Lean Tools, Management Behaviours And Human Resource Practices: Modeling Interactions And Combined Effects On Performance. An International Multi-Plant Study.

This study provides a theoretical and empirical contribution to the investigation of the performance effects of the lean management systems implementation. Under the theoretical point of view it decomposes and reanalyzes Lean Production Systems in the light of organizational routines. The empirical investigation contributes to clarify the way in which these dimensions affect plant performance at the department level, in the case of initial implementation stages of lean production. It attempts to explore the structural components of lean manufacturing and to analyze the interactions of people, processes and behaviours underlying lean production systems. The research is conducted on an Italian tire manufacturer and is based on an international multi-plant comparison, in order to consider and evaluate contingencies and contextual factors relevant to the emergence of these interactions. The analyses are pursued using a hierarchical linear regression methodology. Regressions are estimated through the Ordinary Least Square Method.