Continuous improvement strategies across manufacturing SMEs of Northern India

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagdeep Singh Sraun ◽  
Harwinder Singh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contributions of successful continuous improvement (CI) strategic implementation to competitive manufacturing. It also seeks to critically examine the level of importance of CI strategy implementation in Indian manufacturing organizations. Design/methodology/approach A reasonably large number of manufacturing organizations with successful experience of CI approach have been surveyed to assess the contributions of CI strategies and approach towards accruing useful benefits. The study involves working out the correlations between various CI strategies and manufacturing performance parameters to ascertain the contributions of significant strategies towards realization of manufacturing performance improvement. Findings The results of investigation demonstrated that CI strategies and approach significantly aimed at improving the quality of product manufactured by small- and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises. Supportive tools have negative impact on manufacturing performance parameters. Total productive maintenance strategies have highly significant impact on manufacturing performance improvement. Practical implications The study establishes that CI strategic implementation can systematically contribute towards realization of significant manufacturing performance enhancements. Originality/value The study highlights both positive and negative potentials of CI strategic implementation affecting performance improvements. The achievements of Indian manufacturing organizations through proactive CI approach have been evaluated and the critical impact of CI strategies has been identified for enhancing the effectiveness of CI activities in the Indian context.

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanwarpreet Singh ◽  
Inderpreet Singh Ahuja

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate and extract various significant factors influencing the implementation of total quality management (TQM) and total productive maintenance (TPM) on business performance for the following approaches: TPM alone; both TQM-TPM combined for improving manufacturing performance in the Indian manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach – In the present study, 94 manufacturing organizations have been extensively surveyed, to ascertain the contributions made by TQM and TPM initiatives in the Indian manufacturing industries toward realizing manufacturing performance improvements. The correlations between various TQM and TPM implementation issues and manufacturing performance improvements have been evaluated and validated by employing various statistical tools. Findings – This paper illustrates how the synergistic relationship of TQM and TPM paradigms can be helpful for Indian manufacturing industries to enhance overall business performance. The major objectives of this research is to examine, the effectiveness of performance parameters (dependent variables) and factors of implementation (independent variables) of companies implementing TPM alone and TQM-TPM combined approach to improve their business performance and how the support of TQM provides a synergetic effect on TPM's contribution in improving better business performance. Originality/value – TQM and TPM, are such popular initiatives employed by the manufacturing organizations as performance improvement techniques. These programs are employed world over for attaining customer satisfaction, reliability, productivity, market share, profitability and even survival. The study stresses upon the need for improving coordination between manufacturing parameters and other organizational quality improvement initiatives through transfusion of TQM and TPM and to examine the impact of experience in terms of time period on effectiveness of performance parameters when TQM is supported by TPM for Indian manufacturing companies.


Author(s):  
Jagdeep Singh ◽  
Harwinder Singh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess TPM pillars for manufacturing performance improvement in the manufacturing organizations of Northern India and to identify critical and non-critical components based on failure history, to minimize machine downtime, maximize component/machine availability and to identify failure modes, their causes and effects of these failures on machines or components in the case company under study. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, TPM pillars in the paint manufacturing plant have been elaborated to ascertain the tangible and intangible benefits accrued as a result of successful TPM implementation. The approach has been directed toward justification of TPM implementation for its support to competitive manufacturing in the context of Indian manufacturing industries. Findings Findings suggest that maintenance planning is more effective than small improvements for achieving benefits from TPM pillars. Moreover, results indicated that critical components show average reliability and failure probability of about 50 percent. Originality/value The present study encompasses systematic identification of maintenance-related losses, setting up of targets regarding maintenance performance improvements and developing guidelines for achieving enhanced manufacturing system performance through strategic TPM implementation in the manufacturing plant, which can also be important to all concerned with maintenance in various manufacturing enterprises.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vieri Maestrini ◽  
Andrea Stefano Patrucco ◽  
Davide Luzzini ◽  
Federico Caniato ◽  
Paolo Maccarrone

PurposeGrounding on resource orchestration theory, this paper aims to study the relationship between the way buying companies use their supplier performance measurement systems and the performance improvements obtained from suppliers, with relationship trust identified as a mediator in the previous link.Design/methodology/approachThe authors design a conceptual model and test it through structural equation modelling on a final sample of 147 buyer-supplier responses, collected by means of a dyadic survey.FindingsResults suggest that the buyer company may achieve the most by balancing a diagnostic and interactive use of the measurement system, as they are both positively related to supplier performance improvement. Furthermore, relationship trust acts as a mediator in case of the interactive use, but not for the diagnostic. This type of use negatively affects relationship trust, due to its mechanistic use in the buyer-supplier relationship.Originality/valueThe authors’ results contribute to the current academic debate about supplier performance measurement system design and use by analyzing the impact of different supplier performance measurement system uses, and highlighting their relative impact on relationship trust and supplier performance improvement. From a methodological perspective, adopting a dyadic data collection process increases the robustness of the findings.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Maware ◽  
Modestus Okechukwu Okwu ◽  
Olufemi Adetunji

Purpose This study aims to comparatively discuss the effect of lean manufacturing (LM) implementation in the manufacturing sectors of developing and developed countries. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth literature review focused on previous research published between 2015 and March 2020. The papers published by the databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, ProQuest and Web of Science were used in the study. A total of 63 studies that focused on LM application in manufacturing industries in developing and developed countries were used in the research. Findings It was observed that LM improves operational performance for manufacturing organizations in developing and developed countries. Small and medium-sized enterprises in both developed and developing countries have difficulties transforming their organizations into lean organizations compared to large enterprises. Furthermore, the review also found that there seems to have been no paper had reported the negative impact of implementing LM in manufacturing industries in developing and developed countries from 2015 to March 2020. Research limitations/implications The study used research papers written between January 2015 and March 2020 and only considered manufacturing organizations from developed and developing nations. Practical implications The study provides more insight into LM implementation in developing and developed countries. It gives the LM practices and the implications of applying these practices in manufacturing organizations for developing and developed countries. Originality/value A preliminary review of papers indicated that this seems to be the first paper that comparatively studies how LM implementation has affected manufacturing organizations in developed and developing countries. The study also assessed the LM practices commonly used by the manufacturing industries in developing and developed countries.


Author(s):  
Ilias Vlachos ◽  
Evangelia Siachou

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify workplace factors with an impact on lean performance (LP). This can lead to better LP outcomes, thus facilitating organizations to smoothly move from the conventional to lean management. Design/methodology/approach The direct effects of training, knowledge acquisition and organizational culture are empirically investigated using data from 126 managers employed at a global company, which recently has improved its LP. Study’s hypotheses were analyzed with hierarchical regression models. Findings The findings suggest that not all of the aforementioned workplace factors holistically affect LP. Only organizational culture is associated to the four LP variables (i.e. continuous improvement, waste, ergonomy and product quality). Training and knowledge acquisition offer partially effects on LP with training to contribute mostly to predicting continuous improvements. Knowledge acquisition alone, has significant yet negative impact on both continuous improvement and ergonomy. Even more, when training is combined with knowledge acquisition the results are different. Originality/value As this study highlights the impact of workplace practices on LP, attributes mainly importance to the distinct effects that each of the aforementioned factors has on the four distinct LP variables. Although the study results reflect a particular case, its recommendations could facilitate practitioners to achieve better lean outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 2050002
Author(s):  
W. F. Lü ◽  
L. Dai ◽  
Z. F. Zhao ◽  
M. Lin

In this paper, we investigate the impact of random dopant fluctuation (RDF) on the statistical variations in negative capacitance MOSFETs (NCFETs) through a device simulation coupled with the Landau–Khalatnikov (LK) equation. Compact models for feedback mechanisms that are based on the internal gate voltage amplification in NCFETs are proposed. The results show that internal voltage amplification plays a decisive role in performance improvement of device variability. Further, our simulation study demonstrates that owing to the feedback mechanism, the dispersions of the performance parameters in NCFETs exhibit different statistical distribution characteristics compared to their MOSFET counterparts. Our study may provide further insight regarding device and/or circuit designs utilizing NCFETs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raffaele Trequattrini ◽  
Maurizio Massaro ◽  
Alessandra Lardo ◽  
Benedetta Cuozzo

PurposeThe paper aims to investigate the emerging issue of knowledge transfer and organisational performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of knowledge transfer in obtaining high and positive results in organisations, in particular, studying the role of managers’ skills transfer and which conditions help to achieve positive performance.Design/methodology/approachThe research analyses 41 cases of coaches that managed clubs competing in the major international leagues in the 2014–2015 season and that moved to a new club over the past five seasons. The authors employ a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methodology. According to the research question, the outcome variable used is the team sport performance improvement. As explanatory variables, the authors focus on five main variables: the history of coach transfers; the staff transferred; the players transferred; investments in new players and the competitiveness.FindingsThe overall results show that when specific conditions are realised simultaneously, they allow team performance improvement, even if the literature states that the coach transfers show a negative impact on outcomes. Interestingly, this work reaches contrasting results because it shows the need for the coexistence of combinations of variables to achieve the transferability of managers’ capabilities and performance.Originality/valueThe paper is novel because it presents a QCA that tries to understand which conditions, factors and contexts help knowledge to be transferred and to contribute to the successful run of organisations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1399-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saumyaranjan Sahoo

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine the impact of human-related support practices, total productive maintenance (TPM) practices, and total quality management (TQM) practices on manufacturing performance parameters and their inter-relationship.Design/methodology/approachA research project was carried out in 94 Indian manufacturing companies, using the questionnaire method. The survey data was drawn from 169 respondents working in these companies. In this paper, the impact of TPM and TQM practices on manufacturing performance parameters and especially the role of support practices is investigated empirically using various structural equation models.FindingsTwo factors namely top management and leadership and human resource development categorized as support practices were found to positively influence the adoption of technical practices, i.e., TPM and TQM practices. Hence support practices were found to indirectly affect the manufacturing performance parameters via the technical factors. Also analyzing various structural equation models (SEM), shop floor implementation of TPM practices were found to be influenced (or guided) by the philosophy of TQM practices. In other words, through the proper adoption of TQM practices, the effectiveness of TPM practices gets increased.Research limitations/implicationsBecause of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further using a case study approach.Practical implicationsThe present study provides useful insights to practicing managers. The result of the study explaining the interrelationship between support practices (behavioral aspect) and technical practices can be used by practicing managers to develop a better understanding of the contribution of support and technical practices towards the realization of organizational objectives of growth and sustainability. In practice, TQM plays a great role in the adoption of TPM practices, which in turn helps to achieve quality in processes and therefore in products.Originality/valuePrevious research has often either concentrated on technical practices as one dimension without studying the effects of support practices on improving the adoption of technical practices. The results of the study take one step further by investigating the relationship between multiple aspects (support and technical aspects) of manufacturing practices and their impact on manufacturing performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1319-1332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shumpei Iwao ◽  
Mihail Marinov

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine factors that inhibit and facilitate the contribution of continuous improvement activities to advance performance in “lean” factories. Design/methodology/approach From the perspective of the routine dynamics theory, this paper considers the possibility of changes in the standard operating procedures (SOPs) made in the course of continuous improvement activities being ignored by employees. This paper builds a hypothesis predicting that firms where employees ignore changes in the SOP cannot achieve the intended improvement effect of these changes. This hypothesis is confirmed with comparative case studies of Toyota and Matsuo. Findings At Toyota there is an incentive to perform operations according to the SOP, while at Matsuo this incentive is not present. This difference means that process improvement activities at Toyota generate changes in manufacturing operations, while at Matsuo, although the SOP has been changed, workers continue to perform operations according to the old SOP and fail to advance performance. This paper argues that the presence/absence of an incentive to perform operations according to the SOP is dependent on whether the responsibility of the performance lies with the SOPs or employees. Additionally, this paper finds that the SOP not only limits employees’ creativities but also supports creative activities for the development of continuous improvement as an organizational activity. Research limitations/implications The generalization of our findings requires statistical support for which an extensive subsequent sampling survey including non-Japanese firms is necessary. Originality/value This study makes a new suggestion regarding the theory of routine dynamics and the fields of operations management: adequate management of consistency between the three aspects (material, ostensive and performative) of organizational routines is important for lean manufacturing.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Kulikowski

PurposeDespite evidence showing that cognitive biases – the systematic errors made by humans during cognitive processing, are prevalent among decision-makers, there is a lack of theoretical models providing insight into how these limitations of human mind might affect decisions made during performance management. This study aims to fill this gap and contribute to performance management scholarship by proposing a conceptual framework broadening our understanding of the role of cognitive biases in performance improvements practices and by highlighting remedies for cognitive biases.Design/methodology/approachUsing benchmarking as an example, the authors integrate the knowledge from performance management and cognitive psychology literature. Examples of cognitive biases possible during benchmarking are used to illustrate how the limitations of human mind might have a critical role in performance management.FindingsThe cognitive biases might diminish the positive effect of performance improvement practice on organizational performance. As there is a prevalence of cognitive biases coupled with the inability of individuals to recognize and face them, the remedy for cognitive biases should be sought not at an individual but rather on an organizational level, in creating organizational cognitive biases policy (CBP).Originality/valueThe presented model provides new insights into the role of cognitive biases in performance management and allows seeing CBP as a safeguard against the effects of cognitive biases on performance. By referring to cognitive biases and CBP, our model also helps to understand why the same performance improvement practices might incite different opinions among decision-makers.


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