The findings of an empirical research project show that the majority of so-called large South African manufacturers acknowledge that manufacturing-based strategies enhance the competitive capabilities and advantages of their firms and that this contributes to long-term, superior business performance and success. They also recognize that superior manufacturing capabilities will be prerequisites for the improvement on both their national and international competitive positions in the future. To better their positions in these markets, the manufacturers need to shift their emphasis (in order of priority) to: (1) high quality, low cost and high dependability, all of priority number (1); (2) high speed; and (3) high flexibility. they also need to improve on their current performance levels in all of these strategic manufacturing priorities by an average of between 20% and 30%.
Operations strategy issues (irrespective of whether they concern content and/or process aspects) still generate considerable interest and attention from researchers and business practitioners alike. While the underlying theory is seemingly well documented and supposedly well understood at this time, the practical implementation concerns through empirical studies of application in various countries arguably still need greater clarity and appreciation. In this regard, a follow-up study of a 1996 research project was conducted in 2009 of a sample of the largest 500 companies in South Africa (including the JSE-listed top 100). The empirical study again focused on the relative strength and importance of five competitive operations priorities (COPs), namely cost, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility, within the context of improving national and international competitiveness. The results suggest that South African businesses, which have developed an operations capability that simultaneously offers higher quality products and/or services at a lower cost and on a more dependable basis than its competitors do, hold the most promise for success in the future business environment locally and internationally.
Some scholars have declared metamodernism to be postmodernism’s successor, and Afrikaans novelist Ingrid Winterbach’s work has been argued to be an example of this distinct move away from the postmodern paradigm. However, in this article I present the alternative interpretation that Winterbach’s play, Spyt (Regret), rather represents postmodernism’s inability to give way to its successor. An investigation from a postmodern perspective leads me to conclude that, in both the text and performance of this play (directed by Brink Scholtz), an escape from the postmodern paradigm entails the end of all representation. Winterbach reduces all of the characters’ endeavours to surfaces which become parodies. All their experiences are commodified and any attempt at uncovering a deeper meaning to life is undermined by ridicule. Winterbach furthermore draws attention to some of her characters’ limited vocabulary and reliance on English loanwords. This culminates in a powerful scene where the loanword ‘awesome’ is repeated to the extent that it becomes simultaneously meaningless and indispensable; a tension that she does not resolve. In addition, the crossing of the boundary between life and death, which has been described as postmodernism’s final frontier, is portrayed by relying on an obsolete narrative. The play therefore suggests a postmodern impasse, rather than a move towards a new paradigm. an a move towards a new paradigm.
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