A TOTAL MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS TECHNIQUE TO SELECT APPROPRIATE IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY: CASE STUDY OF A FOOTWEAR FACTORY
Journal Title: International Journal for Quality Research - Year 2014, Vol 8, Issue 3
Abstract
The Government of Ethiopia is promoting the manufacturing sector to join the global market in a large scale. Due to its comparative advantages, the Ethiopian leather and leather products industry have been given due attention. To fully utilize such advantages, the country shifted its export items from hides/skins to footwear products. Nevertheless, the performance of the leather sector in general and footwear sub-sector in particular is far below the desired standards. The improvement strategies applied hitherto were mainly to tackle a small portion of their total problems. If the Ethiopian footwear companies have to become globally competitive, their entire business spectrum has to be assessed and appropriate improvement strategies must be selected. In this research, we used a Total manufacturing solutions (TMS) technique to identify areas of improvement and improvement strategy of one of Ethiopian footwear companies. For this purpose, we conducted two surveys using structured questionnaire. The first survey was to test the TMS technique against the context of footwear industry. The result proved that the original TMS model can be used to measure the performance of footwear companies. The second survey was done to identify company's total problems, map its current position and select appropriate improvement strategy. The result revealed that the company has company-wide problems and its current position is a plodder. For plodders which have company-wide problems, the improvement strategy must include aggressive application of BPR; and the implementation of best practices to develop workers skills that encourages networking and promotion, a market-led manufacturing strategy, employee involvement and team work cultures. According to the findings of this research, we suggested that a BPR technique followed by a continuous improvement programme could be an appropriate improvement strategy for this company. The company requires long-term improvement programme to achieve the category of world leaders.
Authors and Affiliations
Gezahegn Tesfaye, Daniel Kitaw, Amare Matebu Kassa
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP217791
- DOI -
- Views 85
- Downloads 0
BALANCED SCORECARD EVALUATION MODEL THAT INCLUDES ELEMENTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING AHP MODEL
The research is oriented on improvement of environmental management system (EMS) using BSC (Balanced Scorecard) model that presents strategic model of measurements and improvement of organisational performance. The resea...
DEVELOPMENT OF VET QUALITY IN RUSSIA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EUROPEAN MODEL OF EDUCATION QUALITY CQAF
In this article are presented the results of research of development of VET quality in Russia and possibilities of adaptation of the new European standard on VET quality Common Quality Assurance Framework (CQAF) in Russi...
APPLICATION OF DECISION MAKING WITH UNCERTAINTY TECHNIQUES: A CASE OF PRODUCTION VOLUME OF MAIZE IN ETHIOPIA
Making of an appropriate decision is a challenge that also determines the success of an organization like Adet Agricultural Research Institute. In this agricultural research institute, production volumes of different mai...
THE LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AS ONE OF THE GOALS OF THE QUALITY OF THE ORGANIZATION IN THE BAKERY INDUSTRY
The original definition of consumption (from Latin "consumer") that is closely related to the notion of consumer, related to the taking of foodconsuming. This paper describes an original methodology of measuring customer...
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR IMPROVING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE WITH LEAN MANUFACTURING AND SUCCESSFUL HUMAN FACTORS INTERVENTIONS–A CASE STUDY
Nowadays organizations compete between themselves in various categories such as faster delivery, price tags, state of art-technology and higher quality dimensions. A Conceptual framework with lean manufacturing and human...