Cost benefits through asset life cycle management in South African Industries

Abstract

"A four-fold research problem incorporating a lack of middle of life management for assets, incorrect manufacturing life-cycle benchmark for assets, effects of cost cutting practices and insufficient methods for sustainably retaining asset lifecycle costs to a minimum were investigated. The study intended to understand the relationship as well as the moderating effects between Manufacturing Asset Lifecycles (MALC) management and inherent cost benefits. The literature review’s confirmation of theoretical concerns to exist in asset life-cycle management literature and various forms of articulating associated concepts, helped propel the study forward to generate two hypotheses; H1 suggesting that MALC-m leads to CB-real and H2 hypothesising that TCO-mr moderates CB-real from manufacturing asset life-cycle management. After quantitatively collecting nominal and ordinal data, inferential statistical tests were conducted to test the latter hypotheses using Spearman’s rank order correlation on the ordinal data. Results that emerged disproved the two hypotheses, with H2 findings confirming a new emergent relationship to suggest that access to quality TCO asset data, moderates creation of CB-real. Another contribution to theory were the two conceptual models in chapter 5, figure 6-3 and 6-4, presenting a life-cycle stage and time continuum-based model for viewing MALC-m input data as well as life-cycle stage and time continuum-based model for viewing MALC-m application outcomes. The two models work in synchrony with each other as they look at the same principles, just from different views"