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Masters Degrees (Supply chain management)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/20612

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Supply chain management) by Subject "Capacity constraints."

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    Demand chain planning operations within capacity constraints : Nestlé ZAR.
    (2017) Mtshali, Nontobeko Nontokozo.; Mbhele, Thokozani Patmond.
    Organisations are currently faced with difficulties in effectively aligning demand plans to the volatile environments in which they operate. While operating environments and consumer needs change, capacity capabilities often do not reflect the demand plans. The absence of alignment results in inaccurate forecasts, thus putting the long-term sustainability of a business at risk. The focus and aim of the study is to understand how demand planning operations are aligned with capacity constraints at Nestlé ZAR. A quantitative explorative case study research design is being used and data was collected through a structured self-administered questionnaire in this study. The final sample size is 86, which comprised of employees from Demand and Supply Planning, Finance and Control, Sales and Marketing divisions. The sample includes top management, middle management, first level management and non-management. Data analysis uses descriptive and multivariate statistics. Ethical clearance was obtained from the University Ethics Committee and ethical principles were observed throughout the study. The study findings show that the organisation of interest in this study was perceived as adhering to capacity planning principles. The majority of the respondents perceived positively the capacity demand planning process. An average of 50% scored 22, which indicated a relatively high positive perception with regards to demand chain principles. The majority of the participants responded positively to the statements that information sharing achieves demand chain coordination and improves collaborative demand planning. An average of 50% scored 24, which indicated a relatively high positive perception with regards to information sharing. The results showed few capacity constraints that were perceived or experienced in this organisation. An average of 50% scored 17 which indicated that a moderate number of participants experience capacity constraints. Although the Spearman correlation did not sure any significant relationship between variables of interest in this study, the findings showed a wide range in the distribution of the responses of the participants in some items. This study highlighted that there is no one single approach to improving demand chain performance, but it was evident that allowing collaborative demand plans by using quality information shared can reduce impact of capacity constraints and improve planning performance. This study recommended that top management should provide full support to information sharing initiatives to facilitate the demand planning process. A national study to be conducted as this was conducted in one province, with a limited sample size. Keywords: Demand chain, information sharing, capacity.
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    Transportation networks and students travel patterns : the case of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
    (2015) Ponnan, Renaldin.; Mbhele, Thokozani Patmond.
    An increase in students’ accessibility to tertiary education and the decline in higher education funding have resulted in a greater number of students that reside off-campus. This trend has also given rise to off-campus students spending a significant amount of time commuting to and from campuses at University of KwaZulu Natal. The research objectives for this study aim: firstly, to explore the transportation challenges and capacity constraints impeding the travel of off-campus students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal; secondly, to establish the correlation between the constraints of public and private transportation scheduling systems on students’ academic activities; thirdly, to establish students travel patterns in an attempt to effectively balance the scheduled demand for and capacitated supply of transportation; and finally, to determine the extent to which the different geographical locations in which students reside correlate with their academic performance. The total population of students residing off-campus for selected campuses totals to 20764 while sample size decision constitutes 377 respondents. This study used questionnaires to collect data from the off-campus students. Quantitative data analysis is used to respond to research questions through univariate and bivariate methods. The findings of this study reveal that most students travel five days a week to campus. The location of the campuses seems to have an influence on the mode of transportation used to that particular campus. The managerial implications on this study indicates that all the stakeholders should negotiate with each other as well as with the students when planning and putting forward proposals that involve student transportation.