Manufacturing excellence for labour productivity improvement: Evidence from a selected automotive parts manufacturing organisation in South Africa

The performance of productivity has garnered significant interest among economists, with a prevalent discussion affirming the crucial role of productivity enhancement in fostering and sustaining growth. This necessitates businesses to recognise manufacturing excellence in their operations. Manufacturing excellence is a non-prescriptive paradigm for organisational management aimed at enhancing competitiveness. The processes established for consistent delivery must yield products with minimal variance and no flaws. This study investigates the impact of manufacturing excellence strategy on workforce productivity in South African automobile parts manufacturing firms. The study employed a quantitative methodology to investigate production and associated experiences within an automobile parts manufacturing organisation that implemented a manufacturing excellence strategy for enhancing productivity. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) model, employing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), was utilised for data analysis. The corporation functions within the eThekwini Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa. The study was conducted by gathering pre- and post-quarterly data on absenteeism, spoilage, and labour productivity. The findings demonstrate that manufacturing excellence affects labour productivity. Nonetheless, neither absenteeism nor spoilage correlates with worker productivity following the introduction of manufacturing excellence. This study reveals the strengths and shortcomings of manufacturing excellence and its impact on workforce productivity in automobile parts manufacturing firms in South Africa.