Global manufacturing practises: an empirical evaluation

The global manufacturing research group (GMRG) is a multinational group of researchers who are dedicated to the study and improvement of manufacturing practices worldwide. The GMRG developed a survey that has been administered to companies in the machine tools and non-fashion textile industries. In this study we utilize the GMRG data collected during 1993-1995 and we focus on improvement programs and their impact on performance outcomes. Specifically, the improvement programs of interest are cellular manufacturing, factory automation, just-in-time (JIT) systems, and total quality management (TQM); the performance measures used were the percentage change in manufacturing cost, product quality, delivery speed, and on-time deliveries. The relationships among the programs and outcomes were modelled and analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach to structural equation modelling (SEM).