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Lean Production Practices: International Comparisons in the Auto Components Industry 1
Author(s) -
Oliver Nick,
Delbridge Rick,
Lowe James
Publication year - 1996
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.1467-8551.1996.tb00146.x
Subject(s) - benchmarking , automotive industry , lean manufacturing , productivity , context (archaeology) , production (economics) , business , industrial organization , manufacturing engineering , quality (philosophy) , operations management , relation (database) , marketing , computer science , engineering , economics , microeconomics , philosophy , epistemology , macroeconomics , aerospace engineering , paleontology , database , biology
In recent years the application of lean production principles has been forcefully expounded as the route to high‐performance manufacturing. This paper examines the relationship between lean production and performance empirically, using data from a benchmarking study of 71 plants in the international automotive components industry. The top performing plants (and their suppliers and customers) showed consistently better process control than did the lower performing plants. UK plants did not perform very well in terms of either quality or productivity, and links between economic context and manufacturing performance are discussed in relation to the UK.