Organizing for continuous improvement: structures and roles in automotive components plants

Delbridge, Rick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8451-265X and Barton, Harry 2002. Organizing for continuous improvement: structures and roles in automotive components plants. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 22 (6) , pp. 680-692. 10.1108/01443570210427686

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

This paper reports some preliminary findings from a research project on the management of problem solving and continuous improvement in UK and US first tier automotive component manufacturers. It draws on organizational theory to interpret emerging structures, relationships and roles in the light of recent work on the “learning factory” model of manufacturing. There is considerable evidence of shifting patterns of roles and responsibilities, especially for operators, front-line managers and a new cadre of continuous improvement specialists, but only limited evidence of knowledge transfer across organizational boundaries. Overall the findings suggest that there are various routes toward the learning factory and that ultimately this model of operations is likely to have numerous practical incarnations.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics T Technology > TS Manufactures
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Alliances; Automotive components industry; Kaizen; Organizational structure
Publisher:	Emerald
ISSN:	0144-3577
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2022 10:42
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/41103

Citation Data

Cited 47 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item