Lean production and sustainable competitive advantage

TLDR

Lean principles such as flow, value, pull, and waste minimization have become the prevailing paradigm for many manufacturing and service operations. The study investigates how lean production affects the competitive positions of firms that adopt it. The authors combine lean production and resource‑based view theories with three case studies to argue that lean can underpin competitive advantage when firms appropriate its productivity savings. The study finds that while lean implementation can generate strategic resources for sustainable competitive advantage, its ambiguity may also limit long‑term flexibility, and it calls for further research.

Abstract

Today, “lean” may no longer be fashionable but its core principles (flow, value, pull, minimizing waste etc.) have become the paradigm for many manufacturing (and service) operations. Given this pre‐eminence, the paper seeks to establish what impact it has had on the overall competitive positions of adopter firms. Combining normative and critical theory (from lean production and resource‐based view of the firm literature) with empirical material drawn from three case studies, the paper argues that lean production can underpin competitive advantage if the firm is able to appropriate the productivity savings it creates. Similarly, the ambiguity of lean production in practice means that the implementation process can create strategic resources to underpin sustainable competitive advantage. Problematically, however, the paper also suggests that being “lean” can curtail the firm’s ability to achieve long‐term flexibility. It concludes with suggestions for further work.