World Class Manufacturing performance measurement using a maturity model and the FlowSort method

Abstract

The World Class Manufacturing (WCM) system is a set of best management practices that can provide organisations with significant performance results. At the same time, since organisations are in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, it is important that they continually assess this environment and, thereby, gain situational understanding to perceive and seize opportunities and threats, and consequently apply management practices strategically. Therefore, this paper proposes and empirically validates a model for evaluating the maturity of organisations when applying the WCM system. The authors combined the insights they had from the literature with opinions of WCM experts to develop the model. To support the problem of classifying organisations into the maturity levels defined, the FlowSort multicriteria method was used. The proposed model was applied in four companies and received a good evaluation and acceptance by those involved. This corroborated with the feasibility and usability of this instrument, in addition to which this method by proposing a new tool for evaluating the performance of production systems of companies that use WCM, in a VUCA environment, is intended as a contribution to the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• WCM
• VUCA environment
• performance measurement
• maturity model
• FlowSort

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Council for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES), the experts and companies that collaborated with the development of this study, and the reviewers for their valuable contributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institution of Supporting Science and Technology of Pernambuco (FACEPE) under grant IBPG-1095-3.08/16; Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)  ( under grant 307344/2017-7.

Notes on contributors

Cássia Taisy Alencar de Andrade

Cássia Taisy Alencar de Andrade received her MSc in Management Engineering from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). Currently, she is Assistante Professor at Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE). Her areas of research are Production Maanagement, Supply Chain Management, Project Management and Multicriteria Decision Support. Her master's research was supported by the Institution of Supporting Science and Technology of Pernambuco (FACEPE).

Ana Paula Henriques de Gusmão

Ana Paula Henriques de Gusmão is an Associate Professor at Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS), where she teaches information systems and technology topics. She holds a PhD in Management Engineering from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). Her special interest lies in IS management, strategic alignment, IT outsourcing, decision support systems and multicriteria decision aid. Her work has appeared in International Journal of Information Management, International Journal of Production Economics and Mathematical Problems in Engineering. She is researcher on Productivity from Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

Wladson Silva

Wladson Silva received a degree in management engineering from the the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). He is a Master's student of Business Administration (MBA) in Financial Management at the UNIFAVIP Wyden University. He works at Acumuladores Moura, where he has been responsible for managing WCM for about 4 years. During this period, he managed to overcome a reduction of about 30% in the transformation cost. In addition, reduce 10% of quality defects and 50% of accidents. His special interest lies in: Strategic Alignment, Decision Support Systems, Multicriteria Decision Aid and World Class Manufacturing (WCM).