Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance

Abstract Management literature has suggested that contextual factors may present strong inertial forces within organizations that inhibit implementations that appear technically rational [R.R. Nelson, S.G. Winter, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1982]. This paper examines the effects of three contextual factors, plant size, plant age and unionization status, on the likelihood of implementing 22 manufacturing practices that are key facets of lean production systems. Further, we postulate four “bundles” of inter‐related and internally consistent practices; these are just‐in‐time (JIT), total quality management (TQM), total preventive maintenance (TPM), and…