The effectiveness of lean management and bottom-up approach on performance and competitive advantage. (c2017)

Abstract

Lean management is a system that strives to achieve improvements in the daily operations of organizations, while lean manufacturing aims at achieving efficiency in every stage of the manufacturing process. Bottom-up approach is a system that focuses on data processing based on information collected from the environment to bring together different subsystems to create a more comprehensive interlinked system that is effective at the top-level. This thesis examines the effect of lean management, lean manufacturing, bottom-up approach on the performance and competitive advantage of the company. Moreover, this study investigates the mediation effects of corporate performance on lean thinking. The results show that bottom-up approach has marginal direct influence on competitive advantage. Moreover, corporate performance was found to fully mediate the relationship between lean management and competitive advantage, and partially mediate the relationship between lean manufacturing and competitive advantage.