Manufacturing best practices: implementation success factors and performance

The purpose of this paper is to identify the pre adoption decision factors that have an influence on the implementation success of manufacturing best practices (MBP). This study also investigates whether successful implementation of best practices leads to operational performance improvement.

A survey research based on 55 MBP was conducted. Regression analysis was employed to test the proposed relationships.

Codification, compatibility and innovativeness of organizational culture were found to have an impact on implementation success. On the other hand, complexity, absorptive capacity, external support and the existence of champion were not emerged as the determinants of implementation. It was also found that successful implementation would lead to operational performance improvement.

The sample size is a limitation to this study.

Knowing the significant determinants of implementation success, practitioners will make a better selection among competing MBP. Also, practitioners will also be able to utilize their resources better, because they will know what they should look for in each benchmarking visit. A positive significant relationship between the implementation success and performance indicated that benchmarking is an effective technique.

This study is the first to explore pre adoption factors that may have an influence on the implementation of MBP. Davies and Kochhar reported that studies of relationships between MBP and performance in the area of manufacturing are limited. Therefore, this work also made a contribution to this under researched area.