World Class Manufacturing: Further Evidence in the Lean Production Debate1
研究了18家汽车零部件工厂（9家英国、9家日本）的绩效和管理实践，发现高绩效工厂均在日本，且精益生产在流程纪律和控制方面得到支持，但人力资源政策作用不显著。
SUMMARY This paper reports the results of a study into the performance and management practices of 18 autocomponents plants, nine of which were located in the UK and nine in Japan. The study compared the performance of these plants and used quantitative measures to test the use of lean production techniques among the high performers. Five plants displayed high performance on measures of both productivity and quality. All of these were located in Japan. Several measures of management practice provided some support for the lean production model, particularly in the area of process discipline and control; measures of human resource management policy and work organization proved less significant. Contextual factors pointed to the conditions necessary to support lean production; higher performing plants had more stable demand and lower absenteeism.