Relationship between employee involvement and lean manufacturing and its effect on performance in a rigid continuous process industry

Abstract

This research aims to empirically test the effect of employee involvement on lean manufacturing (LM), and the effect of LM on production outcomes. Employee involvement is operationalised through four related variables: empowerment, training, contingent remuneration and communication. The effects are tested by recording management perceptions in a different industrial sector from those usually studied in previous research – ceramic manufacturers, a highly competitive and internationally successful sector. We obtained data from 101 ceramic tile plants (64% of response rate) in the Valencia region of Spain. This approach is developed using a statistical method called partial least squares. All paths are significant except for contingent remuneration; specifically, relationships were found between empowerment, training, communication and LM, and between LM and performance.

Keywords:

• lean production
• human resource management
• high-performance work practices
• participation in decision-making
• compensation
• information sharing

Acknowledgements

This paper has been written with financial support from the Project “Path Dependence and decision-making for selecting LM tools and practices” (PAID-06-12-SP20120717) of the Universitat Politècnica de València.