The impact of lean methods and tools on the operational performance of manufacturing organisations

Belekoukias, Ioannis; Garza-Reyes, Jose Arturo; Kumar, Vikas

Abstract

Evidence suggests that lean methods and tools have helped manufacturing organisations to improve their operations and processes. However, the real effect of these methods and tools on contemporary measures of operational performance, i.e. cost, speed, dependability, quality and flexibility, is still unclear. This paper investigates the impact of five essential lean methods, i.e. JIT, autonomation, kaizen, total productive maintenance (TPM) and value stream mapping (VSM), on these measures. A linear regression analysis modelled the correlation and impact of these lean practices on the operational performance of 140 manufacturing organisations around the world. In addition, structural equation modelling (SME) was used to cross verify the findings of the regression and correlation analyses. The results indicate that JIT and automation have the strongest significance on operational performance while kaizen, TPM and VSM seem to have a lesser, or even negative, effect on it. This paper provides further evidence regarding the effects that lean practices have on the performance of organisations and thus the research offers companies, and their managers, a better understanding of the relationship between the lean strategy and the performance of their operations. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 6, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Apr 7, 2014
• Publication Date: Sep 17, 2014
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 11, 2016
• Journal: International Journal of Production Research
• Print ISSN: 0020-7543
• Electronic ISSN: 1366-588X
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 18
• Pages: 5346-5366
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2014.903348
• Keywords: autonomation, JIT, kaizen, lean methods, measures of operational performance, SEM, TPM, VSM
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/819413
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2014.903348
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Production Research in April 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207543.2014.903348
• Contract Date: Feb 11, 2016