DSpace Repository

Welcome to the NWU Repository, the open access Institutional Repository of the North-West University (NWU-IR). This is a digital archive that collects, preserves and distributes research material created by members of NWU. The aim of the NWU-IR is to increase the visibility, availability and impact of the research output of the North-West University through Open Access, search engine indexing and harvesting by several initiatives.

Communities in NWU Repository

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 5 of 18

Recent Submissions

A comparative analysis of OEM and local service provider maintenance in South African wind farms
(North-West University (South Africa)., 2026) Sidaki, Sefularo Brenda; Prinsloo, F; Jordaan, J.A
South Africa's commitment to a sustainable energy future has led to a significant increase in the development and operation of wind farms, which are crucial in contributing to national energy security, reducing carbon emissions, and promoting economic development. These large-scale renewable energy projects, particularly under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), are not only vital for electricity generation but also for job creation and local economic stability. However, the long-term viability and efficiency of these wind farms are heavily dependent on effective and sustainable maintenance strategies. This study explores and comparatively evaluates the maintenance outcomes of wind farms in South Africa, focusing on the performance differences between Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Local Service Providers (LSPs). The research aims to identify the opportunities and challenges of each service model and their implications for operational efficiency, cost management, and local economic impact. The findings reveal that maintenance strategies are central to wind farm performance. OEMs are indispensable during the warranty period due to their technical expertise and proprietary access, while LSPs offer significant post-warranty benefits through cost-effectiveness and rapid, localised response. The study concludes that these two service models are complementary rather than competing, and the most sustainable and efficient strategy is a hybrid maintenance model that combines OEM expertise with LSP agility. This model optimises operational efficiency and aligns with national development objectives. Managerial implications include the need for wind farm operators to strategically plan their postwarranty maintenance, facilitating data-sharing and collaborative partnerships between OEMs and LSPs. Stakeholders must also invest in capacity-building to address skills gaps, which will empower LSPs and contribute to a more robust, competitive, and localised wind energy sector in South Africa.
Developing a framework linking work-life balance, job demands, and organisational support in engineers' occupational stress
(North-West University (South Africa)., 2026) Pretorius, Johannes Nicolaas; Botha, P.A
This study investigates the relationship between work-life balance and occupational stress among engineers in South Africa, with a focus on the mediating roles of perceived organisational support and job demands. Drawing on established theoretical models - including the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model, Organisational Support Theory (OST), and Role Theory (RT) - the research develops and assesses a conceptual framework using a quantitative, post-positivist approach. Data collected via a cross sectional survey from engineers across various disciplines, employing validated instruments for work-life balance, occupational stress, organisational support, and job demands. Descriptive and inferential analyses revealed that engineers experience moderate levels of work-life balance and occupational stress, low perceived organisational support, and high job demands. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) confirmed a significant direct negative relationship between work-life balance and occupational stress. However, neither perceived organisational support nor job demands significantly mediated this relationship. These findings suggest that while organisational support and job demands are important contextual factors, work-life balance independently influences stress levels among engineers. The study contributes a refined framework for understanding occupational stress in engineering contexts and offers practical recommendations for organisations. These include enhancing work-life balance through flexible scheduling, reducing excessive job demands, and improving organisational support structures. The research also highlights the need for sector-specific interventions and longitudinal studies to explore causal pathways further and improve engineer well-being in South Africa. The study aligns with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3 and SDG 8), promoting healthier workplaces and economic growth through improved work-life integration.
Assessing the influence of maintenance strategies and feed formulation practices on operational efficiency in African poultry feed manufacturing
(North-West University (South Africa)., 2026) Orton, Carien; Grobler, L
Africa’s population is growing rapidly. The consequence is an increased in the demand for affordable protein sources. Within this rising demand, poultry meat remains the preferred choice, due to its affordability compared to red meat and its freedom from most cultural or religious restrictions. However, local production volumes continue to be insufficient. This creates reliance on imports to meet the increasing demand. As a result, Africa cedes a substantial part of the market share. Central to this challenge is the poultry feed manufacturing industry, which underpins the poultry value chain. Since feed represents about 70% of total poultry production costs, improving operational efficiency within feed mills is vital to reducing costs, enhancing competitiveness, and supporting food security across the continent. This study aimed to examine the influence of maintenance strategies, feed formulation accuracy, and technology adoption on operational efficiency in African poultry feed manufacturing. The study was of a quantitative, non-experimental correlational design, using structured surveys distributed to mid-level and senior managers across eight African countries. The analysis was guided by the Resource-Based View (RBV), which emphasises strategically developed internal capabilities as drivers of sustainable competitive advantage. Although literature highlights strong positive relationships among the three constructs, empirical results revealed that only feed formulation accuracy had a statistically significant influence on operational efficiency. While maintenance strategies and technology adoption did show positive correlations, their effects were not statistically significant. This divergence between theory and practice highlights the complexity of operational environments in African feed mills. This study critically contributes to the African poultry feed industry by integrating these three constructs into a single framework, despite traditionally being examined in isolation. The study provides empirical and practical insights which can be used to guide managers, engineers, and policymakers in improving productivity, reducing operational costs, and strengthening the poultry sector’s role in achieving Africa’s long-term food security goals.
Evaluating the efficacy of the New Generation Cooperative business model in uplifting smallholder farmers: A case study.
(North-West University, 2023) Mpongoshe, Lukhanyiso; van Staden, L.J; van der Walt, J.L
Smallholder farmers are afflicted by various social ills such as poverty, hunger and poor remuneration. Other factors that affect their ability to operate efficiently and hinder them from capitalising on the prevailing opportunities, are a lack of skills, knowledge and education, limited access to agricultural inputs, credit, mechanisation, marketing services, and poor institutional and infrastructural support. Worldwide, governments use agricultural cooperatives as a mechanism for improving the performance of smallholder farmers because of their bargaining power in competitive conditions and shared services of skills and resources, which increase smallholder farmers’ efficiency and the efficient use of their available resources. Unfortunately, a majority of agricultural cooperatives in South Africa have still not been able to yield enormous socio-economic benefits for smallholder farmers and communities, and they face similar challenges as those confronted by smallholder farmers. In the quest to promote smallholder farmers, the first New Generation Cooperative (NGC) was established in Vhembe District Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa, to improve the productivity, entrepreneurial capacity and marketing capabilities of smallholder farmers. The NGC also seeks to leverage cooperation and exchange of information among stakeholders, refrains from farmerfree rider behaviours, supports smallholder farmers as entrepreneurs, and provides them with the necessary skills and access to knowledge. While conducting this study, little was known about the piloted NGC's positive impact. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of the piloted NGC Business Model in uplifting smallholder farmers in Vhembe District Municipality and to discern whether or not the government should replicate the model for all the smallholder farmers across South Africa. This study is a qualitative case study, blended with exploratory research design to engage in a constructivist social interaction and constructionism to elicit critical indepth, real-world insights from smallholder farmers and the NGC implementing partners about all the dimensions of NGC implementation in Limpopo and South Africa at large. All sixteen smallholder farmers that constituted the NGC pilot project and two implementing partners were included in the sample population. The collected two qualitative data sets were subjected to data analysis accomplished using the Morse and Field approach, Atlas.ti.8 qualitative data analysis software was used to analyse the data. Despite limitations, the narratives of most of the smallholder farmers and NGC implementers signify that the NGC assists smallholder farmers with inputs provision, linkages with largescale commercial farmers and integration in the larger agribusiness value chains. They explained that the NGC created both the backward and forward links for them. Improved smallholder farmers’ marketing capabilities, food security, employment creation and poverty alleviation among smallholder farmers and the surrounding communities indicate that, if given time, an NGC can contribute significantly to uplifting smallholder farmers. Unfortunately, even if that is the case, it still emerged from the findings that a range of different challenges still mars NGC’s efficacy in uplifting smallholder farmers. These challenges are poor farming skills, land dynamics and complexities, insufficient operational capital, NGC governance and management deficiencies and poor linkage with government agencies and other critical actors in the agricultural input and output markets. Hence, if the NGC is to be adopted and replicated across South Africa, these constraints could be ameliorated and new measures for improving NGC efficacy in uplifting smallholder farmers in South Africa be recommended. The study’s contribution, therefore, offers the Eight Steps Business framework for NGC implementation that the government can replicate across South Africa. The framework encompasses Step 1: Determine the need for a cooperative and its potential for success, Step 2: Members’ Recruitment into NGCs, Step 3: Designation of Standard Operating Rules and Regulations, Step 4: Coordination and Collaboration of Network Support, Step 5: Funding Mechanisms, Step 6: Mentoring Agricultural Cooperatives and Smallholder Farmers, Step 7: Measuring and Improving Performance of Agricultural Cooperatives for Smallholder Farmers, Step 8: Restructuring Choice. For future research, it is recommended that the implementation of this framework in a new NGC must be evaluated and tested to better the framework if necessary. In addition to the framework, policy development recommendations to the South African government are: to include women and youth in agricultural development programmes, to consider the transformation of land ownership policies and laws to enable women to hold land ownership to improve efficiencies and to boost the productivity of the agricultural sector, to consider giving incentives such as tax reduction to agro-processing companies and largescale commercial farmers that mentor NGC smallholder farmers, and to establish a central information system that updates farmers on current affairs related to market trends, disease and climate change forecasts and solutions.
Developing a lean six sigma–based sustainable facility management framework for a South African university of technology
(North-West University (South Africa)., 2026) Mogashoa, Moloti Aaron; Ndlovu, K.N
Established in 2004 through the merger of three institutions, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) has grown into South Africa’s largest residential higher education institution, accommodating over 65,000 students across five provinces and providing more than 40,000 residence beds. Despite its scale, TUT continues to experience persistent facility management (FM) challenges, including overcrowded and ageing student housing, deferred maintenance, and declining state funding. These challenges mirror global higher education FM concerns characterised by customer dissatisfaction, resource constraints, and limited adoption of integrated, data-driven management systems. The primary objective of this study was to develop and validate a Lean Six Sigma (LSS)-based framework for Sustainable Facility Management Systems (SFMS) within a university of technology context. Secondary objectives included identifying and empirically examining Critical Facility Defaults (CFD), Facility Contributing Factors to Management failure (FCFM), Root Causes of Facility Management challenges (RCFM), Sustainable Facility Management strategies (SFM), and the role of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) practices in enhancing sustainability outcomes. A convergent mixed-methods research design was adopted. The target population comprised facility management stakeholders at TUT, including academics, engineers, project managers, residence managers, and Lean Six Sigma practitioners. A total of 353 questionnaires were distributed and 333 returned giving a total response of 95.1%. Out of a total of 333 questionnaires returned 326 were found valid for the analysis, yielding a valid response rate of 97.9% whereas the rest of the questionnaires were not used due to missing information. The participants for the interview were 21. Quantitative data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, reliability and validity testing, Pearson product–moment correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The results confirmed six reliable and distinct constructs (Sustainable Facility Management Scheme based on five predictor variables: Lean Six Sigma, Factors Contributing to Poor Facility Management, Classes of Facility Defaults, Strategies Used in Facility Management and Root Causes to Poor Facility Management), with strong factor loadings (0.5310.860), high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.807–0.896), and acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that sustainable facility management systems were negatively associated with facility defaults, contributing factors, and root causes, while showing positive associations with sustainable strategies and Lean Six Sigma practices. Both SEM and multiple regression analysis validated these relationships, explaining approximately one-third of the variance in sustainability outcomes (SEM R² = 0.35; regression R² = 0.316). The regression model confirmed all predictors as statistically significant and produced a robust predictive equation: SFMS = 3.935 + 0.200(SFM) + 0.096(LSS) − 0.113(CFD) − 0.204(FCFM) −0.214(RCFM). Framework validation by the respondent group demonstrated high reliability and practical relevance, particularly in addressing financial efficiency, social sustainability, and digital readiness within FM systems. This study contributes to facility management scholarship by presenting one of the first empirically validated, context-specific Lean Six Sigma frameworks for sustainable facility management in South African universities of technology, offering both methodological advancement and a practical roadmap for FM leadership.