Empirical investigation of contributions of 5S practice for realizing improved competitive dimensions

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the capabilities of 5S program to meliorate the different competitive dimensions of manufacturing organizations and extracts the various significant factors which influence its successful implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper involves empirical study of responses collected from various manufacturing organizations to investigate the inter-relationships between various 5S implementation success factors and competitive dimensions parameters through different statistical techniques. The study deploys Bonferroni post hoc test to establish the statistical significance of competitive dimensions improvements, progressively accrued over a reasonable period of time, through holistic 5S implementation.

Findings

The study validates the contributions of 5S program toward realization of significant improvements of various competitive dimensions such as overall organizational achievements, production achievements, quality and continuous improvement achievements, cost optimization achievements, employee-related achievements, effective workplace utilization and safety enhancement achievements accrued by Indian manufacturing organizations. Finally the discriminant validity test has been used in the study for classifying highly successful and moderately successful organizations.

Originality/value

The research aims to empirically test the relationships among various 5S implementation constructs and competitive dimensions parameters constructs in manufacturing organizations. The research work establishes that 5S initiatives have effectively contributed for realization of significant competitive dimensions, progressively from introduction to maturity phases. The research highlights the key significant implications for manufacturing managers.

Citation

Randhawa, J.S. and Ahuja, I.S. (2018), "Empirical investigation of contributions of 5S practice for realizing improved competitive dimensions", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 779-810. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-09-2016-0163