| Summary: | The operations management literature presents a burgeoning array of so-called new
wave manufacturing' strategies that are aimed at reducing throughput time and waste.
Much of the evidence has been practitioner-inspired, and has a tendency to anecdote
and promotion at the expense of thoroughness and objectivity. Boundary conditions
which define the circumstances under which these new concepts are appropriate or
inappropriate as part of a manufacturing strategy are neither well documented nor well
understood.
Meanwhile, the literature in organisational behaviour has developed
separately and independently from the literature in operations management, and the
two subjects tend to talk past each other. There is a need better to understand the
technical and social aspects of the new concepts, so that the more fragmented claims
on the one hand can be distinguished from the over-generalised claims on the other in
the context of a operating system.
The research design that was developed to address such issues comprised the
simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative evidence from two units of
analysis in two contrasting case study contexts. These were the final assembly
process of a automotive manufacturer, and a manufacturer of polypropylene lm.
Common research methods were used in each.
Qualitative studies addressed the
social issues of implementing new wave concepts, using a Japanese-inspired
humanware model which addresses the interface between
machinery and human
relations across six
categories. Quantitative studies collected evidence
using five
instruments to
probe technical aspects of implementing the new concepts. In both
types of study, the notion of enablers was used to direct attention to
phenomena that
speeded up or slowed down the flow of materials. By simultaneously applying
qualitative and quantitative methods within the same operating contexts, integrated
and self-consistent conclusions could be drawn
by triangulating the evidence. The
Comparison between the two contrasting contexts then provided further conclusions
regarding features of the implementations which were particular to context, and
features that
appeared to be more general in nature.
The research concluded that the contribution of the new
concepts should be viewed in
the
light of tradeoff enablers (which create advantage in one area only to cause
offsetting disadvantage in another), best practice enablers (which create advantage in
any operations situation), and specific enablers (which create advantage only in given
operations situations). These enablers can be applied to both technical and social
aspects of the new wave, strategies: they also have offsetting negative characteristics
which have been referred to as inhibitors.
|
|---|
