ENABLERS AND INHIBITORS FOR THE IMPLANTATION, EVOLUTION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY SUPPLIERS 

PRESENTED BY: MR. JULIO JUAN GARCÍA SABATER
DIRECTED BY: PHD. D. JUAN ANTONIO MARÍN GARCÍA

Abstract:

One of the principal challenges of the western companies in the last decades has been to improve the competitiveness through constant incremental improvement in the quality of the products and the efficiency of the processes. In this environment, the continuous improvement, based on the active participation of all the employers of the company, has been established as a powerful tool to obtain competitive advantages. That’s the way it is thanks to the human factor which, due to its intangible characteristics (knowledge, attitudes and skills), is difficult to imitate.
In spite of this, it still remains a need to extend the continuous improvement in Spain, especially in environments of small and medium enterprises. Even the automotive sector, where traditionally the continuous improvement is very widespread, it is to be found in very basic stages and, in many cases, scarcely orientated strategically.
All this probably result from what some authors have already raised when they pointed out that one of the most important aspects of the continuous improvement was the fact that it is not easy to implant.
The theoretical frame used to contextualize the work shows that there is abundant literature on the definition of the continuous improvement, possible benefits of its implantation as well as of the forms that usually present the programs of continuous improvement. One of the most important conclusions of the review is the result in which it sets out that the literature on the continuous improvement is often prescriptive, but it fails while dealing with the implantation. The aim of the thesis is to cover this gap of the literature: to find out how to obtain the implantation, evolution and sustainability of the continuous improvement.
Initially the thesis explores the possibility of improving the operational performance thanks to teams working on continuous improvement in suppliers of the province of Valencia. The results, both quantitative and qualitative of an implantation of improvement, will appear through the use of events kaizen in first tier suppliers of the sector. It can be affirmed that from the technical application of the continuous improvement, more than satisfactory results can be obtained in the improvement of the main operational indicators. Knowing that the implantation of the continuous improvement produces good results, it seems logical that all the companies taking part in these programs had kept on exploiting the possibilities of the continuous improvement. The investigation tries to find out the causes for which some companies had managed to make progress in the implantation of the continuous improvement, or on the contrary figuring out because they had not managed to implant successfully the above mentioned method of work. This is why a type of qualitative research, concretely Grounded Theory, has been elected for.
Through interviews with suppliers of the automotive sector, is to validate, to refute or to extend the existing theory on enablers and inhibitors that allow the implantation and sustainability of the continuous improvement, and to find out the mechanisms that the companies activate to overcome the barriers and to identify possible enablers which solve the way of the continuous improvement. The existing theory is validated on enablers and inhibitors and also new ones are identified. It was also observed that there would be some relation between the enablers and the grade of implantation of the continuous improvement in the companies. Some of the facilitators of the continuous improvement were keys for the beginning of the implantation and some others were for the more advanced stages of the continuous improvement. Also it was observed that between the visited companies there are some that use skills of continuous improvement as a way of a day to day working, and some other companies that only set up improvement teams when problems arise, confirming the hypothesis that the continuous improvement takes place by stages.
Although the literature on enablers and inhibitors tries to give handlebars to implant and support the continuous improvement, they are connected with models of existing evolution them in few works. As a result, is considered to be necessary a research that would present a model integrating the models of evolution with the enablers and inhibitors literature identified. The final result of the thesis tries to cover this gap and is, therefore, a model that connects the process of evolution of continuous improvement with the inhibitors and identified enablers. The above mentioned model also contributes to give the companies an enablers sequence implantation that allows them to advance successfully in the development of the continuous improvement.