A roadmap towards sustainability of fast growing companies within the manufacturing industries

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Any growing system is by definition in a transient phase, and consequently exhibits transient-,non-steady state-, unstable behaviour. Accordingly, this form of instability (systemic growth) is byand large conducive to the prosperity of said system. From a Control Systems perspective, transientbehaviour that is not subjected to an adequate damping mechanism, does however lead to unavoidableadverse instability.Within the context of business systems, four distinct, yet interconnected entities (raw material,market demand, internal capability to deliver, and cash funds) serve as the damping mechanism toprotect companies as a whole, against variation in any of the aforementioned entities. The level ofdamping afforded by the aforementioned entities is governed by its ability to decouple variation inone entity from undue variation in other entities. The higher the level of instability, the higher theassociated level of damping required.The Thesis focuses on core instigators of negative instability within the context of Fast GrowingManufacturing Companies (FGMCs), and ultimately proposes a solution to prevent the regressionfrom positive instability towards negative instability.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University