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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Strategic Priorities and Lean Manufacturing Practices in Automotive Suppliers. Ten Years After

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Currently, automobile manufacturers have transformed their philosophy of production in favour of the lean manufacturing paradigm. By doing so, they hope to improve efficiency and to obtain better results in the markets in which they operate. This transformation must occur not only in their plants, but it seems important that their suppliers should also modify their production systems in line with the lean manufacturing philosophy (Liker & Wu, 2000; Morris et al., 2006; Oliver & Delbridge, 2002). The effects of this wave will probably result that one integrated supply chain can be built. Supply companies can see benefits from the implantation of lean manufacturing practices in certain of their strategic priorities, be they quality, lead-times or costs. On different matters, there appears to be sufficient empirical and theoretical evidence to affirm that human resource management practices play a very important role in the successful implantation of lean manufacturing and above all in its maintenance thanks to the creation of a continuous improvement culture that supports the other lean manufacturing practices (Garcia-Sabater & Marin-Garcia, 2010). The objective of this chapter is to present an architecture of lean management practices, indicating the implantation sequence recommended for suppliers and the necessities that can help to resolve each one of the practices. We will also describe how, over the past decade, the necessities as much as the practices of lean manufacturing have evolved using some Spanish automotive suppliers as examples. Finally we will analyse in detail the evolution of continuous improvement programs to support lean manufacturing in 11 companies that had started their deployment in the year 2000 (Marin-Garcia et al., 2009).