Many manufacturing companies and some service firms have reaped considerable benefits by applying variations of the Toyota Production System, a method for making operations "lean" through relentless efforts to increase quality and efficiency and eliminate waste. But conventional wisdom holds...

In this paper, we examine the applicability of lean production to knowledge work by investigating the implementation of a lean production system at an Indian software services firm. We first discuss specific aspects of knowledge work—task uncertainty, process invisibility, and architectural...

Much of the literature on team learning views experience as a unidimensional concept captured by the cumulative production volume of, or the number of projects completed by, a team. Implicit in this approach is the assumption that teams are stable in their membership and internal organization....

Many managers think that developing and rolling out a major IT system is like putting up a warehouse: You build it and you're done. But that does not work for IT anymore. Taking that approach results in rigid, costly systems that are outdated from the day they are turned on. What's needed for...

Two archetypal approaches to performance improvement in operations are to undertake periodic ''strategic leaps'' or to take frequent small actions in a quest for ''continuous improvement''. Much research on the implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) indicates that even...

Although most companies confine their operations organizations to restricted, tactical roles, in some of the most successful firms operations has served as the foundation for-indeed, the driver behind-successful strategic attacks and defenses. This is most clearly seen in cases where small...

This exploratory paper examines one class of decision related to learning and operations improvement: how and where to develop new manufacturing technologies as part of a program of continuous improvement. We examine the reasons for both the selection and the relative effectiveness of two...

This paper empirically investigates the effect of advanced manufacturing technology on process stability during flexible production in a process industry. A sample of 61 North American fine paper plants is used to examine the relationship between the level of automation installed for controlling...

This paper examines the relationship between one form of manufacturing flexibility-process range-and structure, infrastructure, and managerial policy at the plant level. The paper provides evidence of the strength of the links between manufacturing flexibility and such factors as scale,...