Enhancing Performance through Employee Discretion and Feedback

Many organizations are analysing the feasibility of using Japanese production methods and concepts. Examines how allowing individuals discretion in selecting among various production scheduling techniques, combined with real‐time feedback, affects their job‐scheduling performance. The results of the experiments involving sequencing jobs through work centres, illustrate that when discretion was afforded, performance improved. This result suggests that providing employees with discretionary leeway and real‐time feedback enables them to improve the production system continuously.