The implementation of world class manufacturing techniques in Egyptian manufacturing firms

Purpose - The purposes of this paper are to illustrate how the world class manufacturing (WCM) techniques which could be described as outperforming the industry's global best practices have been implemented in the Egyptian manufacturing firms, to identify the critical driving and resisting forces toward WCM techniques implementation in Egyptian manufacturing firms, and to provide guidelines for the successful implementation of WCM by Egyptian manufacturers. Design/methodology/approach - The data analyzed in this study are collected from a mail questionnaire sent to 200 manufacturing firms in Egypt. Findings - The findings of this study indicate that the Egyptian manufacturers are still in the 1970s and 1980s, when compared with world-class manufacturers. The most important variables that promote the implementation of WCM techniques are "reduced operating costs (marketing and production)" and "global issues (environment-market)." More importantly, the results of this study indicate that poor planning and lack of knowledge are the most significant barriers to WCM implementation in the Egyptian manufacturing sector. Research limitations/implications - There is a need to empirically explore the benefits of WCM implementation by the Egyptian manufacturing companies. Furthermore, more research is needed to study how the perceived importance of these drivers and barriers may differ across each industry such as manufacturing equipment, chemical and plastics, telecommunications, hardware equipment, textile industry, home equipment, scientific and medical equipment, management consulting, and software development. Practical implications - This study hopes to create more awareness among management and employees about the strategic importance of WCM techniques to operations processes in the Egyptian manufacturing firms. Originality/value - Although the last few years have witnessed phenomenal growth in WCM techniques, the underlying factors driving and inhibiting its diffusion are not well understood specially in the context of less developed countries in general and Egypt in particular. Therefore, this paper presents an empirical research that investigated the factors driving and inhibiting WCM implementation in Egypt and it provides insight into the strategies currently being adopted by Egyptian manufacturers in an effort to meet the challenge of obtaining WCM status