Lean and US manufacturing industry: popularity of practices and implementation barriers

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze lean strategic practices being implemented in manufacturing facilities throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia and identify the difficulty in implementing those lean practices. Design/methodology/approach A skip logic questionnaire was developed into multiple sections for analysis; demographics of respondents, identification of the knowledge and practice of lean methods, interpretation of lean application, strategic direction of lean methods, measurements of expertise, and difficulties for practicing lean. The questionnaire was sent to 327 manufacturing facilities where 51 usable responses were collected for the study. Findings Lean manufacturing is a widely recognized and practiced business philosophy as a significant percentage of manufacturers have implemented some variation of practice. However, the extent of knowledge does not mirror awareness. The application of lean manufacturing practices is not readily appropriate for every company, but adopting the concept of customer-focussed waste reduction to maximize value can be universally applied as waste reduction was the most prominent practice pursued. Lean practitioners found that poka-yoke and installing new process equipment have the highest degree of benefits from implementation while 5S and eliminating waste were the least difficult practices to implement. In general, the management personnel of the companies have an influential effect on lean manufacturing pursuance. This is illustrated by the fact of high agreement between facilities that resistance to change from employees is the most prominent difficulty for implementation followed by limited technical knowledge of lean manufacturing at operational and conceptual levels. Research limitations/implications The research findings are from a subset of manufacturing companies in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and may not represent all of the companies on a national level. The results must be interpreted in the context of the data acquisition approach due to the extent of the sample size involved, the procedure for how data were collected, and assuming that each lean strategic practice has the same weight to calculate the facility lean index. Practical implications The results provide insight about the effect of facility size and years of lean practicing for various lean strategic practices. The most beneficial and least difficult lean strategies, their implementation level, and the real challenges for implementing lean were also identified to help both lean practitioner and non-practitioner for the lean journey. Originality/value The research investigates current lean strategic practices pursued by manufacturers throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia and identifies obstacles to implementation of lean practices. Lean manufacturing is widely sought after as a continuous improvement program, but success is divided. This study characterizes lean manufacturing comprehension while identifying knowledge areas of strengths and deficiencies. There lacks an established structure for lean practices to pursue. Therefore, this study provides manufacturers a measure for comparing their position for refined decision making.

Managing Manufacturing Complexity Drivers on Performance – An Initial Study

“…The internal consistency and reliability of the survey were tested using the Cronbach's α reliability test [16]. Abolhassani et al, [17] stated that Spearman's correlation evaluates a relationship between two variables, without making any assumptions about the frequency distribution of the variables and it was applied to measure the correlation of the relation of CMP and MCD. Out of 150 questionnaires sent, a total 61 were completed and returned.…”

“…This is evidently shown in Figure 2 where these three components (product quality, on-time delivery and minimum cost) have the higher mean score compared to the others component measured. Manufacturing industries in pursuit of cost and time reduction without decreasing product quality [17,[19][20]. Improved product quality and on-time delivery result in improved performance [21].…”

Market Competition, Lean Manufacturing Practices and The Role of Management Accounting Systems (MAS) Information

“…To counter the adverse effects of competition, firms adopt various manufacturing strategies such as lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing has been identified in the literature as one of the practices adopted by firms to manage and control their costs (Taj 2008;Liker 2004;Zahraee 2016) and help the organisations to sustain in a long term (Abolhassani, Layfield & Gopalakrishnan 2016). Although the main aim of implementing lean production is to increase productivity, reduce costs, improve quality and enhance performance, past studies (e.g.…”

Identification of the relationships between critical success factors, barriers and practices for lean implementation in a small company

“…Abolhassani et al (2016) argue that larger companies tend to adopt lean practices more widely. Therefore, the identification of the practices most easily applicable to the context of the small com- …”

“…Specifically in the small companies context, previous studies (Saurin et al, 2010;Abolhassani et al, 2016) point to difficulties in the LM implementation process that differ from larger companies. Thus, it is important to highlight certain critical success factors (CSF) and barriers to the LM implementation in small companies, such as the proximity between top management (usually represented by small companies owners) and the operation, which tends to favor greater support to improvement projects Hallgren et Olhager, 2009;Anand et Kodali, 2010).…”