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Why some assembly factories implement a lean program faster than others is an enduring puzzle. We examine the effect of a fundamental characteristic of every assembly factory—its rhythm of production.

We designed a multi-method study and collected data from a leading global equipment manufacturer that launched a lean program across its factory network. We use quantitative data gathered from internal company documents to test our hypothesis that production rhythm affects the pace of lean implementation. We then analyze qualitative data from interviews and factory visits to derive theoretical explanations for how production rhythm affects lean implementation.

Consistent with our hypothesis, we present evidence that factories with faster production rhythms implement lean faster than those with slower rhythms. This evidence is consistent with learning theories as well as the literature on organizational routines and forms of knowledge. We propose a theory of the relation between rhythm and learning in lean implementation.

The hitherto unexplored relation between production rhythm and lean implementation raises intriguing questions for scholars and ushers new insights into how organizations learn to implement lean.

Organizations need to calibrate their expectations for lean implementation pace when their factories have widely different production rhythms and find ways to mitigate any adverse effects slower rhythms may have. Organizations can alleviate the unfavorable context of slower rhythms by inculcating practices in the factory that emulate the learning environment present in faster-paced factories.

We contribute novel quantitative and qualitative evidence that production rhythm affects lean implementation through learning-based mechanisms.

Drawing on Lefebvre’s theorization of rhythm, this chapter presents and discusses rhythmanalysis as a philosophical orientation and as an experimental methodology for social, cultural, and historical research. In particular, it innovatively deploys rhythmanalysis to explore and investigate the everyday life of the contemporary university. To this end it, critically reviews the methods (and findings) of a pilot project that aimed to capture the rhythmic nature of the quotidian activities of staff and students at a “modern” university in the West Midlands of England (2017–2018). The novel combination of research methods employed, comprising audio-visually recorded walking interviews, time-lapse photography of three campuses, and of classroom/laboratory/studio teaching sessions, is examined to reveal the affordances of rhythmanalysis qua experimental methodology. The concluding section offers a reflection on the intellectual and practical purchase of the rhythmanalytical project while suggesting the possibility to further develop these innovative methods in order to refine current analyses and understandings of the contemporary university.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the process optimization of a precast concrete component production line by using value stream mapping.

This paper is an empirical focused on of lean production theory and value stream mapping. The data in the case study were collected in real time on-site for each process during the production process of a prefabricated exterior wall.

The results of the current value stream map indicate that the main problems of the current production process are related to equipment, technology and organization. The equipment problems include simple demolding and cleaning tools and the lack of professional transfer channels. The technology problems include the lack of a marking mechanism and pipeline exit mechanism. There is a lack of standard operating procedures and incomplete process convergence. A comparison and analysis of the current value stream and the future value flow indicate that optimizations of the process flow, the production line layout, and the standard operating procedures have shortened the delivery cycle, reduced the number of workers, improved the operator’s operating level and balanced the production line.

The results of this study provide practitioners with a clear understanding of the optimization of the precast concrete component production and represent a method and basis for the process optimization of a factory production line; the approach is suitable for process optimization in other areas.

This research represents an innovative application of lean production theory and value stream mapping in a complex production line of precast concrete components and thereby fills the gap between the theory and practice of the optimization of a precast concrete component production line.

While scholars have commonly inquired into how capital structures the material world, far less attention has been paid to how the material world has structured the historical relations of the capitalist world economy. This chapter is concerned with the expansion of Caribbean sugar industry in the world economic conjuncture of the first half of the nineteenth century. It examines the relation of the material requirements of sugar production, regional geography, and productive space. The ability of planters in particular locations to respond to world economic conditions was subject to material and spatial constraints. Increased output and technological innovation were dependent on the creation of new productive spaces – including both the formation of new commodity frontiers and the reconstitution the sugar plantation – that conformed to the changing requirements of sugar manufacture. Thus, the spatial and material conditions of staple production shaped the pattern of accumulation and political economic development.

Due‐date performance (DDP) is a very important performance indicator for the companies. Thus, companies with a high hit rate would have greater competitive advantage; on the contrary, companies that delay customers' orders frequently would lose sales opportunities and reputations. Therefore, there were many academic studies and practical efforts to improve DDP in the past, but the problem of low hit rate still exists. In order to increase the hit rate, some companies have focused on reducing the variation, while others focus on production management, but is the real problem affecting the low rate variability or production management? This is indeed difficult to be validated through practice. Therefore, this study designed three scenarios, tested each scenario for 30 times, each test involved seven subjects. The tests were to provide counter‐evidence in the Job Shop environment without variation. If the variation is the main factor of affecting hit rate, the rate at this time should be good; otherwise, the assumption that variation is the main cause is rebutted. The results demonstrated that production management planning is the main cause, and the method of enhancing the hit rate is obtained during the test.

Proposes a framework (developed from an analysis of the existing literature) which will be useful to research the linkages between work organization and lean production practices. The framework considers two types of work organization practices: type (a) which is directly linked to lean production practices such as JIT/TQM (worker autonomy, multifunctional employees, feedback to workers, etc.) and type (b) which influences the setting up and the maintenance of type (a) practices (training, compensation, etc.). Tests hypotheses concerning the practices which can be said to be directly linked to JIT/TQM on data collected on 43 manufacturing plants through valid and reliable measurement instruments. The results show that lean production plants seem to use more teams for problem solving, to take employees’ suggestions more seriously, to rely more heavily on quality feedback both for workers and supervisors, to document production procedures more carefully and to have employees able to perform a greater variety of tasks including statistical process control. Lean production plants, however, show almost no differences with regard to aspects of work organization which involve hierarchy.

The serious economic difficulties that Peru is confronting, its rapid inflation, the failure of the IMF stabilisation programme, and the recent adoption of a new economic programme are all topics that are worth analysing.