An empirical study of lean production in the ceramic tile industry in Spain

Purpose – To determine the degree of use of some of the most representative lean production (LP) practices in the Spanish ceramic tile industry, their relationship with plant size and their effect on the operational performance of the companies in the sector.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed for data collection. Findings are presented from 76 companies (79.17 per cent of the total sample) that specialise in single firing ceramics.Findings – In the sector under study, there is one set of practices that have as yet scarcely been implemented (group technology, kanban, reduction of set‐up time, development of multi‐function employees and visual factory) and another set whose use is fairly widespread (standardisation of operations, total productive maintenance and quality controls). The degree of their respective use depends on a firm's size. Very few correlations appear between the degree of use of any specific LP practice in isolation and the operational indicators.Research limitati...

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