The use and effectiveness of modern manufacturing practices: a survey of UK industry

In this paper we describe a survey of the current use and effectiveness of key modern manufacturing practices within the UK. The findings from the sur vey are based upon a ten-percent sample of British manufacturing companies employing more than 150 people. The most common practices in use are supply -chain partnering, total quality management, team-based working and integra ted computer-based technology. By contrast, the least used practices in Bri tain are total productive maintenance, outsourcing, concurrent engineering and manufacturing cells. In terms of effectiveness, in more than half of th e companies the practices are perceived to be failing to meet their objecti ves in terms of quality, cost or responsiveness to customers. It was found that practices such as learning culture, integrated computer-based technolo gy and empowerment are expected to be used more in the future, whereas outs ourcing, manufacturing cells and concurrent engineering are predicted to ex perience less growth. These findings are discussed within the paper in term s of their consistency with previous studies, as well as their implications for the current and future use of individual practices.