper investigates the reasons for the failure of Continuous Improvement (CI) projects in the South African Apparel and Manufacturing industries. There is an ever-increasing disquiet about implementation malfunctions in industry and the reason for the failures. During the 20th century, a plethora of quick fix CI methodologies were introduced. Management of organizations implements improvements without understanding the underlying principles of the improvement methodologies they attempted to implement. It occurred due to a lack of effective implementation guidelines that management could utilize. Management expects processes to miraculously transform through implementation of a particular methodology or set of methodologies. Management erroneously believed that CI projects would succeed without their active participation. Notwithstanding the failure of CI projects, a need for improvement of processes still exists in the 21st century. There are various reasons why the improvements methodologies might fail. The authors identified the most common reason for the failure of CI projects in the South African context. As a result the authors endeavored to identify the critical success factors that would assist in a successful implementation of CI projects in South Africa.

Application of Business Process Reengineering as a Process Improvement Tool: A Case Study

The environment in which organisations function at present is characterised by precipitous variation and development. In consequence, if they are to remain competitive, organisations must constantly improve their processes and systems. The improvements referred to must relate mainly to the effective and efficient utilisation of scarce resources within the organisation, and cause a shift in organisational priorities. The shift from product centredness to customer centredness makes change inevitable. Globally organisations are eagerly seeking innovative philosophies and theories that will help them achieve growth, competitiveness and productivity. Business process reengineering (BPR) is recognised as a methodology which could be beneficial in attaining the goals. Developed during the 1990s, BPR is a derivative of other Japanese methodologies such as just in time and process focus. Its hallmark is the sweeping restructuring of processes, transformation of alignment and streamlining of processes within an organisation. The aim of the paper is to identify a specific application which could facilitate improvements to the processes of a selected organisation. The correct application of the BPR methodology would result in effective and efficient processes.

The Suitability of Lean as an Improvement Tool in a Manufacturing Concern: A Case Study

Since the Industrial Revolution, enterprises have attempted to identify viable methodologies for improving the manner in which they conduct their business. A number of methodologies have been tried and tested; some were successful, and others less so. The quest to do more with fewer resources has broadened. As a result, when competition has intensified, manufacturers and service providers have acknowledged the negative effect of waste in processes and systems on their profit margins, and the need to eradicate it. Lean manufacturing has been identified as a powerful methodology in finding solutions for improvement problems. It was developed from the Toyota Production System (TPS) and has been refined over time to be applied universally. It has been implemented with varying degrees of success worldwide. The paper will attempt to illustrate how lean was utilised in a particular organisation to improve its processes and ultimately its profit margin; an explanation is given of what was done to ensure the ultimate success of the improvements undertaken in the researched organisation. The paper includes a discussion of possible pitfalls.

The Influence of enforced changes on systems performance

Progressively more tumultuous times are experienced by organisations in the manufacturing and service sector in South Africa. The Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is not excluded. The HEIs are required to be adaptable and responsive to students demands. It brings into stark contrast the relations linking the recognized organisational configuration and casual systems. Consequently, improvement programmes do not succeed in a shifting systems performance. The result is changes are made to systems and processes the way it looks rather than change their objectives. Industry settings currently are characterized by vigour, nonlinearity and evolving properties. In a nutshell, it is identified through its complexity. Affirming the world and thus industry systems are multifaceted, denotes it is impractical to appreciate each by allowing for individuality of elements in isolation. Replication of complexities linked with service systems continues to be an opaque question for most HEIs struggle with. The mission is acutely made complex by student activism and their changing demands on HEIs and the uncertainties coupled to it. The Cynefin Framework is an important tool in this regard. The purpose of the paper is to enlighten how the utilisation of systems thinking and complexity theory and associated methodologies could prevent negative influences on HEIs.

A systemic complex problem solving approach to process improvement

Organisations often discover process improvement implementation crash. Consequently, they are at a loss to explain the reasons for the failure. The team fails to understand processes often function within other systems and sub systems. Therefore, the complexity of the system(s) is not taken into account during process improvements. Process improvement teams often operate under the misunderstanding that there will be order in the process or system being improved. The improvement team is unaware that their actions in a process might influence the system or a sub system negatively. It is as a result that a human that functions in a process, system or sub system can assume many roles or identities. It is imperative the team undertaking the improvements to understand the complexity of systems. The team must understand who the customer of the process or system is. Furthermore, an understanding of the actors and transformation process in the process or system is required. The implementation team must take into account the environment in which the process or system operates and who the owner of the process and or system is. The paper attempts by utilising a current project to implement a systemic complex solving approach facilitating improvement.