Production strategy employed by small, medium and micro engineering enterprises in the Jacobs area in Durban.
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Date
2012
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Abstract
This study investigated the production strategies employed by the small, medium and
micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the Jacobs area in Durban. The research on the
production strategies employed by SMMEs supports the government’s initiative of
growing small businesses to help create employment and contribute to poverty
alleviation in the country. This study is also significant as its recommendations will be of
value to SMME owners and prospective SMME owners. The research methodology
employed in this study is quantitative research methodology. The questionnaire used in
this study elicited views of seventeen questions designed from the literature review. The
questionnaire used the five point Likert scale for question two to seventeen, while in
question one respondents had to choose from a list of production strategies. The
questionnaire was divided into five parts with each part of the questionnaire linked to
one of the five objectives of the study. A sample of 30 registered SMMEs in the Jacobs
area was used. Though this is a small scale study, if its findings and recommendations
are followed by the SMME owners they will add to their businesses an abundance of
value. The findings from the field work provided by the respondents to the questionnaire
were consistent with the findings in the literature review. The key findings of the study
were that there are challenges when implementing production strategies; however the
effectiveness, benefits and the risks of not having a production strategy in place far
outweigh those challenges, furthermore it was found that with good planning, training
and communication the effect of those challenges can be mitigated. A rigorous study on
SMMEs that do not use production strategies was recommended as a suggestion for
further research to establish if their productivity and profitability were the same as those
SMMEs that employed production strategies.
Description
Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.
Keywords
Engineering firms--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Production management--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Small business--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Small business--Employment--KwaZulu-Natal--Durban., Theses--Business administration.