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The Impact of Lean Practices on Value to Customer

Michael J. Braunscheidel and James W. Hamister

The BRC Academy Journal of Business

Volume 2

Number 1

Print ISSN: 2152-8721 Online ISSN: 2152-873X

Date: March 15, 2012

First Page 51

Last Page 86

Abstract

Lean practices have been the focus of considerable research. Lean is associated with low cost production, consistent quality and the elimination of non-value added activities. This research evaluates the impact of six (6) lean practices, internally and externally focused, on product satisfaction in a variety of manufacturing settings. In keeping with Shah and Ward (2003), these internal and external lean practices are ‘bundled’ to evaluate the synergistic effects of the implementation of complimentary facets of lean techniques on product satisfaction. Product satisfaction is measured using the ‘value to customer’ scales developed by Tu et al. (2001). In this work, Tu et al. (2001) assess the degree to which customers are satisfied with an organization’s products. In addition to the overall model, the effects of firm size (sales dollars), inventory strategy (MTO, MTS) and process type (high volume vs. low volume) are investigated. Our findings indicate that both internal and external lean practices are associated with increased product satisfaction, and that these relationships do not vary by contextual variables considered.

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