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Downtime is significant among the role players of production loss and low productivity. The case company is currently experiencing high downtimes and it is producing less than 48% of its capacity. This case study aims at reducing the high downtime through the application of Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) as a major productivity improvement tool. Both secondary and primary data were collected through documentation assessments, observations and discussions with kep people in the weaving section. The findings of the research show that, this particular section of the company, the recorded downtime is found to be very high compared to actual operation time. The loom machines are down daily for 38.69% of the total production time on average which highly affects the productivity. As a result, the failure modes, their effects and cause of the weaving/loom section of the company are prioritized using the Risk Priority Number (RPN). The corrective actions that the company should take to improve its productivity are articulated. Taking the FMEA result of the loom machines processes and focusing on the vital few causes of the identified failure modes that contribute more than 50% of the RPNs, the company can decrease the downtime of the section by 299.04hrs/day.

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This paper presents the role of cooperatives on the socio-economic development of Ethiopia. It is based on a national survey where 173 cooperatives and 831 cooperatives members were taken as a sample and Focused Group Discussions (FGDs) at eight different regions of the country were considered. The study was based on semi-structured questionnaire. It included a period of ten years (2001-2011).Results of the survey reveal that cooperatives have contributed a lot in the country’s economic development besides supporting their members by providing different products, services, as well as variety of benefits such as securing their food, increasing their income, improving life style and social participation, and inputs for their agriculture activities. Moreover, on the average cooperatives support nearly 15.00 to 29.68 descent jobs and spent 28,032.29 up to 122,297.7birr as wage and salary per cooperative per year. The average contribution of cooperatives to the Ethiopian GDP for the last ten years is found to be relatively less which ranges 1.21% to 12.27%. The overall findings showed that, cooperatives have struggled to impact the socio-economic development of the country and support their members to improve their livelihood with the unpaved economy and policy of the country.

This desk review paper aims at showing that simulation saves the manufacturing companies from undetermined costs if they first employ it to their facility design layout before installation. More than 70% of the cost of production is contributed by the cost to handle the materials from end to end. An optimized material handling cost can only be achieved through an optimized facilities layout design. But, companies certainly cannot become sure that the layout at hand is optimized unless several alternatives are developed and simulated. So, with the application of simulation, companies can save the un-determined cost of the un-simulated facilities layout design. This article tries to review various scientific literatures and different research applications of scholars and come up with the recommendation that manufacturing firms should stimulate their facilities layout before its implementation so as to save time and industrial resources.