Exploring lean manufacturing practices' influence on process innovation performance

Little is known about the effects of lean manufacturing practices on the process innovation performance of manufacturing organisations. This research aims to fill this gap and explore the aforementioned interdependency. A research framework consisting of 22 measurement scales and three pairs of hypotheses was developed based on an extensive literature review. A large-scale self-administered questionnaire was distributed among appropriately selected industrial experts. Datasets obtained from 340 usable responses were analysed through confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics, correlations, and multiple linear regression models. The findings suggest that both technical and human lean practices have a moderate to strong positive impact on the input and occurrence of incremental and radical process innovation in manufacturing organisations. In turn, as an output of process innovation, this appears to enhance companies' operational performance. Thereby, the results dispel the scholarly and managerial misconception that LM and innovation are difficult to coexist.