This report is written as part of the final year project requirement, which is submitted in partial
fulfillment of the degree: Bachelors in Industrial Engineering. It focuses on the preliminary
design for the project, “Business Design for 17SunsAgri”. 17SunsAgri is an agricultural business
that is proposed as a solution that will take advantage of the business climate and opportune
conditions; such as threat of land reform, lack of investments, inefficient farming practices,
unutilized available arable land, etc.; prevailing in the agricultural sector of South Africa. In
order to boost South Africa’s position as net exporter of agricultural products and the financial
gains that will be reaped due to this sector’s projected booming growth in the next 20 years.
In the first stage of the report, the aim was to provide a background on the environment of the
problem or business opportunity and also to substantiate the need, importance and viability of the
proposed solution. This was done by underlining the business climate of the agricultural sector
and also explaining some of the problems occurring that are influencing the growth of the sector.
Then it was further explained how the project was going to be approached and also the
deliverables that were needed. Thereafter all the industrial engineering techniques that were used
in the construction of the deliverables mentioned were then explained, focusing on issues such as
market and industry attractiveness, organizational structure, business and operating model
generation. In addition, it included an investigation on the viability of the business project as the
business overview/value proposition.
In the second stage, the aim was to do an analysis on the business environment that the business
will operate in looking at macroeconomic, market and company outlooks thereafter formulating
the strategy the business will use to assign its scarce resources to gain a sustainable competitive
advantage. This was done by formulating the business 17SunsAgri’s strategy after a three part
analysis was done, which was composed of the following:
An industry analysis where the industry in which the business will operate is discussed by
looking at the macroeconomic, market and company views finished off with possible strategies
based on the business’s internal capabilities (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors
(opportunities and threats); A customer analysis where the customers that the business might
serve and also their preferences and behaviors are analyzed; and a competitor analysis where the
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business’s potential competitors are discussed looking at issues such as their strengths and
weaknesses; who they are and their strategies.
The strategy was then formulated with an excerpt been that:
“17SunsAgri aims to be one of the leading grower and supplier of seedlings in South Africa
supplying high quality horticulture and forestry seedlings at a competitive price in the shortest
time. With the vision of the business been to revolutionize the agriculture industry in such a
manner as to bring about economical welfare to South Africa and to bring about food security for
the continent.”
In the third stage, the aim was to describe the product offering of the business followed by the
designing and development of alternative business models that the business can use and
thereafter an evaluation in order to arrive to one solution of which is the best, viable business
model. This was done starting with the business’s product offering been concisely defined and
described looking at what it is and the ideologies that support it followed by a description of the
criteria that the alternative business models were evaluated with. Then three alternative business
models were designed and developed in order to support the strategy for 17SunsAgri that was
formulated previously. They were then evaluated against criteria and with also a SWOT
evaluation with finally the best viable business model been chosen and motivated.
In the fourth stage, the operating model of 17SunsAgri was designed by looking at the possible
business functions that the business might have in order to deliver value by considering an
adaptation of Porter’s Value Chain Analysis for an agribusiness.
In the last stage, the verification and validation of the business design for 17SunsAgri was done
through the use of business requirement checking and expert opinion validation by the project
sponsor.
The completion of this project has resulted in a very unique business design that if replicated
could allow the agricultural sector of South Africa to take advantage of its agricultural potential
and also reap the financial gains of this growing industry worldwide. It has also resulted in a
business design that creates value or meaning by providing a high quality and convenient product
that improves the quality and standard of people’s lives with profit been the resultant