To read this content please select one of the options below:

Contextual factors and lean production implementation in the Brazilian automotive supply chain

Giuliano Almeida Marodin (Department of Management Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA)
Alejandro Germán Frank (Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)
Guilherme Luz Tortorella (Department of Industrial Engineering and Systems, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil)
Tarcisio Abreu Saurin (Department of Industrial Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil)

Supply Chain Management

ISSN: 1359-8546

Article publication date: 13 June 2016

2581

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand the patterns of lean production implementation, and the relationship between three context factors (i.e. firm size, positions within the supply chain and time length of the lean initiative) and the adoption of lean production practices in firms of the automotive supply chain in Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected data from 65 companies of the automotive supply chain in Brazil. For data analysis, first a cluster analysis was performed to identify common characteristics in the companies’ context factors when considering patterns of lean implementation. Then, multivariate analysis of variance was used to investigate the differences between the context factors and the degree of use of lean practices.

Findings

High lean adopters had better performance than low lean adopters in terms of lead time, inventory and turnover. Firms at the first and second tier of the automotive supply chain were “leaner” than firms at the third tier. Large-sized firms were more likely to have a higher degree of use of lean practices than medium and smaller ones. Some, but not all, lean practices followed these patterns. Results also showed that some lean practices were most commonly adopted at the beginning of the lean journey, whereas others took more time to mature.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrated how lean practices were implemented at different positions within the supply chain, and the patterns of implementation often followed. It also considers lean in the context of developing countries such as Brazil.

Keywords

Citation

Marodin, G.A., Frank, A.G., Tortorella, G.L. and Saurin, T.A. (2016), "Contextual factors and lean production implementation in the Brazilian automotive supply chain", Supply Chain Management, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 417-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-05-2015-0170

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles