Herbert Mapfaira | University of Botswana (original) (raw)

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Papers by Herbert Mapfaira

IEEE Conference Proceedings, 2016

The Emerald Handbook of Challenge Based Learning

2016 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 2016

Public administration is one of the major contracting bodies for Namibia's agricultural indus... more Public administration is one of the major contracting bodies for Namibia's agricultural industry. This study makes a critical analysis of Namibia's public procurement process, based on a case study carried out at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. The research was done in three phase: direct discussion with the head of department and staff, document analysis and semi-structure interviews with stakeholders. A detailed study was carried out on a single procurement of a farm machine in order to value-stream map the public procurement process. Value stream mapping enabled the optimisation of the entire public procurement by reducing the number of sequential sub-processes from 19 steps in 48 weeks to 12 steps in 26 weeks and restructure the whole process.

This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospita... more This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospital. The hospital recently implemented two process improvement tools, 5S and TQM. The project assessed the company's adoption level for the two lean tools they implemented, as well as assessing how the implementation impacted productivity and service delivery at the hospital. Current performance levels were also established in an endeavor to find if indeed what is reported is actually what is happening at the hospital. Results indicate that the implemented process improvement tools, 5S and TQM, did not produce the desired results.

This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospita... more This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospital. The hospital recently implemented two process improvement tools, 5S and TQM. The project assessed the company's adoption level of the two implemented lean tools, as well as assessing how the implementation impacted productivity and service delivery at the hospital. Current performance levels were also established in an endeavor to find if indeed what is reported is actually what is happening at the hospital. Results indicate that the implemented process improvement tools, 5S and TQM, did not produce the desired results.

2015 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM), 2015

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN059858 / BLDSC - British Library Do... more Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN059858 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

The purpose of this study was to investigate ways to improve productivity of a local security gar... more The purpose of this study was to investigate ways to improve productivity of a local security garage door manufacturing company. The company is based in Gaborone, Botswana and faces serious productivity challenges, including long throughput time, high inventory, and low worker utilisation. The result of these challenges is poor product quality and high operating costs resulting in uncompetitive products. The company would like to transform their manufacturing system to a lean manufacturing system. This paper describes the company’s current manufacturing system and proposes improvements that reduce wastes identified in the current system. Discrete event simulation is used to compare the performance of the current manufacturing system, and the proposed lean manufacturing system. The study showed that the proposed manufacturing system significantly improves material flow, assembly line balance efficiency, worker utilisation, and reduces manufacturing lead time.

Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of sy... more Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of system entities for the purpose of improving the overall system efficiency and effectiveness. Various extant grouping problems include cell formation problem, vehicle routing problem, bin packing problem, truck loading, home healthcare scheduling, and task assignment problem. Given the widespread grouping problems in industry, it is important to develop a tool for solving such problems from a common view point. This paper seeks to identify common grouping problems, identify their common grouping structures, present an outline of group genetic algorithm (GGA), and map the problems to the GGA approach. The practicality of the GGA tool in is highly promising in Industrial Engineering applications.

The design of appropriate green supply chains in the manufacturing sector is a crucial task. The ... more The design of appropriate green supply chains in the manufacturing sector is a crucial task. The present paper seeks to (i) identify suitable performance measures for green supply chains and to (ii) develop a dynamic simulation model to assist supply chain decision-makers in developing appropriate policies and strategies in green supply chain management. Based on the principles of the system dynamics methodology, causal linkages between internal and external factors affecting the development of green strategies are investigated. Green concepts are used to develop crucial environmental and eco-efficiency performance measures in regards to strategic green supply management. Results from what-if analysis indicate that proper implementation of green strategies produces significant improvements for environmental, economic/financial and operational performance. Further numerical experiments demonstrate that the model can provide sound managerial insights.

Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies, 2016

Contemporary design involves not only technical standards and functional needs, but also conveys ... more Contemporary design involves not only technical standards and functional needs, but also conveys the ideologies and cultural phenomena in a particular society. Botswana’s National Development Plan 10 indicates that the economic value of Botswana’s cultural and heritage products have not been fully realized due to a lack of exposure. There is, therefore, a need to market these products extensively to enhance consumer recognition and appreciation, which in turn will ultimately benefit the local communities and contribute to the diversification of the economy. This paper explores the design-related cultural models from China and Taiwan and how they may contribute to the development of appropriate culture-related design in Botswana. A case study is used to investigate the application of the Chinese design models in the development of local Tswana cultural products. The results demonstrate the possibility of enhancing product quality and uniqueness by developing brand competitive modern ...

Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of sy... more Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of system entities for the purpose of improving the overall system efficiency and effectiveness. Various extant grouping problems include cell formation problem, vehicle routing problem, bin packing problem, truck loading, home healthcare scheduling, and task assignment problem. Given the widespread grouping problems in industry, it is important to develop a tool for solving such problems from a common view point. This paper seeks to identify common grouping problems, identify their common grouping structures, present an outline of group genetic algorithm (GGA), and map the problems to the GGA approach. The practicality of the GGA tool in is highly promising in Industrial Engineering applications.

Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference …, 1999

2015 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM), 2015

Journal of Remanufacturing, 2014

IEEE Conference Proceedings, 2016

The Emerald Handbook of Challenge Based Learning

2016 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM), 2016

Public administration is one of the major contracting bodies for Namibia's agricultural indus... more Public administration is one of the major contracting bodies for Namibia's agricultural industry. This study makes a critical analysis of Namibia's public procurement process, based on a case study carried out at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry. The research was done in three phase: direct discussion with the head of department and staff, document analysis and semi-structure interviews with stakeholders. A detailed study was carried out on a single procurement of a farm machine in order to value-stream map the public procurement process. Value stream mapping enabled the optimisation of the entire public procurement by reducing the number of sequential sub-processes from 19 steps in 48 weeks to 12 steps in 26 weeks and restructure the whole process.

This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospita... more This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospital. The hospital recently implemented two process improvement tools, 5S and TQM. The project assessed the company's adoption level for the two lean tools they implemented, as well as assessing how the implementation impacted productivity and service delivery at the hospital. Current performance levels were also established in an endeavor to find if indeed what is reported is actually what is happening at the hospital. Results indicate that the implemented process improvement tools, 5S and TQM, did not produce the desired results.

This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospita... more This project was undertaken to explore the journey to productivity improvement by a local hospital. The hospital recently implemented two process improvement tools, 5S and TQM. The project assessed the company's adoption level of the two implemented lean tools, as well as assessing how the implementation impacted productivity and service delivery at the hospital. Current performance levels were also established in an endeavor to find if indeed what is reported is actually what is happening at the hospital. Results indicate that the implemented process improvement tools, 5S and TQM, did not produce the desired results.

2015 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM), 2015

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN059858 / BLDSC - British Library Do... more Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN059858 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

The purpose of this study was to investigate ways to improve productivity of a local security gar... more The purpose of this study was to investigate ways to improve productivity of a local security garage door manufacturing company. The company is based in Gaborone, Botswana and faces serious productivity challenges, including long throughput time, high inventory, and low worker utilisation. The result of these challenges is poor product quality and high operating costs resulting in uncompetitive products. The company would like to transform their manufacturing system to a lean manufacturing system. This paper describes the company’s current manufacturing system and proposes improvements that reduce wastes identified in the current system. Discrete event simulation is used to compare the performance of the current manufacturing system, and the proposed lean manufacturing system. The study showed that the proposed manufacturing system significantly improves material flow, assembly line balance efficiency, worker utilisation, and reduces manufacturing lead time.

Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of sy... more Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of system entities for the purpose of improving the overall system efficiency and effectiveness. Various extant grouping problems include cell formation problem, vehicle routing problem, bin packing problem, truck loading, home healthcare scheduling, and task assignment problem. Given the widespread grouping problems in industry, it is important to develop a tool for solving such problems from a common view point. This paper seeks to identify common grouping problems, identify their common grouping structures, present an outline of group genetic algorithm (GGA), and map the problems to the GGA approach. The practicality of the GGA tool in is highly promising in Industrial Engineering applications.

The design of appropriate green supply chains in the manufacturing sector is a crucial task. The ... more The design of appropriate green supply chains in the manufacturing sector is a crucial task. The present paper seeks to (i) identify suitable performance measures for green supply chains and to (ii) develop a dynamic simulation model to assist supply chain decision-makers in developing appropriate policies and strategies in green supply chain management. Based on the principles of the system dynamics methodology, causal linkages between internal and external factors affecting the development of green strategies are investigated. Green concepts are used to develop crucial environmental and eco-efficiency performance measures in regards to strategic green supply management. Results from what-if analysis indicate that proper implementation of green strategies produces significant improvements for environmental, economic/financial and operational performance. Further numerical experiments demonstrate that the model can provide sound managerial insights.

Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies, 2016

Contemporary design involves not only technical standards and functional needs, but also conveys ... more Contemporary design involves not only technical standards and functional needs, but also conveys the ideologies and cultural phenomena in a particular society. Botswana’s National Development Plan 10 indicates that the economic value of Botswana’s cultural and heritage products have not been fully realized due to a lack of exposure. There is, therefore, a need to market these products extensively to enhance consumer recognition and appreciation, which in turn will ultimately benefit the local communities and contribute to the diversification of the economy. This paper explores the design-related cultural models from China and Taiwan and how they may contribute to the development of appropriate culture-related design in Botswana. A case study is used to investigate the application of the Chinese design models in the development of local Tswana cultural products. The results demonstrate the possibility of enhancing product quality and uniqueness by developing brand competitive modern ...

Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of sy... more Industry is inundated with grouping problems concerned with formation of groups or clusters of system entities for the purpose of improving the overall system efficiency and effectiveness. Various extant grouping problems include cell formation problem, vehicle routing problem, bin packing problem, truck loading, home healthcare scheduling, and task assignment problem. Given the widespread grouping problems in industry, it is important to develop a tool for solving such problems from a common view point. This paper seeks to identify common grouping problems, identify their common grouping structures, present an outline of group genetic algorithm (GGA), and map the problems to the GGA approach. The practicality of the GGA tool in is highly promising in Industrial Engineering applications.

Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference …, 1999

2015 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM), 2015

Journal of Remanufacturing, 2014