Integrated manufacturing, employee and business performance: Australian and New Zealand evidence

Abstract

This article reports on a large field study of Integrated Manufacturing (IM), consisting of Total Quality Management (TQM), Just in Time (JIT) and Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT). The relationship between these facets of Integrated Manufacturing and performance was examined empirically, including measures of employee performance and manufacturing performance. There was a significant correlation between employee performance and manufacturing performance. While all three facets of Integrated Manufacturing were relatively strongly connected with employee performance, manufacturing performance was significantly but less strongly connected to the intensity of TQM and JIT than employee performance, and not connected with the intensity of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. Some second-order interactive effects between the facets of Integrated Manufacturing and performance were found. Further, by partitioning the large data set into three using the AMT factor as a cutting variable, it was found that the stronger the AMT environment, the stronger the explanatory power of TQM and JIT on both employee and manufacturing performance. The interactive impact of AMT and TQM was significantly positively related to both employee and manufacturing performance.