Inclusive innovation in lean implementation : empowerment of sewing machine operators : a study of Sri Lankan apparel firms

Employee empowerment is central to lean implementation. However, there is surprisingly little research directly addressing the relationship between employee empowerment and employee work attitudes. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between employee empowerment on job satisfaction, turnover intention, affective commitment and job involvement in Apparel Firms. A sample of twelve apparel manufacturing firms was selected for the study. From these firms, randomly selected 362 female sewing machine operators responded to the selfadministrated survey questionnaire developed for the study. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between employee empowerment on job satisfaction, turnover intention, affective commitment and job involvement. Therefore, lean implementation can be incorporated with inclusive innovation principles, such as employee empowerment, so that work attitudes of female sewing operators could be improved

Effects of gender on work-related attitudes: study of lean implemented textile and apparel manufacturing firms

Work related attitudes, such as perceived organizational support, turnover intention, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and job involvement, have received much attention by academics and practitioners for a number of reasons. Previous research indicates that such attitudes have important organizational consequences. However, little attention has been given to investigate the differential effect of gender on the work-related attitudes, in particular shopfloor employees of the textile and apparel manufacturing sector. In this study, using a sample of 616 employees in the textile and apparel manufacturing industry, the effects of gender on work-related attitudes was investigated. The results suggested that women perceived more organizational support, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and job involvement than men. HoweveT, despite the above positive work attitudes, women perceive higher turnover intention than men. This contradicts the general findings of organizational behavior theory that higher work attitudes lead to lower turnover intention

Behavioral management aspects of organizational effectiveness : a comparison between lean implemented textile firms and apparel firms in Sri Lanka

The purpose of this research is to compare behavioral management aspects of the organizational effectiveness between lean implemented textile firms and apparel firms in Sri Lanka. The organizational effectiveness is measured through Participation in Decision Making (PDM), Perceived Organizational Support (POS), Social Exchange Process (SEP), Economic Exchange Process (EEP), Effective Commitment (AC), Continuance Commitment (CC), Job Satisfaction (JS), Turnover Intention(TI) and Job Involvement (Jl). Although numerous empirical studies pertaining to the textile and apparel industry has been published, relatively little is known about behavioral management concepts in textile and apparel firms in Sri Lanka. Many elements of the present consensus developed from studies of West may not be directly applicable to developing countries. It is likely that differences in macro-environmental factors, such as national culture, may render the commonly accepted Western notions of behavioral management concepts less appropriate in Asian developing nations such as Sri Lanka. A sample of four textile firms and four apparel firms that have implemented lean manufacturing techniques was selected for the study. A random sample of 358 shop-floor employees from the above eight firms responded. The self-administrated survey questionnaire was used for data collection. The data analysis was conducted using SPSS. The findings showed significant differences between textile firms and apparel firms in terms of organizational effectiveness. For all the concepts tested, lean implemented apparel firms showed better organizational effectiveness than lean implemented textile firms

Perceived organisational support, job involvement and turnover intention in lean production in Sri Lanka

The literature suggests that the bottom-line changes often cited in lean implementation success stories, such as reduced inventories and faster flow times, are not the only results that should be considered. The potential detrimental effects on employees should be considered as well, or turnover and morale problems may sabotage the effectiveness of such implementations. However, the ways in which lean production environment influence employee behavior has received scant empirical attention. The aim of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of job involvement on the relationship between perceived organizational support and turnover intention in the lean production in Sri Lanka. A random sample of 616 shop-floor employees engaged full-time in export-apparel manufacturing firms that have implemented a formal lean production system in the whole manufacturing function and it has become the standard of operation for at least 1 year in Sri Lanka responded. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. It was found that job involvement partially mediates the relationship between perceived organisational support and turnover intention. The findings provide useful information to better understand employee perceptions toward lean production environment and the findings will be a source of general guidance in stimulating future research in this area

Inclusive innovation : lean implementation with shop-floor employees at the base-of-the-pyramid

Building on the literature on inclusive innovation, we identify shop-floor employees, who are at the basc-of-thepyramid of the organisational hierarchy in industrial firms as the target of concern for inclusive innovation. In this paper, we presents results of three empirical studies conducted in the implementation of lean manufacturing systems in Sri Lanka, where lean implementation is conceived as an active inclusion of shop-floor employees in the mainstream organisational decisionmaking process. For the study, quantitative research methodology was used and data were collected from shop-floor employees engaged full-time in export-apparel manufacturing firms that have implemented lean manufacturing systems in Sri Lanka

Perceived organisational support, job involvement and turnover intention in lean production in Sri Lanka

The literature suggests that the bottom-line changes often cited in lean implementation success stories, such as reduced inventories and faster flow times, are not the only results that should be considered. The potential detrimental effects on employees should be considered as well, or turnover and morale problems may sabotage the effectiveness of such implementations. However, the ways in which lean production environment influence employee behaviour has received scant empirical attention. The aim of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of job involvement on the relationship between perceived organisational support and turnover intention in the lean production in Sri Lanka. A random sample of 616 shop-floor employees engaged fulltime in export-apparel manufacturing firms that have implemented a formal lean production system in the whole manufacturing function and it has become the standard of operation for at least 1 year in Sri Lanka responded. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. It was found that job involvement partially mediates the relationship between perceived organisational support and turnover intention. The findings provide useful information to better understand employee perceptions toward lean production environment and the findings will be a source of general guidance in stimulating future research in this area

Effects of employees’ upward feedback in creating new opportunities to strengthen job performance

Since the phase-out of the Multi-Fibre Agreement, the worldwide system of managed trade in apparel exports through the quota system, export-apparel manufacturers had to rethink their operations management strategies for survival and growth. One of such strategies adopted to improve the efficiency of apparel production is lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing system relies heavily on employees’ capabilities for its effective implementation. Shop-floor employees play a key role in the process of minimisation of waste in the lean production context since they interact with the direct operational environment. They have more ownership of the production process and have capacity to make better improvement suggestions. Based on a sample of lean manufacturing system implemented manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka, the study investigated relationships between upward feedback, job performance and the age of lean manufacturing system. It was found that the age of the lean manufacturing system moderates the positive relationship between upward feedback and job performanceJn_such_a_way jthat longer the lean manufacturing system is in operation, higher will be its positive effect on the relationship between upward feedback and joS performance

The Moderating effect of perceived organizational support on participation in decision making and social exchange process : evidence from lean manufacturing environment

The aim of this article is to investigate the moderating effect of Perceived Organizational Support on the relationship between Participation in Decision Making and Social Exchange Process. The research was conducted in eleven Sri Lankan textile and apparel firms that had implemented lean manufacturing techniques. A random sample of 616 operational level employees from the above mentioned firms responded to the survey questionnaire. In addition to descriptive statistics, multiple regression was used for the data analysis. The result shows that employee participation in decision making is positively and significantly correlated with social exchange process. In addition, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis support the moderating effect of perceived organizational support with regard to the relationship between participation in decision making and social exchange process

Influence of social and economic exchange perceptions on organizational commitment : evidence from lean manufacturing environment

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between social and economic exchange process and employee effective and continuance commitment in the lean implemented Sri Lankan textile and apparel firms. Although numerous empirical studies pertaining to the textile and apparel industry have been published relatively little is known about behavioral management concepts such as exchange process and employee commitment in textile and apparel firms in Sri Lanka. Many elements of the present consensus developed from studies of West may not be directly applicable to developing countries. It is likely that differences in macro environmental factors, such as national culture, may render the commonly accepted Western notions of behavioral management philosophy less appropriate in Asian developing nations such as Sri Lanka. A sample of twelve firms that have implemented lean manufacturing systems was selected for the study. A random sample of 346 shop-floor employees from the above eight firms responded. The self-administrated survey questionnaire was used for data collection. The data analysis was conducted by using SPSS. The findings showed a significant positive relationship between social exchange process and effective commitment. Further, contrary to the previous research, there is no significant relationship between economic exchange process and continuation e commitment. In addition, the study found that demographics characteristics of respondents do not have significant relationships with both exchange processes and commitment. Overall, this study demonstrate*empirical support for the link between exchange process and employee commitmen

Effect of nozzle size on texturing performance : comparison between air-jet and steam-jet texturing

The objectives of this research work were to investigate the use of steam in order to replace air in the production of spunlike textured yam and to investigate the optimum nozzle size for steam-jet textured yam for the application of sewing thread. An existing air-jet texturing machine was modified to supply either air or steam to the texturing nozzle. Using four texturing nozzles, both air-jet and steam-jet textured yams were manufactured. The effect of nozzle size on process and yam parameters has been studied and compared with air-jet textured yams. The results show that spun-like textured yam manufactured using steam has lower loop instability and higher tensile properties than air at comparable fluid pressures.SEM image analysis shows that the entangled structure of the steam-jet textured yams is similar to air-jet textured yams.Further, sewability results show that steam-jet textured yams are suitable to manufacture sewing threads