Exploring the role of lean managers within the Toyota supply network: evidence from a social media platform

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate how effective lean managers are at developing a highly skilled workforce that is trained in lean manufacturing skills. We draw upon upper echelon theory to explore the extent to which inter-firm executive relationships to different stakeholders have moderating effects on the relationship between lean managers and lean manufacturing skills. Our hypotheses are examined using data from a social media platform used by employees working at firms in Toyota’s supplier association, together with multivariate regression and endogeneity analysis. We identify that lean managers are associated with a significant increase in the number of workers with lean manufacturing skills. The moderation analysis reveals that inter-firm executive relationships to Toyota and its suppliers have negative and positive moderating effects on the ability of lean managers to develop skilled workers. However, executive relationships to organisations outside the supplier association have no significant moderating effect.

Keywords:

• Lean manufacturing
• lean managers
• employee skills
• inter-firm executive relationships
• Toyota’s supplier association
• social media platform

Notes

1 Past inter-firm executive relationships: In separate analysis, we also examined whether organizational leaders had any ‘past’ inter-firm executive relationships to Toyota, its suppliers, or external organizations located outside the Toyota supplier association. When we re-ran our analysis we found that past inter-firm executive relationships to Toyota generated a negative moderating effect that was highly significant (p < 0.01), but firm-supplier executive relationships and firm-external executive relationships had no moderating effects. This suggests that it is mainly current executive level relationships to Toyota and its suppliers that matter for helping lean managers to improve the way they develop lean manufacturing skills and that leaders may not be learning from their past ties.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antony Potter

Dr Antony Potter BSc(Hons) PhD PGCHET is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester). His research interests focus on lean manufacturing (i.e. the Toyota Production System), lean new product development, and supply chain management. In addition, he also undertakes research into supplier involvement in new product development, supply chain risk management, and the evolution of clusters and supply networks. His published articles have appeared in leading international journals including the Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Product Innovation Management, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, International Journal of Production Economics, Production Planning and Control, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Economic Geography, Regional Studies, and Trends in Food Science and Technology. He has also been awarded the Chris Voss Best Paper Award (EUROMA, 2012), the Chris Voss Highly Commended Award (EUROMA, 2013), and the Chan Hahn Best Paper Award Finalist (Academy of Management, 2012). More recently he was awarded the Runner Up Prize for the 2019 ‘Best Paper Award’ by the Editors of IJOPM. In addition, in 2019 he won the Runner Up Prize for the 'Teacher of the Year Award' at Alliance Manchester Business School.