The relationship between investments in lean practices and operational performance

Abstract

CitationOnofrei, G., Prester, J., Fynes, B., Humphreys, P., and Wiengarten, F. (2019) 'The relationship between investments in lean practices and operational performance: Exploring the moderating effects of operational intellectual capital', The relationship between investments in lean practices and operational performance: exploring the moderating effects of operational intellectual capitalAbstract Purpose -Prior research has shown that operational intellectual capital (OIC) and investments in lean practices (ILP) lead to better operational performance. However, there has been no empirical studies on the synergetic effects between OIC components and ILP. More specifically, the question: can the efficacy of ILP be increased through OIC has not been studied. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to report the empirical results of potential synergetic effects between operational intellectual capital (OIC), as a knowledge-based resource, and ILP.Design/Methodology/approach -The empirical data used for this study was drawn from the fifth round of the Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) survey project (with data collected from 528 manufacturing plants). The hypotheses are empirically tested using three ordinary least square (OLS) models. Findings-Our findings highlight the importance of leveraging a system of complementary knowledge based resources (OIC dimensions) and addresses the need for the reformulation of lean theory in terms of the emergent knowledge-based view (KBV) of the firm. The results facilitate greater understanding of the complex relationship between ILP and operational performance. Building on the contribution of Menor et al. (2007), we argue that OIC represents a strategic knowledge based resource that is valuable, hard to imitate or substitute and when leveraged effectively, generates superior operational and competitive advantage.Practical implications -From a managerial standpoint, this study provides guidelines for managers on how to leverage OIC to enhance the efficacy of ILP. We argue that firms consider investing in OIC to increase the return from ILP, which in turn will enhance their operational performance and provide competitive advantage. Our findings provide strong evidence of the importance of human, social and structural capital to enhance the efficacy of ILP.Originality/value -This is the first research paper that extends the application of intellectual capital theory in lean literature, and argues that the operational intellectual capital contributes

Building supply chain relational capital: The impact of supplier and customer leveraging on innovation performance

“…Malhotra and Sharma (2008) state that in order to make valid findings and conclusions, it is important that measurement invariance across groups is assessed, to ascertain whether or not measurement items, under varying conditions, yield the same attributes. A number of recent studies confirmed measurement equivalence in the GMRG data set through various tests (e.g., Schoenherr & Narasimhan, 2012; Wiengarten et al, 2018; Onofrei, Prester, Fynes, Humphreys, & Wiengarten, 2019).…”

Learning lean: rhythm of production and the pace of lean implementation

“…This is particularly important because measuring the extent of lean implementation in a factory is difficult. Most important, unlike many quantitative studies of lean (and other improvement programs) that are based on cross-sectional data from many firms and industries (a few examples include Shah and Ward, 2003; Shah et al , 2008; Fullerton et al , 2014; Jacobs et al , 2015; Onofrei and Prester, 2019), our sample is from one company, and all the factories operate in a narrow segment of one industry. Hence, our analysis implicitly controls for a variety of contextual variables.…”

“…As another reliability check, following the general consensus in the literature that a factory's operational performance improves as it implements lean more extensively (e.g. Shah and Ward, 2003; Browning and Heath, 2009; Fullerton et al , 2014; Netland and Ferdows, 2016; Onofrei and Prester, 2019), we reviewed internal company factory performance data to see if there were any anomalies; we found none. Overall, we believe GEM's Lean Implementation assessment scores are reliable measures to gauge the extent of lean implementation in a factory.…”

Анализ Стратегий Инвестирования В Человеческий Капитал Обрабатывающей Промышленности

“…[8]; Nuñez I., Prieto M. [9]; Trelová S., Olšavský F. [10], Onofrei G. и др. [11] и других) сформулирован ряд подходов, выводы которых нельзя обозначить как согласующиеся, образующие солидарно видимую методическую платформу планирования инвестиций в человеческий капитал обрабатывающей промышленности. Общими недостатками подходов к осмыслению проблематики автор видит:…”