Companies implement lean manufacturing (LM) tools in their production processes to reduce waste; however, it is difficult to quantify the effect on benefits gained after their implementation. This article proposes a structural equations model (SEM) that relates three LM tools associated with quality as total quality management (TQM), waste, and right first time (RFT) as independent variables associated with commercial benefits gained as a dependent variable. Those four variables were related by six hypotheses that were validated with information from 169 responses to a survey applied to the Mexican maquiladora industry. Partial least squared was used to validate the hypotheses as direct effects. The sum of indirect and total effects was also estimated, and a sensitivity analysis was developed for relationships between variables. Findings indicate that TQM directly affects waste reduction, drives doing RFT, and directly and indirectly affects the commercial benefits gained.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.