CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING WORLD CLASS MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES IN ZIMBABWE

Abstract

The world is facing a new war in the manufacturing arena; companies are competing for the same customers. The control of market share in the globalised world has become stiff such that companies are forced to change their manufacturing paradigms, philosophies and strategies to remain afloat. Those companies which are maintaining traditional manufacturing models and business models are sinking. This could be one reason why Zimbabwean companies are failing to take of the ground from the downward trend experienced from 1999 to 2008. The worlds over companies that are adopting world class manufacturing techniques are positioning themselves to compete globally. This paper explores the challenges which are being faced by companies in Zimbabwe in trying to implement world class manufacturing technologies and techniques. A case study was done with company X a beverage manufacturing company and a survey of fifty manufacturing companies was carried out. The results revealed that challenges experienced at the plant included use of old equipment, erratic supply of electricity, erratic supply of water, irregular raw material supply, lack of investment in research and development, lack of specialized skills and difficulties of bringing in spare parts for machinery. The business challenges included low demand for some products, high labour costs, lack of working capital, high utility bills, liquidity constraints in the market and competition from imports.