Developing an instrument to measure lean manufacturing maturity and its relationship with operational performance

Abstract

This paper proposes an instrument to evaluate the maturity of lean manufacturing, and to examine the relationship between lean manufacturing maturity and operational performance. The research instrument examines companies’ maturity on eight dimensions, composed of 38 lean practices, based on Toyota’s 14 management principles. The instrument was applied to 90 manufacturing companies located in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The results confirm that maturity can explain 49.9% of the variance of researched companies’ operational performance ( = 0.499). The present study contributes to the expansion of scientific research in the fields of lean production and maturity of organisations, bringing managerial contributions by providing an instrument for self-evaluation of lean manufacturing maturity.