Lean production practices and bundles : a comparative analysis

Purpose: Total productive maintenance and total quality management are two lean manufacturing initiatives that are used by manufacturing plant managers to improve operations capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of standalone lean practices and lean bundles on manufacturing business performance. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was used. The survey data were drawn from 160 manufacturing organizations in India. The respondent companies were grouped on the basis of the duration of lean production in operation and then classified based on the profile of their operations strategy. The approach, based on comparative assessment between standalone lean practices and lean bundles, has been directed toward justification of lean bundles for its support to competitive manufacturing in the context of the Indian manufacturing sector. Findings: The paper establishes the long-term effects of lean bundles in significantly improving manufacturing business performance as compared to standalone lean practices. Further findings of the study revealed the significance of the duration of lean production in operation in achieving higher levels of manufacturing business performance. Research limitations/implications: The study is cross-sectional in nature. It would be interesting to test the analytical framework adopted for this study for more industries and in different countries. The use of subjective measures in survey questionnaire is also another limitation of the study. Practical implications: This study offers clear implications for practitioners, proving that they should give higher emphasis on the implementation of lean bundles using total productive maintenance and total quality management practices together, to prioritize their product, production and business strategies, to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value: This paper empirically examines and evaluates the effect of lean practices and bundles in the context of medium- and large-sized manufacturing industries in India. Besides, there are very few studies that comparatively assess the differences in performance contribution of various lean operational strategies considering duration of implementation of lean. Also, the theoretical contribution of the study establishes the essence of integrating total productive management and total quality management for attaining world class manufacturing is of high value.