Talented suppliers? Strategic change and innovation in the UK aerospace industry

The 1990s marked the start of extensive re-structuring in the aerospace industry throughout the world. While the ensuing consolidation among prime contractors has been widely researched, the changes affecting the aerospace supply chain have received less attention. This study focuses on the re-structuring taking place within the supply chain of the UK aerospace industry. The findings point to extensive re-structuring. Unlike most earlier studies the lean supply model was found to be a powerful influence, with suppliers moving away from subcontractor status and instead taking on the mantle of ‘talented’ suppliers. While some of the implications of lean supply, in terms of the dynamics of innovation, were not apparent, there were modest signs of increased process innovation on the part of some suppliers

New wave manufacturing strategies: Operational, organizational and human dimensions

Lean production (LP) is just one of several concepts which have been devised to express the radical new approaches which have taken place in manufacturing in recent years. Others are just-in-time (JIT), world-class manufacturing (WCM) and total quality management (TQM). In order to embrace the whole gamut of development, we have coined the term “new wave manufacturing” (NWM). Whichever term is used, our joint research to date gives us concern that the existing literature fails to address adequately certain crucial aspects of the organizational realities of such innovations. On the one hand, the operations management literature tends either to ignore the social and organizational dimension or pays scant attention to its importance. On the other hand, the organizational behaviour literature has not realized its potential because of its failure to engage fully with the technical and operational arrangements which it wishes to critique. In consequence, both sets of literature, while ostensibly assessing the same phenomenon, end up talking past each other, and their treatment of the recent important developments in manufacturing methods remain partial. In this article, we seek to clarify the main contours of the existing literature in order to reveal what is already known and what is as yet to be tackled in order to prepare the ground for a new phase of study. The article is organized into four main sections: the first assesses the key distinguishing features of new wave manufacturing methods; the second attends to what is known about the prerequisite social arrangements needed by these new methods; the third addresses current knowledge about social outcomes; and the final section sets out a research agenda consequent to this analysis

The Insignificant Role of National Culture in Global Lean Programmes

Part VI: Services, Supply Chains and OperationsInternational audienceLarge corporations are increasingly implementing lasting corporate improvement programmes based on lean thinking in their global production networks. The aim is to improve operational efficiency by sharing best operational practices and foster continuous improvement among all subsidiaries. However, it remains an open question why implementation success differs substantially across cultures and sister plants for most companies. We review the existing literature on improvement programmes and culture, and compare the current state of the art with unique quantitative data from 80 factories belonging to two global manufacturing companies. We surprisingly find no explanatory power in national culture (measured with Hofstede’s model) and propose that other factors such as the organisational culture and the strategic role of the plant matters far more