Manufacturing Plant Performance Research Articles

LEAN IMPACT ON MANUFACTURING PRODUCTIVITY: A CASE STUDY OF INDUSTRIALIZED BUILDING SYSTEM (IBS) MANUFACTURING FACTORY

According to a recent study, Lean Manufacturing (LM) adoption in the Malaysian Industrialized Building System (IBS) industry is still low due to a variety of barriers, including misconceptions, the use of modular coordination, a lack of detailed guidelines and the Lean culture is still in its infancy in the field of IBS. This paper examines the impact of Lean Manufacturing approaches towards the manufacturing productivity in Malaysian IBS Manufacturing factory. An integration method of Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and benchmarking for measuring manufacturing plant performance and total productivity is offered. The company was able to improve its performance in each manufacturing department by implementing a lean approach. After improvement, the overall manufacturing plant performance index increased from 0.75 to 0.78, resulting in a 4.00 percent increase in total factor productivity. The proposed improvement features extracted from essential lean methods such as JIT, TPM and CI can be used by practitioners to increase the level of Lean Manufacturing implementation in Malaysian manufacturing firms.

Withstanding the economic recession: Examining the efficacy of manufacturing strategy alignment and process integration

In this paper, through the lens of contingency theory, we examine how manufacturing strategic alignment and process integration affect manufacturing plant performance under two distinct environmental contexts presented by long-term macroeconomic instability. A large-scale dataset was specifically assembled for the purpose of this research investigation by combining plant-level survey data on practices and performance with secondary macroeconomic data for 14 countries from multiple sources. The results from multi-level regression analyses indicate that while manufacturing strategy alignment and process integration are beneficial for plant performance, they have distinct effects when the contingency factor, macroeconomic instability, is taken in consideration. Notably, when plants face high macroeconomic instability, process integration has a stronger effect on performance whereas in low instability environment manufacturing strategy alignment provides higher performance benefits. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings and offer directions for future research.

Lean Approach to Enhance Manufacturing Productivity: A Case Study of Saudi Arabian Factory

In a present competitive market, manufacturing industries are compelled to follow a systematic approach to understand and improve manufacturing plant performance. A variety of management tools and philosophies are adopted by different industries to identify areas of opportunity for minimization of waste and maximization of production productivity. Lean manufacturing is a philosophy of waste minimization, productivity enhancement and continuous improvement. This paper considers Saudi Arabian factory as a case study. Accordingly, an approach is presented to measure the manufacturing plant performance and total productivity. Productivity benchmarking is done based on baseline productivity, and manufacturing plant performance index. The detailed case study analysis is done by gathering data from different manufacturing departments. By adopting lean approach, the manufacturing industry was able to improve its performance in each manufacturing departments. After improvement, the whole manufacturing plant performance index improved from 0.77 to 0.86, and the total factor productivity is increased by 11.45%. This case study focuses on resources utilization, man and material movements, production bottlenecks and percentage rejection. Thus, this paper is about the application of lean tools in a company and proposing an approach to apply it in Saudi Arabian factory, and the results can be applied to any other manufacturing company.

Impact of Foreign Ownership and Domestic Supply Base on Manufacturing Plant Performance

In this paper we examine how foreign ownership and domestic supply base affect manufacturing plant performance under two distinct types of environmental contingency – demand uncertainty and macro-economic instability. A large-scale dataset was specifically assembled for the purpose of this research investigation by combining performance and practice related survey data for more than 500 manufacturing plants from Global Manufacturing Research Group (GMRG) with secondary macro-economic data for 13 countries from the World Economic Forum (WEF), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat. Multi-level regression analysis results show that domestic supply base is positively associated with plant performance. Foreign ownership is positively associated with performance when the plants face macro-economic instability. The results further show that in the presence of both high demand uncertainty and macroeconomic instability, the joint effect of domestic supply base and foreign ownership becomes important for plant performance. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings and offer directions for future research.

Assessing self-selection and endogeneity issues in the relation between activity-based costing and performance

Studies investigating the relation between ABC adoption and performance are inconclusive and plagued with econometric problems. This study extends prior research to investigate the association between ABC adoption and four manufacturing plant performance measures (cycle-time improvement, quality improvement, cost improvement, and profitability) and to assess selection bias and the endogenous nature of their relationship. I use the Heckman (1979) model to assess sample selection bias and the Wooldridge (2002) 2SLS-IV approach, to investigate endogeneity. After controlling for sample selection bias and endogeneity, the coefficient of ABC under the Heckman method and ABCfit under the 2SLS-IV method becomes significantly higher compared to the coefficient of ABC under the OLS method. In addition, both the inverse Mills ratio, under the Heckman model, and Hausman F-test, under the Wooldridge 2SLS approach, are positive and significant, confirming the presence of both sample selection bias and endogeneity. Overall, I find that controlling for sample selection bias and endogeneity is essential in properly assessing the significance of ABC-performance association.

The relationships between manufacturing strategy process, manufacturing-marketing integration, and plant performance: an empirical study of Korean manufacturers

The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationships between manufacturing strategy process (manufacturing strategy formulation and manufacturing strategy implementation), manufacturing-marketing integration and plant performance. For this study, a survey was conducted on 221 manufacturers from the machinery, automotive and electronics in South Korea. Subsequently, the related hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. According to the results, positive relationships were observed between the manufacturing strategy process, manufacturing-marketing integration and plant performance. Specifically, manufacturing strategy formulation positively influenced both manufacturing strategy implementation and manufacturing-marketing integration. Further, not only manufacturing strategy implementation, but manufacturing-marketing integration also has a direct positive influence on plant performance. Although manufacturing strategy formulation does not directly affect plant performance, its influence on plant performance is transmitted through two paths intermediated by both manufacturing strategy implementation and manufacturing-marketing integration, respectively. In contrast to quite a number of studies focused on the manufacturing strategy content, there only exists a relatively small number of studies related to the manufacturing strategy process. Therefore, this study is one of the few broad empirical studies that investigated the interrelationships between manufacturing strategy formulation, manufacturing strategy implementation, manufacturing-marketing cooperation and plant performance using structural equation modeling. Furthermore, it also verified that the manufacturing strategy process can be a source of plant performance improvement.

Revisiting the progression of competitive capabilities: results from a repeated cross-sectional investigation

The progression of capabilities according to the sand cone model is a commonly accepted notion in production and operations management. However, this progression, which implies development over time, has only been tested with cross-sectional data from single time periods. In this paper, we investigate competitive capability progression (CCP) using a repeated cross-sectional design, approximating the temporal dimension inherent in the concept. The contributions of our paper are threefold. First, we test whether the sand cone model of CCP can be replicated in a repeated cross-sectional design. Second, we examine the cumulative reinforcement patterns among capabilities by investigating the links between them, thereby assessing the robustness of the configuration prescribed by the sand cone model over time. And third, we examine whether the configurations in which cumulative capabilities are pursued differ across the two time periods, and how they influence improvements in manufacturing plant performance.

Information systems for collaborating versus transacting: Impact on manufacturing plant performance in the presence of demand volatility

Research at the nexus of operations management and information systems suggests that manufacturing plants may benefit from the utilization of information systems for collaborating and transacting with suppliers and customers. The objective of this study is to examine the extent to which value generated by information systems for collaborating versus transacting is contingent upon demand volatility. We analyze a unique dataset assembled from non-public U.S. Census Bureau data of manufacturing plants. Our findings suggest that when faced with volatile demand, plants employing information systems for collaborating with suppliers and customers experience positive and significant benefits to performance, in terms of both labor productivity and inventory turnover. In contrast, results suggest that plants employing information systems for transacting in volatile environments do not experience such benefits. Further exploratory analysis suggests that in the context of demand volatility, these two distinct dimensions of IT-based integration have differing performance implications at different stages of the production process in terms of raw-materials inventory and finished-goods inventory, but not in terms of work-in-process inventory. Taken together, our study contributes to theoretical and managerial understanding of the contingent value of information systems in volatile demand conditions in the supply chain context.

Achieving Lean Objectives through RFID: A Simulation‐Based Assessment*

ABSTRACTLean concepts in manufacturing have focused on elimination of wastes within the business processes. This study investigates whether addition of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies in the manufacturing process can complement Lean manufacturing. Specifically, will more accurate information from RFID‐based solutions help achieve the goals of Lean initiatives in manufacturing plant performance and, if yes, in what specific ways? The analysis is based on a comparison of the following three automatic identification technologies: existing (one‐dimensional) 1D barcode, 2D barcode, and the use of RFID in a real job‐shop environment where items are manufactured for meeting actual demand and also future forecast demand. We analyze the effect of information visibility in these settings by examining the various types of wastes that are typically addressed in Lean initiatives. The results of a discrete‐event simulation suggest that employing RFID in Lean manufacturing initiatives can reduce some wastes but not necessarily all types of waste. We observe an increase in overproduction waste in our setting, although other wastes are reduced with improved information visibility. Overall, our results indicate that manufacturing organizations should explore information visibility through RFID to enhance their Lean initiatives.

Impact of Alternative Fuels on the Cement Manufacturing Plant Performance: An Overview

Cement manufacturing is a high energy consuming and heavy polluting process. To reduce the energy and environmental costs cement producers are currently using a blend of alternative fuels with conventional fossil fuels. Alkaline environment, high temperature and long processing time allow cement kiln to burn a wide range of alternative fuels including waste and hazardous materials. This paper summarizes and reviews literatures on the usage of different types of alternative fuel and their impacts on the plant performance. The past research suggests that the maximum benefit can be derived by using an appropriate blend of different types of alternative fuels together with fossil fuels. However, the studies on quantification of appropriate mixing ratio of different alternative fuels to increase the plant performance are scant. Further study is required to determine the correct blending ratios. This literature review is focused on the relationship between performance and blending of different alternative fuels used by leading cement manufacturing groups.

An integrated fuzzy multi-criteria approach for the performance evaluation of multiple manufacturing plants

The performance evaluation is regarded as a multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem and has a significant impact on the operations of the enterprise. This paper develops an integrated MCDM approach that combines the voting method and the fuzzy TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) method to evaluate the performance of multiple manufacturing plants in a fuzzy environment. Fuzzy TOPSIS helps decision-makers carry out analysis and comparisons in ranking their preference of the alternatives with vague or imprecise data. Since the evaluation result is often greatly affected by the weights used in the evaluation process, the voting method is used in this study to determine the appropriate criteria weights. A case study demonstrating the applicability of the proposed model is presented. The case company is the world’s largest manufacturer of power supplies. It has three primary manufacturing bases located in Wujiang, Dongguan, and Tianjin, China. The proposed approach is used to evaluate the performance of the company’s five manufacturing plants in Wujiang, which produce switch power, telecom power, DC/DC converters, uninterruptible power systems (UPS) and AC/DC adapters.

The impact of supply chain complexity on manufacturing plant performance

This paper puts forth a model of supply chain complexity and empirically tests it using plant-level data from 209 plants across seven countries. The results show that upstream complexity, internal manufacturing complexity, and downstream complexity all have a negative impact on manufacturing plant performance. Furthermore, supply chain characteristics that drive dynamic complexity are shown to have a greater impact on performance than those that drive only detail complexity. In addition to providing a definition and empirical test of supply chain complexity, the study serves to link the systems complexity literature to the prescriptions found in the flexibility and lean production literatures. Finally, this research establishes a base from which to extend previous work linking operations strategy to organization design [Flynn, B.B., Flynn, E.J., 1999. Information-processing alternatives for coping with manufacturing environment complexity. Decision Sciences 30 (4), 1021–1052].

Linking Internal Process Technology Development and the Use of AMT With Manufacturing Plant Performance---An Examination of Complementarities and Redundancies

In this paper, we distinguish between the internal and external means by which manufacturing plants engage in process technology development. While computerized and equipment-based advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) are typically sourced from external vendors, plants also develop proprietary process technologies in-house. We present internal process technology development (IPTD) as a construct that captures this internal means of process technology development, and investigate the individual and interaction effects of IPTD and externally sourced computerized and equipment-based AMT on manufacturing plant performance. Our results indicate that IPTD is positively associated with quality, delivery, and process flexibility, but it is not significantly associated with cost efficiency or new product flexibility. The indicated relationships between the use of specific types of AMT (process, design, and planning AMT) and manufacturing plant performance and between IPTD-AMT interactions and manufacturing plant performance suggest context specificity. In addition, the findings suggest the existence of complementarities as well as the redundancies among IPTD-AMT relationships.

The role of manufacturing practices in mediating the impact of activity-based costing on plant performance

We study the impact of activity-based costing (ABC) on adoption of world-class manufacturing (WCM) practices and plant performance. In contrast to earlier research that estimates the direct impact of ABC on plant performance, we develop an alternative research model to study the role of world-class manufacturing practices as a mediator of the impact of ABC. Analysis of data from a large cross-sectional sample of US manufacturing plants indicates that ABC has no significant direct impact on plant performance, as measured by improvements in unit manufacturing costs, cycle time, and product quality. We find, however, that WCM practices completely mediate the positive impact of ABC on plant performance, and thus advanced manufacturing capabilities represent a critical missing link in understanding the overall impact of ABC. Our results provide a different conceptual lens to evaluate the relationship between ABC adoption and plant performance, and suggest that ABC adoption by itself does not improve plant performance.

Managing beyond the factory walls: Effects of four types of strategic integration on manufacturing plant performance

In this paper we focus on the integration of strategic objectives and process knowledge that a manufacturing factory collects from its external interfaces. Using data from a variety of manufacturing industries, this study examines four different types of strategic integration at the manufacturing plant level. We use a path analytic approach to simultaneously assess the contributions of the various types of integration to manufacturing-based competitive capabilities and business level performance. In addition, we examine the intervening roles that manufacturing-based competitive capabilities play in mediating the relationships between strategic integration and business performance. We find that each type of integration activity has unique benefits and detriments. These findings extend prior studies of manufacturing and supply chain integration by broadening the theory relating to strategic integration. The results also provide implications for manufacturing managers who seek to design integration policies and associated resource deployments.

Do Manufacturers Pollute Less Under the Regulation-Through-Information Regime? What Plant-Level Data Tell Us

Because past studies on the effects of right-to-know laws have relied on highly aggregated data, it is still unknown whether being located in a state with a funded right-to-know program has a significant effect on the environmental performance of individual manufacturing plants. Nor has it been shown that such effects exist net of other plant characteristics that are known to increase pollution. To remedy this situation, we have used plant-level data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory to test the effects of states' right-to-know programs on the toxic emissions of chemical plants in 1990 and 2000. Consistent with several organizational theories (neoinstitutionalism, organizational ecology, and the resource dependence framework) that stress how regulatory policies are just one of several institutional forces that bear on organizations, our findings reveal that states' right-to-know programs have had no significant net effect on plants' toxic emissions. In addition to raising questions about the efficacy of information disclosure laws, our results underscore the importance of approaching pollution as an organizational phenomenon and studying organizations where they most directly impact the environment-at the site of production.

Do Manufacturers Pollute Less Under the Regulation-Through-Information Regime? What Plant-Level Data Tell Us

Because past studies on the effects of right-to-know laws have relied on highly aggregated data, it is still unknown whether being located in a state with a funded right-to-know program has a significant effect on the environmental performance of individual manufacturing plants. Nor has it been shown that such effects exist net of other plant characteristics that are known to increase pollution. To remedy this situation, we have used plant-level data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory to test the effects of states' right-to-know programs on the toxic emissions of chemical plants in 1990 and 2000. Consistent with several organizational theories (neoinstitutionalism, organizational ecology, and the resource dependence framework) that stress how regulatory policies are just one of several institutional forces that bear on organizations, our findings reveal that states' right-to-know programs have had no significant net effect on plants' toxic emissions. In addition to raising questions about the efficacy of information disclosure laws, our results underscore the importance of approaching pollution as an organizational phenomenon and studying organizations where they most directly impact the environment-at the site of production.

Generic manufacturing strategies and plant performance

Generic manufacturing strategies and plant performance

Generic manufacturing strategies and plant performance

This study examines the effects of the fit between generic manufacturing strategies (GMS) and manufacturing objectives upon strategically relevant plant level performance outcomes (e.g. cost-efficiency, quality, delivery, flexibility, and innovation). The proposition that plants with generic manufacturing strategies that are consistent (fit) with operational objectives will experience relatively higher levels of performance than others is tested using data from multiple countries and industries. A simultaneous estimation analysis revealed significant relationships between generic manufacturing strategies and plant performance, when accounting for operational objectives and while controlling for country, industry, and size effects.

A Systematic Comparison of Manufacturing Performance in Italy and the UK

A comparison of Italian and UK manufacturing plant performance for the Engineering industry is presented, based on data collected in both countries using the survey method. The comparison of the quantitative data indicates that in the areas of flexibility and quality there were no real differences between the performance of Italian and UK plants. However, in the area of people management significant differences were found and these have implications for both researchers and managers in the manufacturing sector.