COPYRIGHT AND CITATION CONSIDERATIONS FOR THIS THESIS/ DISSERTATION o Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. o NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. o ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. How to cite this thesis Surname, Initial(s). (2012). Title of the thesis or dissertation (Doctoral Thesis / Master’s Dissertation). Johannesburg: University of Johannesburg. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/102000/0002 (Accessed: 22 August 2017). ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF LEAN MANUFACTURING IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN AIRLINE INDUSTRY A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Degree of MASTERS OF TECHNOLOGY In the Department of Quality and Operations Management At the FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Of the UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG BY LINDA MALIFETE 216001282 FEBRUARY 2019 Supervisor: Dr Ndala Yves Mulongo Co-supervisor: Prof Pule Kholopane 1 PREFACE The work presented in this master’s thesis was conducted at the Department of Quality and Operations Management within the faculty of Engineering and Built Environment of the University of Johannesburg, under the supervision of Mr Ndala Yves Mulongo and Prof Pule Kholopane. One peer-reviewed conference proceeding was generated out of the content of this master’s thesis. 1. Malifete, L; Ndala Yves Mulongo & Pule Kholopane (2018). A Theoretical analysis of Lean implementation in Airline industry. The 3rd North American International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, United States, Washington DC. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to take this opportunity to thank the Lord almighty for his endless love for me, for giving me life and for his guidance throughout this project. Heavenly Father, Creator of all, I humble myself before you with a grateful heart. Without you father, I would not have made it. You are worthy of all my praise. To my wonderful, warm-hearted and dedicated supervisor: Dr. Ndala Mulongo, you are one in a million. Thank you so much for your amazing support, encouragement, dedication and guidance during this project. I truly appreciate your patience, your time and your willingness to help. It was such a great honour and privilege working with you; may you continue to be an awesome supervisor to others. My heartfelt appreciation goes to Dr Lwazi Ndlwana. Thank you so much for your valuable and constructive suggestions throughout this project. The time you spent helping me and the support you gave me to ensure that I complete this research, I will forever be grateful. To my parents, Mr Nceba Malifethe and Mrs Nothandekile Grace Malifethe for teaching me the importance of education and giving me the right platform, I thank you. I further wish to thank my friends, family, colleagues and everyone who participated in this survey especially to Lwazi Phambuka, Ayanda Mabusela, Nosipho Mjelo, Rachel Masilela and Khayakazi Vumazonke for going an extra mile for me. I thank you so much for your continuous support. Lastly, I wish to thank my two beautiful kids: Phiko Oyama Malifete and Alunamida Luhlelo Malifete. This is for us; I did this for you. Thank you for being a reason enough to inspire me to go this far. Together we made it. 3 DECLARATION: MASTER’S AND DOCTORAL STUDENTS TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN This serves to confirm that I, Linda Malifete Student number: 216001282 Enrolled for: Maters in Operations Management Faculty: Engineering and Built Environment I hereby declare that the thesis submitted for the Masters of Technology to the University of Johannesburg, apart from the help recognized, is my own work and has not previously been submitted to another university or institution of higher education for a degree. Signed at Bunting Campus on 18 of February 2019 Signature: Print name: Linda Malifete 4 ABSTRACT Over the last decade, the concept of Lean manufacturing has brought in an innovative management method for various business organisations, exclusively multinational firms that were previously organised and administered by means of conventional push systems. Enhancement outcomes could be dramatic with regard to quality, cycle times, and consumer’s responsiveness that is more than a set of apparatuses and techniques and have been largely implemented by various manufacturing firms. Although, lean manufacturing has gained so much attention within the manufacturing sector, however, literature presented in the present study clearly shows that there is a dearth of studies concerning lean implementation within the airline service industry. To date, over the last decades, the airline sector has been growing and expanding at a fast speed, especially in the African continent. Hence, decision makers within this industry have been facing various challenges associated with creating a balance between long-run strategies with short-term solutions. One possible explanation to this is because consumer’s satisfaction is becoming more and more considerably imperative for airline operations and consequently service quality is gaining utmost significance within this industry. Hence, this study aimed at filling this gap by assessing the impact of lean manufacturing in the airline industry, using South Africa as case study. To achieve the overall aim of this study, a two-fold approach was adopted in the present study; firstly, the study critically reviewed and assessed a set of scientific research works that were previously conducted on lean phenomena within different sectors, during the past twenty years. Secondly, the present study used a quantitative research methodology in order to explore the impact of lean manufacturing in the South Airline industry. To this end, the research findings presented in this study clearly demonstrated that in terms of current literature there is a lack of studies on lean manufacturing implementation in airline industry, especially in the context of South Africa. Secondly, the results obtained from quantitative research questionnaire demonstrated that the factors that negatively affect the implementation of lean were lack of commitment by senior staff; staff resistance; lack of training; discomfort with change; poor communication regarding change and culture of no change. To sum up, it is expected that the study will significantly assist decision makers within this industry in order to improve the sector business performance and to alleviate barriers efficiently before employing lean manufacturing. 5 Table of Contents PREFACE ....................................................................................................................................... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................... 3 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... 5 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ 6 LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................... 11 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 15 1.1 Background ......................................................................................................................... 15 1.1.1 South African case study .................................................................................................. 16 1.2 Research Problem ............................................................................................................... 17 1.3 Research Goal ..................................................................................................................... 18 1.4 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................ 18 1.5 Research Questions ............................................................................................................ 18 1.6 Rationale and Significance of the study ............................................................................... 18 1.7 Research Methodology ........................................................................................................ 19 1.8 Overview of the study .......................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................. 22 2.1 Dissemination of lean literature ............................................................................................ 24 2.2 Chapter Summary ................................................................................................................ 36 2.3 Lesson Learnt ...................................................................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 3: LEAN ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................. 38 3.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................