Obstacles and difficulties implementing the lean philosophy in Brazilian enterprises

The success of Lean Manufacturing does not come down only to its application tools; it is an accomplishment of the entire leadership and workers dedicated to putting the system’s essence into practice, along with its underlying values and philosophy. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to present an analytical research in terms of the obstacles and difficulties faced by Brazilian companies to implement the Lean Manufacturing. Through a literature review of the annals of ENEGEP (the Brazilian Production Engineering Conference), this research concluded that the main obstacles and difficulties of such implementation fall under seven lines: 1) difficulties using the tool; 2) operational resistance; 3) cultural differences; 4) slow response to market; 5) lack of top/senior management involvement; 6) lack of middle management support, 7) lack of resources to invest. This article stands as a useful source for further studies about the Lean Manufacturing system.

The role of product lean launch in customer relationships and performance in the high-tech manufacturing industry

Purpose – Most new product research for the past two decades has focussed on new product development and product innovation. Only a few product launches have been discussed in specific fields. The purpose of this paper is to fill the literature gap regarding enhanced product launch performance by using the customer relationship. Design/methodology/approach – From the contract manufacturer’s perspective, the authors propose that the customer relationship and senior management involvement affects lean launch execution. The customer relationship includes both cooperativeness and behavior monitoring. Studies have suggested that a lean launch exerts a direct influence on new product performance and marketing performance. We used a questionnaire to collect data to test the postulated research model and hypotheses from project, account, and purchasing managers in the high-tech manufacturing industry. Findings – The results provided compelling evidence that the customer relationship exerts a positive effect on lean launch, which in turn exerts a positive effect on new product performance. Although lean launch execution affected marketing performance through new product performance, the direct effect on marketing performance was non-significant. Senior management involvement exerted an indirect influence on lean launch performance through cooperativeness. Originality/value – This paper suggests and empirically tests a model to explain how contract manufacturers manage brand-customer relationship through cooperativeness and behavior monitoring, leading to higher levels of lean launch execution toward new product performance.

Factors Contributing to the Abandonment of Information Systems Development Projects

The study identified several factors as contributing to the abandonment of IS development projects. Organizational-related issues which ranged from senior management involvement to end-user participation in the project development process were the most widespread and dominant of the factors. Organizational issues were also found to influence factors dealing primarily with economic and technological matters in project development.