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Quality management is the key to sustainability in any manufacturing business. The cost of quality has been the topic of discussions these days in various research forums. The purpose of the study is to present a review of prior literature and present a complete picture of past, present and future directions in the domain of Cost of Quality. Authors have used systematic literature review methods to conduct the analysis of literature. The study concludes with some food for thought to future researchers.

The availability of sufficient water resources is arguably a dominant risk factor in contemporary society. This case study considers the quest of an organisation in the wastewater-recycling industry, to ensure its business strategies are attained, specifically in terms of effective cost management. The objective is to investigate whether a costing system, linked to the business operations, could support these objectives. It was found that the organisation operates as a group of three distinct entities with complementary functions, and that very limited analysis and management effort is directed towards the indirect costs. This resulted in essentially guessing the potential indirect cost implications. The study proposes the current costing application be adjusted in order to enable the incorporation of the operational information in decision support.

Organisations implement lean in production to improve continuously, but implementation may be unsuccessful due to ineffective leadership. Also, organisations have not eliminated the eighth lean waste - namely, the waste of unused employee creativity. The research investigated standard work for leaders in reducing unused employee creativity. The case study, conducted in an automobile manufacturer, indicated that worker ideas increased when employees were trained in lean, and when standard work for leaders was implemented. The research concluded that standard work for leaders reduces the waste of unused employee creativity, and suggests a lean implementation model that can be validated with further work. Maatskappye implementeer lenige vervaardigingsbeginsels om aanhoudend te verbeter, maar die implementering mag onsuksesvol wees as gevolg van oneffektiewe leierskap. Maatskappye implementeer ook selde die agtste lenige vermorsing, naamlik die vermorsing van werknemers se kreatiwiteit. Hierdie navorsing ondersoek tegnieke vir leiers om dié vermorsing aan te spreek. Die gevallestudie, wat by 'n motorvervaardiger van stapel gestuur is, het aangedui dat werker idees toegeneem het wanneer werknemers opgelei is aan die hand van lenige vervaardiging en wanneer gestandaardiseerde werk vir leiers implementeer is. Die gevolgtrekking is dat gestandaardiseerde werk vir leiers die vermorsing van werknemer kreatiwiteit verminder en stel n lenige implementeringsmodel voor wat met toekomstige werk gevalideer kan word.

World-wide many universities have a significant role in the socio-economic development of their countries and regions. One avenue for universities to achieve this role is through the transfer and commercialization of their technologies to resource-constrained small, medium enterprises (SMEs). A survey-based study was conducted to establish the factors that enable and restrain the transfer and commercialization of technology from South African publicly-funded universities (transferor) to SMEs (transferee), as well as to recommend how the restraining factors could be addressed. The sample consisted of researchers and technology managers drawn from entrepreneurs and six Gauteng universities. Respondents rated each of the ten literature-derived enabling factors and ten literature- derived restraining factors to technology transfer and commercialization from universities to SMEs. Results show the top two enabling factors to be absorptive capacity of the transferee; and transferor's attitude towards TT and commercialization. The top two restraining factors are university bureaucracy and the university performance evaluation system. Measures to deal with the top four restraining factors are suggested and useful insights are provided by the research findings.

The current disruptive business environment forces companies to constantly search for improved ways of meeting customer requirements. South African companies are not excluded from daily business challenges. This research assesses the adoption of cost of quality practice as the measure of quality management performance. The study uses the snowball sampling approach to identify the target sample members. It collected information from 45 companies around the Johannesburg area. The convergent validity and discriminant validity were used as the measure of study construct validity. The study identifies preventive cost and appraisal cost as two costs of quality categories which receive high attention from South African companies. The failure cost was identified to be in third place. The opportunity cost was identified as the ignored cost of quality (CoQ) category. Hence, it was recommended that the companies start to pay attention to their opportunity cost and it was also recommended that further research should focus on identifying the challenges experienced by companies in the implementation of cost of quality.

The underrepresentation of women in engineering remains a problem till this day, where women made up 4% of its registered professional engineers in South Africa in 2014. The experience of women engineers in industry and women students in engineering courses can play a significant role in their decision to remain in engineering or pursue a different career path. The investigation of gender dynamics in small groups of engineering students, specifically focusing on the participation and role allocation of women students, can shed light on the experiences of women students in the engineering education environment. This paper shows that, although women engineering students are still in the minority in engineering courses, many are active participators in groups and fulfill leadership roles in those groups.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the consistency of supplier risk assessment performed during the supplier selection process. Existing literature indicates that current supplier selection processes yield inconsistent results. Consistent supplier selection cannot be accomplished without stable risk assessment performed during the process. A case study was conducted in a train manufacturer in South Africa, and document analysis, interviews and questionnaires were employed to source information and data. Triangulation and pattern matching enabled a comparative study between literature and practice from which findings were derived. The study suggests selection criteria that may be considered when performing supplier risk assessment during the selection process. The findings indicate that structured supplier risk assessment with predefined supplier selection criteria may eliminate inconsistencies in supplier assessment and selection.

The aim of this study was to investigate conflict management in engineering projects in South Africa. Improved management of project failure is possible if the relationship between conflict management and project success is known. Organizations turn to project management to unlock opportunities and fulfil strategic objectives. This study provides a framework to address and manage conflict in outsourced engineering projects for the benefit of organizations and engineering professionals who are involved in projects. The constructs of conflict management and project success were delineated and analyzed with structural equation modeling in SPSS. The statistical analysis confirmed that effective conflict management positively impacts project success.

Globally, universities are reinventing STEM education where traditional classroom methods are substituted or supplemented with practical learning methods such as problem-based learning and project-based learning. Another method, not often employed in STEM, is learning through reflection. This paper presents a case study where a group of engineering students participated in an international competition, the Shell Eco-Marathon, and partook in reflective learning before and after the event. The results indicate that students who learn through reflection value the inclusion of project-based learning in their curricula, which emphasizes the importance of this study for the future of engineering education.

Transnet Freight Rail, one of the largest railway companies on the African Continent, is revamping itself to be amongst the top five railway enterprises in the global market by the year 2020. However, studies and publications suggest that the company is facing the challenge of increasing rolling stock maintenance cost whilst committing lowering the cost of doing business in South Africa. In the literature reviewed, little research has been conducted to understand the factors affecting the enterprise. This study examines factors affecting the performance and sustainability of the TFR electric locomotive fleet operating in the Natal Corridor; and highlights the potential areas of improvement for cost sustainability of these trains.

Stimulating interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among learners in developing countries remains a challenge, as schools often do not have the specialised skills or funds required to develop exciting STEM-related programmes like robotics. The RobotScienceproject at University of Johannesburg (UJ) TechnoLab aims to support South African schools with a cost effective, open source robotics platform that can be programmed from a computer, smartphone or tablet. All secondary schools in South Africa, including private schools, can offer robotics as a regular subject using the website and online videos TechnoLab produced to support its programmes in underprivileged communities. St David's Marist Brothers, a privately-funded South African secondary school, implemented robotics as an in-curriculum non-elective subject for Grade 8 and Grade 9 learners using the RobotScience project's website and videos. This paper presents early results of the implementation of robotics into a private secondary school, including a discussion on the novel approaches taken by teachers in the first season of the implementation.

The paper reviewed risk management techniques and its challenges during implementation in infrastructure projects with a focus on harbour and seaport construction projects. Literature indicates that beyond year 2020, eighty percent of world trade which is conducted through seaports will require additional facilities. This need could potentially be met through rehabilitation of existing ports and development of new terminals. Globally, there is a high rate of project delays and failure due to unsuccessful risk management and implementation. The research was conducted through a systematic literature review of journal articles on risk management techniques and their implementation limitations. The research found that the most employed risk management techniques were enterprise and construction risk management systems, major infrastructure assessment frameworks, dynamic risk management, analytical hierarchy based techniques and the innovative risk management implementation approach. Impediments in implementation of risk management plans were found to be political influence, technical complications, environmental constraints and lack of adequately skilled personnel. This study could benefit risk managers in developing effective risk management frameworks.

South Africa is currently facing an education problem with one of the highest numbers of youth unemployment worldwide; as well as a shortage of specialized capabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). In an effort to improve STEM education, universities are adopting schools in their communities with the aim to assist in the development of mathematics and science skills. This paper presents a study where a university-hosted STEM education initiative is incorporated within a secondary school science curriculum. The initiative exposes learners to STEM education and aids in the improvement of maths and science skills amongst secondary school learners. The effect of this implementation indicates a general improvement in academic performance amongst learners as the understanding of theoretical concepts are improved and practical application of theory experienced.