Lean systems effectiveness and transferability across multinational corporations: the role of culture

Lean management is a managerial approach widely recognized as powerful in reducing waste and continuously improving production processes of a factory. Many manufacturing organizations worldwide have implemented it obtaining significant enhancement in operational performance. Besides adopting it locally within a single factory, in recent decades a growing number of multinational corporations (MNCs) have sought to implement lean across their foreign factories. However, several lean projects at both single- and multi-factory level encountered problems, and some even failed to achieve such benefits. Culture is widely considered to be a critical success factor for lean implementation. There is yet a strong debate whether societal culture or organizational culture is most important in determining the success of lean implementation projects. Therefore, this thesis aims to enhance the understanding of the role of culture – both at societal and organizational level – in lean implementation by examining two related topics: 1. The distinctive characteristics of a successful lean manufacturing unit; 2. The transferability of successful lean systems across dispersed manufacturing factories within MNCs. To that purpose, two main research projects have been conducted. The High Performance Manufacturing project, involving 317 manufacturing units in 3 sectors and 10 countries, was used to explore the first topic according to survey methodology. For what concerns the second topic, I studied 7 successful lean transfer projects by mean of a multiple case study and an in-depth case study. The projects involved European sources and Chinese and U.S. recipients belonging to 4 different multinational corporations; in-depth case study focused on one of such project, launched by an Italian MNC towards its subsidiary in China. The findings of my research indicate that successful and unsuccessful lean factories differ for some organizational culture dimensions and for the extent of adoption of soft lean practices (i.e., lean practices concerning people and relations). Therefore, these characteristics are likely to make the difference in the successful implementation of lean. With regard to transferability of successful lean systems, results from in-depth case study stress the influence of cultural differences – in terms of extent of difference between source and recipient as well as peculiarities of the latter – on the success of the lean transfer project, and the importance of adopting a transfer approach that take into account such differences. Moreover, results from the multiple case study suggest that major problems in transferring a lean system are context specific – i.e., similar within a context and different between China and U.S.. In order to succeed in transferring lean, source should adapt their projects; as shown by the cross-case analysis, the level of adaptation can be affected by the socio-cultural characteristics of a recipient unit and the organizational culture of the source. Collectively, these results contribute to the literature by providing a better understanding of the role of culture in lean implementation not only within local factories, but also in manufacturing subsidiaries overseas. Results can be particularly useful also for practitioners that are facing the challenging of implementing lean at international level

Parental evaluation of a telemonitoring service for children with Type 1 Diabetes

Introduction In the past years, we developed a telemonitoring service for young patients affected by Type 1 Diabetes. That service provides data to the clinical staff and offers an important tool to the parents, that are able to oversee in real time their children. The aim of this work was to analyze the parents' perceived usefulness of the service. Methods The service was tested by the parents of 31 children enrolled in a seven-day clinical trial during a summer camp. To study the parents' perception we proposed and analyzed two questionnaires. A baseline questionnaire focused on the daily management and implications of their children's diabetes, while a post-study one measured the perceived benefits of telemonitoring. Questionnaires also included free text comment spaces. Results Analysis of the baseline questionnaires underlined the parents' suffering and fatigue: 51% of total responses showed a negative tendency and the mean value of the perceived quality of life was 64.13 in a 0-100 scale. In the post-study questionnaires about half of the parents believed in a possible improvement adopting telemonitoring. Moreover, the foreseen improvement in quality of life was significant, increasing from 64.13 to 78.39 ( p-value\u2009=\u20090.0001). The analysis of free text comments highlighted an improvement in mood, and parents' commitment was also proved by their willingness to pay for the service (median\u2009=\u2009200\u2009euro/year). Discussion A high number of parents appreciated the telemonitoring service and were confident that it could improve communication with physicians as well as the family's own peace of mind

Lean systems effectiveness and transferability across multinational corporations: the role of culture

Lean management is a managerial approach widely recognized as powerful in reducing waste and continuously improving production processes of a factory. Many manufacturing organizations worldwide have implemented it obtaining significant enhancement in operational performance. Besides adopting it locally within a single factory, in recent decades a growing number of multinational corporations (MNCs) have sought to implement lean across their foreign factories. However, several lean projects at both single- and multi-factory level encountered problems, and some even failed to achieve such benefits. Culture is widely considered to be a critical success factor for lean implementation. There is yet a strong debate whether societal culture or organizational culture is most important in determining the success of lean implementation projects. Therefore, this thesis aims to enhance the understanding of the role of culture – both at societal and organizational level – in lean implementation by examining two related topics: 1. The distinctive characteristics of a successful lean manufacturing unit; 2. The transferability of successful lean systems across dispersed manufacturing factories within MNCs. To that purpose, two main research projects have been conducted. The High Performance Manufacturing project, involving 317 manufacturing units in 3 sectors and 10 countries, was used to explore the first topic according to survey methodology. For what concerns the second topic, I studied 7 successful lean transfer projects by mean of a multiple case study and an in-depth case study. The projects involved European sources and Chinese and U.S. recipients belonging to 4 different multinational corporations; in-depth case study focused on one of such project, launched by an Italian MNC towards its subsidiary in China. The findings of my research indicate that successful and unsuccessful lean factories differ for some organizational culture dimensions and for the extent of adoption of soft lean practices (i.e., lean practices concerning people and relations). Therefore, these characteristics are likely to make the difference in the successful implementation of lean. With regard to transferability of successful lean systems, results from in-depth case study stress the influence of cultural differences – in terms of extent of difference between source and recipient as well as peculiarities of the latter – on the success of the lean transfer project, and the importance of adopting a transfer approach that take into account such differences. Moreover, results from the multiple case study suggest that major problems in transferring a lean system are context specific – i.e., similar within a context and different between China and U.S.. In order to succeed in transferring lean, source should adapt their projects; as shown by the cross-case analysis, the level of adaptation can be affected by the socio-cultural characteristics of a recipient unit and the organizational culture of the source. Collectively, these results contribute to the literature by providing a better understanding of the role of culture in lean implementation not only within local factories, but also in manufacturing subsidiaries overseas. Results can be particularly useful also for practitioners that are facing the challenging of implementing lean at international level.Il lean management è un approccio manageriale ampiamente riconosciuto come efficace nella lotta alla riduzione degli sprechi aziendali e nel miglioramento continuo dei processi produttivi di uno stabilimento. Molte imprese produttive in tutto il mondo hanno implementato tale approccio ottenendo significativi miglioramenti delle performance operative. Oltre ad adottarlo a livello locale all'interno di un unico stabilimento, negli ultimi decenni un numero crescente di imprese multinazionali hanno cercato di implementare il lean nei loro stabilimenti stranieri. Tuttavia, molti progetti lean sia a livello di singolo stabilimento che coinvolgenti più stabilimenti hanno incontrato difficoltà ed addirittura alcuni non hanno garantito i benefici previsti. La cultura è ampiamente considerata un fattore critico di successo per l'implementazione del lean. In letteratura, però, vi è un forte dibattito riguardo l’importanza dei valori di cultura nazionale o di cultura organizzativa nel determinare il successo dei progetti di implementazione del lean. Questa tesi si propone quindi di migliorare la conoscenza del ruolo della cultura – sia a livello nazionale che organizzativo – nell’implementazione del lean esaminando due argomenti strettamente correlati: 1. Le caratteristiche distintive degli stabilimenti lean di successo; 2. La trasferibilità di sistemi lean di successo tra stabilimenti produttivi localizzati globalmente, nel caso delle imprese multinazionali. A tal fine, sono stati condotti due principali progetti di ricerca. Il progetto “High Performance Manufacturing”, che coinvolge 317 unità di produzione in 3 settori e 10 paesi, è stato utilizzato per esplorare il primo tema secondo il metodo survey. Per quanto riguarda il secondo argomento, ho studiato 7 progetti di trasferimento del lean di successo per mezzo di un caso studio multiplo e un caso studio singolo approfondito. I progetti sono avvenuti tra stabilimenti europei e destinatari cinesi e statunitensi di 4 diverse multinazionali; il caso studio singolo riguarda uno di tali progetti, avviato da una multinazionale italiana verso la sua filiale Cinese. I risultati della mia ricerca indicano che gli stabilimenti lean di successo si differenziano dagli stabilimenti lean con basse prestazioni operative per alcune dimensioni della cultura organizzativa e per il livello di utilizzo delle pratiche lean soft (i.e., le pratiche lean che riguardano la gestione delle persone e delle loro relazioni). Pertanto, queste sembrano essere le caratteristiche che fanno la differenza nell’implementazione di successo del lean. Per quanto riguarda la trasferibilità dei sistemi di lean di successo, i risultati del caso studio singolo sottolineano l'influenza delle differenze culturali – intese sia in termini dell’entità della differenza tra gli stabilimenti nonché delle peculiarità dello stabilimento ricevente – sul successo di un progetto di trasferimento lean e l'importanza di adottare un approccio di trasferimento che tenga conto di tali differenze. Inoltre, i risultati del caso studio multiplo suggeriscono che i principali problemi nel trasferimento di un sistema snello sono specifici del contesto – cioè, simili in uno stesso contesto e diversi tra Cina e Stati Uniti. Al fine di trasferire il lean con successo, i progetti dovrebbero essere adattati; come mostrato dall'analisi cross-case, il livello di adattamento può essere influenzato dalle caratteristiche socioculturali dell'unità ricevente e dalla cultura organizzativa dello stabilimento che gestisce il progetto. Collettivamente, questi risultati contribuiscono alla letteratura fornendo una migliore comprensione del ruolo della cultura nell’implementazione del lean, non solo all'interno di stabilimenti locali, ma anche nelle filiali produttive all'estero. I risultati possono essere particolarmente utili anche per i professionisti che si trovano ad affrontare la sfida di implementare il lean a livello internazionale

Quality Based Pricing and collaborative negotiation in agrifood supply chains

Research on the pricing process in the agrifood industry ha underlined the need for pricing mechanisms to evolve as the nature of markets and supply chains modifies itself towards higher product differentiation, competition and integration. Despite scholars have advanced Quality Based Pricing techniques as viable tools to increase product quality and foster collaborative supply chain relationships, the literature still lacks of studies that investigate this beneficial influence. Drawing on a multiple case study in the Italian agrifood industry, this explorative study analyzes the implementation of Quality Based Pricing techniques to support the collaboration between supply chain members and proposes a tool to measure it

Is there an ideal organisational culture for lean management?

Organisational culture is pivotal in successfully implementing lean management. However, studies on organisational culture-lean relationship found contrasting results and further research is needed to better understand the culture-lean fit. We levered on the Competing Values Framework, several soft and hard lean practices and a configuration approach to analyse the overall effect of organisational culture on the various lean practices. Data from the High Performance Manufacturing project are used. Results show that there is a unique culture that fits best with all lean practices. We found that the organisational culture dimensions seem to interact in pairs with hard and soft practices

The impact of cultural dimensions on project management performance

Purpose: Diverse cultures may make people behave differently and this, in turn, can impact project management. While the relationship between culture and project success has been widely explored, there is a need of addressing the gap in the relationship between culture and project management performance outcomes, that is, the performance in implementing project management processes and practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this gap by studying the role of cultural dimensions on project management performance. Design/methodology/approach: An explorative survey including 200 observations relating to the experiences of project managers with a big experience on projects involving many different national cultures has been conducted to collect primary data on the relationship between the nationality observed and the project management performance outcomes shown. Nationality has been used as a proxy to link individual cultural dimensions and project management performance. Findings: The results of this paper show that individualism impacts project dynamics and project control positively. Moreover, masculinity impacts project dynamics positively, and uncertainty avoidance impacts project control negatively. When recognized, different cultural dimensions can drive project management performance outcomes. The increasing awareness on this topic can be a valid instrument to control the cultural effect and take advantage of it to enhance project success. Originality/value: This study contributes to the theory of project management by recognizing linkages between cultural dimensions and project management performance. Moreover, this study overcomes the concept of nationality, focusing on individuals and their unique set of cultural dimensions