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World Class Manufacturing: Further Evidence in the Lean Production Debate 1
Author(s) -
Oliver Nick,
Delbridge Rick,
Jones Dan,
Lowe Jim
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8551.1994.tb00130.x
Subject(s) - lean manufacturing , productivity , absenteeism , production (economics) , business , human resource management , operations management , quality (philosophy) , control (management) , world class , work (physics) , marketing , process management , management , knowledge management , computer science , manufacturing engineering , economics , engineering , economic growth , philosophy , epistemology , macroeconomics , mechanical engineering
SUMMARY This paper reports the results of a study into the performance and management practices of 18 autocomponents plants, nine of which were located in the UK and nine in Japan. The study compared the performance of these plants and used quantitative measures to test the use of lean production techniques among the high performers. Five plants displayed high performance on measures of both productivity and quality. All of these were located in Japan. Several measures of management practice provided some support for the lean production model, particularly in the area of process discipline and control; measures of human resource management policy and work organization proved less significant. Contextual factors pointed to the conditions necessary to support lean production; higher performing plants had more stable demand and lower absenteeism.