APPLYING THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM 27 LEAN MANUFACTURERS - THE RELEVANCE OF RELATIONSHIPS MANAGEMENT

This paper deals with the challenges posed by lean production principl es for operations management. A multiple case study approach was used to explore how the lean production model has been adopted by 27 excell ent firms operating in international markets and to recognize the area s characterized by major problems and difficulties. A research model, able to accurately define and operationalize the lean production conce pt, was developed in order to carry out this empirical study. The mode l represents a conceptualization of lean production as consisting of a number of improvement programmes or best practices characterizing dif ferent areas of the company (i.e. process and equipment, manufacturing planning and control, human resources, product design, supplier relat ionships, customer relationships). Results from this study would sugge st that for a full implementation of lean production principles, the m ost critical factor appears to be the management of external relations hips rather than internal operations. The challenge, today, is how to integrate the different organizations into the value stream in order t o ensure excellence in final products and services and, also, how to i ntegrate customers into the organization. This calls for a change in t he perspective of analysis: the focus must move from operations manage ment to relationships management. In the light of this, suggestions fo r future research, indicated by the empirical findings, are offered. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.