Exploring retail orientated rotating savings and credit associations: festive season ‘stokvels’ in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Festive season rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs) or ‘stokvels’ form a large segment of the market in the lower-income bracket and informal market sector in South Africa and have a high collective purchasing power. This study explores the multi-month, multi-phase process through which these stokvels’ evaluate and purchase bulk groceries from retailers at a substantial discount during the festive season. The study followed an exploratory research design through fifteen in-depth interviews of retailers, interviews that were thematically analysed. The findings revealed four phases in festive season stokvel’s buying process, namely: Need Development, Double-Evaluation Loop, List Consolidation, and Post-purchase Behavior. Each phase encapsulated a number of salient interdependent relationships and prominent time periods in which activities occurred over a year through the lens of the participating retailers. While the actual transaction happens in December, the process usually starts before April of that year. The process is modeled to show when certain phases of the process are completed as well as the actors involved (stokvel, retailer, manufacturer/supplier). To date, there has been no research that has examined the buying process of festive season stokvels through the perspective of the retailer. By creating the first map of this commercial and social process, this exploratory research paves the way for further research into the selling and buying processes in these widely used systems of group purchase.     

Implementing Lean in aerospace—challenging the assumptions and understanding the challenges

Lean manufacturing appears to hold considerable promise for addressing a range of simultaneous, competitive demands including high levels of process and product quality, low cost and reductions in lead times. These requirements have been recognised within the aerospace sector and efforts are now well established to implement Lean practices. Lean manufacturing was initiated within the automotive sector. However, since the publication of the influential book, The Machine That Changed the World (Womack et al., 1990) there has been a range of documented cases of Lean implementation in a variety of sectors. Despite this evidence, the perception remains that Lean manufacturing is to some degree, an ‘automotive idea’ and difficult to transfer to other sectors especially when there are major differences between them. In this paper we discuss the key drivers for Lean in aerospace and examine the assumption that cross-sector transfer may be difficult. A Lean implementation case comparison examines how difficulties that arise may have more to do with individual plant context and management than with sector specific factors.     

财政政策与货币政策有效性实证分析

从2003年下半年开始,物价水平持续上升,中国凸现通货膨胀迹象。经济发展过热,特别是固定资产投资恶性扩张,成为当前中国经济最突出的问题。为遏制投资过热,中国政府采取财政政策和货币政策来调整投资规模,本文运用协整检验和误差修正模型分析两个经济政策在调节固定资产投资规模上的有效性,为合理使用这两种政策提供理论和实证依据。     

制造业内部物流所处的困境及优化管理研究

针对当前我国制造型企业的内部物流管理存在的问题,以企业内部物流管理理论为指导,着重对企业内部物流组织进行研究探讨。通过深入剖析其管理制约因素,指出构建高效快捷物流体系的必要性,提出了优化企业内部物流管控能力的策略,以期帮助企业加快库存周转率、缩短交货期、提高生产柔性、降低物流成本,最终达到提升企业内部物流管理效率和提高企业整体经济效益的目的。     

反季旅游与旅游季节性平衡:研究述评与启示

季节性是旅游产业最重要的特征之一,对旅游业发展具有重要的影响作用。国内外学者对旅游季节性的含义、测度、成因和影响进行了大量研究,并提出了一些缓解旅游季节性的措施和方法。近年来渐渐兴起的反季旅游成为应对旅游季节性的有效措施。深刻理解反季旅游的内涵和特征,努力实现反季旅游常态化,能有效解决旅游季节性造成的产业失衡问题。但从国内外现有文献来看,有关反季旅游的研究成果却十分有限。文章的主要工作是对旅游季节性和反季旅游相关的国内外研究成果进行梳理,并进一步对反季旅游研究和开发的策略进行分析。首先,对气候与旅游方面的研究文献进行了简单回顾;其次,对旅游季节性的国内外研究成果进行了综述;然后,对反季旅游的概念和内涵进行了剖析和界定,并重点对利用反季旅游缓解季节性的研究成果进行了讨论;最后,提出了我国反季旅游开发的对策和建议。     

精益运营模式下的成本管理研究

企业要成为精益企业,就必须对传统成本管理进行变革,满足精益运营模式对成本管理的要求。本文从精益运营的核心理念入手,分析了传统成本管理的缺陷并对其进行了再造,最后探讨了精益运营模式下的成本管理框架。     

堤防土坝护坡冻害破坏原因及防治措施

堤防的护坡冻害是破坏堤防护坡的主要原因,分析了土坝护坡冻害产生的原因,总结防治措施,保证坝坡安全,对堤防的效益及其功能的发挥起到了保障作用。     

跨蔗区抬价收购糖料蔗问题探析

根据参加2010-2011年榨季蔗区管理工作实践,本文描述了广西蔗区管理工作的现状和特点,针对跨蔗区抬价收购糖料蔗等问题的企业、危害性和产生根源进行了探究分析,提出了进一步强化广西糖料蔗区管理工作的建议和措施。     

Lean, take two! Reflections from the second attempt at lean implementation

It’s not easy being lean. And for many companies, getting lean right the first time does not always happen. Lean is a management philosophy focused on identifying and eliminating waste throughout a product’s entire value stream, extending not only within the organization but also along the company’s supply chain network. Lean promises significant benefits in terms of waste reduction, and increased organizational and supply chain communication and integration. Implementing lean, however, and achieving the levels of organizational commitment, employee autonomy, and information transparency needed to ensure its success is a daunting task. This article describes in detail two lean implementation projects within the same company: a global manufacturer of food processing machines and equipment. The first project was a failure, while the second is viewed as a success. Examining these projects in detail, the major criteria and conditions that led to either lean failure or lean success are identified. Based on these conditions, we highlight a number of lessons learned, all of which may help other organizations ensure the success of their own lean implementation and improvement efforts.     

上海电力精益生产实践与停电计划优化（IDOP）

在议论了智能电网建设及其对我国电力经营管理影响和IBM智慧电力及解决方案的基础上,指出了信息化建设对我国电网企业经营管理的意义和作用,比较详细地介绍了上海电力信息化建设进展和精益生产实践活动及成效,着重探讨了IBM停电计划优化（IDOP）解决方案和应用成果,并得出了一些启示。