Best manufacturing practices

Emerald - 2005
BjørgeTimenes Laugen1, NuranAcur2, HarryBoer2, JanFrick1
1Stavanger University College, Department of Business Administration, Stavanger, Norway
2Aalborg University, Centre for Industrial Production, Aalborg, Denmark

Tóm tắt

PurposeResearch on best practices suffers from some fundamental problems. The problem addressed in the article is that authors tend to postulate, rather than show, the practices they address to be best – whether these practices do indeed produce best performance is often not investigated.Design/methodology/approachThis article assumes that the best performing companies must be the ones deploying the best practices. In order to find out what are those practices, the highest performing companies in the 2002 International Manufacturing Strategy Survey database were identified, and the role 14 practices play in these companies was investigated.FindingsProcess focus, pull production, equipment productivity and environmental compatibility appear to qualify as best practices. Quality management and ICT may have been best practice previously, but lost that status. E‐business, new product development (NPD), supplier strategy and outsourcing are relatively new, cannot yet be qualified as, but may develop into, best practice. Four other practices do not produce any significant performance effects.Research limitations/implicationsThere are four limitations to the research: Incompleteness of the set of practices tested: lack of insight into the effects of interaction between practices and the way in and extent to which they were implemented; good explanatory but poor predictive power; and lack of contextuality.Originality/valueTaking the position that best practice must be what best performing companies do, the paper is useful for managers using benchmarking to review the design and performance of their manufacturing system, and for scholars engaged or interested in best practice studies.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Ahmed, N., Montagno, R. and Firenze, R.J. (1996), “Operations strategy and organisational performance: an empirical study”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 41‐53.

Bolden, R., Waterson, P., Warr, P., Clegg, C. and Wall, T. (1997), “A new taxonomy of modern manufacturing practices”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 17 No. 11, pp. 112‐1130.

Cagliano, R., Acur, N. and Boer, H. (n.d.), “Strategic flexibility: patterns of change in manufacturing strategy configurations”, paper submitted to International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Davies, A.J. and Kochhar, A.K. (2002), “Manufacturing best practice and performance studies: a critique”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 289‐305.

Flynn, B.B., Schroeder, R.G. and Flynn, E.J. (1999), “World class manufacturing: an investigation of Hayes and Wheelwright's foundation”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 17, pp. 249‐69.

Flynn, B.B., Schroeder, R.G., Flynn, E.J., Sakakibara, S. and Bates, K.A. (1997), “World class manufacturing project: overview and selected results”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 17 No. 7, pp. 671‐85.

Garver, M.S. (2003), “Best practices in identifying customer‐driven improvement opportunities”, Industrial Marketing Management, Vol. 32, pp. 455‐66.

Greswell, T., Childe, S. and Mull, R. (1998), “Three manufacturing strategy archetypes – a framework for the Aerospace industry”, in Bititci, U. and Carrie, A. (Eds), Strategic Management of the Manufacturing Value Chain, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 53‐61.

Hayes, R.H. and Wheelwright, S.C. (1984), Restoring our Competitive Edge: Competing through Manufacturing, John Wiley, New York, NY.

Hanson, P., Voss, C.A., Blackmon, K. and Oak, B. (1994), Made in Europe: A Four‐nations Study, IBM, London.

Hanson, P. and Voss, C.A. (1995), “Benchmarking best practice in European manufacturing sites”, Business Process Re‐engineering and Management Journal, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 60‐74.

Harrison, A. (1998), “Manufacturing strategy and the concept of world class manufacturing”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 397‐408.

Kathuria, R. and Partovi, F.Y. (1999), “Workforce management practices for manufacturing flexibility”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 18, pp. 21‐39.

Ketokivi, M. and Schroeder, R. (2004), “Manufacturing practices, strategic fit and performance: a routine‐based view”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 171‐91.

Peters, T.J. and Waterman, R.H. Jr (1982), In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best‐run Companies, Harper & Row, New York, NY.

Rondeau, P.J., Vonderembse, M.A. and Nathan‐Ragu, T.S. (2000), “Exploring work system practices for time‐based manufacturers: their impact on competitive capabilities”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 18, pp. 509‐29.

Schonberger, R.J. (1986), World Class Manufacturing: The Lessons of Simplicity Applied, The Free Press, New York, NY.

Swamidass, P.M. and Newell, W.T. (1987), “Manufacturing strategy, environmental uncertainty and performance: a path analytical model”, Management Science, Vol. 11 No. 8, pp. 509‐24.

Voss, C.A. (1995a), “Alternative paradigms for manufacturing strategy”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 5‐16.

Voss, C.A. (1995b), Manufacturing Strategy: Process and Content, Chapman & Hall, London.

Voss, C.A., Åhlström, P. and Blackmon, K. (1997), “Benchmarking and operational performance: some empirical results”, Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 173‐285.

Collins, R.S., Cordon, C., Cornaz, J.L., Eugster, H.R., Gemoets, O.G., Jakob, R., Julien, D. and Stücheli, G. (1996), Made in Switzerland: A Benchmarking Study of Manufacturing Practice and Performance in Swiss Industry, IBM, Zürich.

Dixon, J.R., Nanni, A.J. and Vollman, T.E. (1990), The New Performance Challenge: Measuring Operations for World Class Competition, Dow Jones‐Irwin, Homewood, IL.

Miles, R.E. and Snow, C.C. (1978), Organisational Strategy, Structure, and Process, McGraw‐Hill, New York, NY.

Rathuria, R. and Partovi, F.Y. (1999), “Work force management practices for manufacturing flexibility”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 18, pp. 21‐39.

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Emerald

Thông tin tác giả