Leveraging fitness and lean bundles to build the cumulative performance sand cone model

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between bundles of lean practices and cumulative performance, as described by the sand cone model. Based on the literature, hypotheses relating lean bundles to cumulative performance are proposed. They are tested using a sample of 317 plants in three industries and ten countries, based on structural equation modeling. The results indicate a set of direct and indirect relationships that illustrate: (1) the importance of organizational fitness at the base of the sand cone of practices, (2) the cumulative relationship of competitive performance, supporting the sand cone model, and (3) the cumulative relationship between lean bundles and the sand cone sequence of cumulative performance. Testing alternative models of cumulative performance lends further support to these results. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for managers seeking guidance in competing on multiple dimensions of competitive performance simultaneously, particularly in terms of establishing a foundation of organizational fitness for the cumulative implementation of lean bundles. It contributes tothe literature on manufacturing strategyand lean by providing additional support for the sand cone of cumulative performance, expanding research on the sand cone of practices that support cumulative performance, describing the role that external resources like suppliers can play in mastering lean cumulatively and separating previous research on lean bundles into those related to fitness and those with a more specific goal orientation, building on the strong foundation provided by the extended resource based view and the concept of absorptive capacity

Training, employee involvement and continuous improvement – the moderating effect of a common improvement method

“…Continuous improvement leads to higher operational and financial performance because of the elimination of unnecessary variability (Hopp and Spearman 2004), the reduction of non-value added activities and hence an increase of customer value and satisfaction (Singh and Singh 2015). In addition, continuous improvement seems to function as a kind of a fitness factor that enlarges the impact of other practices on performance (Bortolotti et al 2015), and is hence a source of competitive advantage (Sanchez and Blanco 2014;de Menezes, Wood, and Gelade 2010).…”

Towards a theory for lean implementation in supply networks

“…Therefore, the extension of lean programmes should include practices that involve suppliers in finding and reducing problems that affect internal and external processes (Jones and Womack, 2002;Taylor, 2006;Bortolotti et al, 2015a;Bortolotti et al, 2015b;Chavez et al, 2015). As the main aim of the extension of lean programmes is to minimize variability in the SN, all the SN actors should streamline and align their internal production systems, and connect them by ensuring that suppliers deliver just-in-time (Shah and Ward, 2007).…”

“…In particular, supplier-customer lean problem-solving teams are often created to reorganize process flows within a plant (Simpson and Power, 2005;Taylor, 2006). Supplier involvement is also crucial to introduce a pull system at the customer-supplier interface (Bortolotti et al, 2015b;Chavez et al, 2015). According to this practice, customers receive small lots of materials at regular and short intervals following the pace of the end-user demand, thus increasing operational performance of the entire SN (Danese et al, 2012).…”

“…Arkader (2001) maintains that if customers focus on price only the extension of lean practices beyond the individual company will be difficult to achieve. Indeed, suppliers' technical competencies are needed to create valuable products for the final customer, to manage the design process on an inter-firm basis, and to implement an inter-firm pull system (Panizzolo, 1998;Danese et al, 2012;Bortolotti et al, 2015b). The extension of lean programmes is facilitated by a low distance between facilities as it is extremely difficult to apply lean across global SNs (Womack and Jones, 1996b).…”

Assessing Lean Adoption in Food Companies: The Case of Morocco

“…A firm can achieve the desired improvement by identifying the different sources of waste at the levels of matter, time, process, and movement (Hopp and Spearman, 2004), for example there are lean practices like VSM which can be very effective in identifying waste in a process with a strong ability to identify bottlenecks (Baby and Jebadurai, 2018). With the success of lean practices in the automotive field, the concept was soon adopted in different companies around the world (Bortolotti et al, 2015). In the past years, many authors (McKone et al, 1999;Swink et al, 2005;Linderman et al, 2006;Shah and Ward, 2007) came up with a list of lean practices, which include the following: JIT, total quality management, total preventive maintenance, human resource management, pull, flow, low setup, controlled processes, productive maintenance, and involved employees.…”