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 limitations/implications – For certain variables we found very little variation between the firms in our sample. Moreover, many firms did not have available the data needed for calculating capacity utilisation, and hence we have not been able to check its effects in our analysis. Practical implications – The paper presents data for reflecting on the application of different LP practices in isolation and on the impediments limiting the use of some of them in the sector. Originality/value – The paper extends the work of other researchers by focusing on a sector and a country that have been very little studied until now. The sample consists of a set of firms that are fairly homogeneous; this facilitates analysing the relationships between the selected variables while keeping other variables controlled.