Cultural influences on the implementation of production management tools: a literature review

Abstract

Engineers and many other professionals usually solve production issues by applying pre-existing polices, like Total Quality management, Six Sigma, Lean Production and World Class Manufacturing. These polices were created to solve some particular range of problems. We can summarize the work of these professionals as being to analyze the problem and then to select polices and tools that best fit it. When solving a production problem we usually consider some dimensions, as: processes and professionals involved, material and information flow, machinery, etc. Then, we select a specific set of practices that, when applied, will result in improvements. Sometimes polices that were developed and tested under certain conditions in a specific region are applied to a different country, with distinct environmental and cultural influences. This multi-cultural situation introduces another dimension to the solution of production issues. Trying to solve a problem without considering the cultural aspect can lead to a wrong implementation of some production management method, and consequently may not give the expected results. Thus, this research aims to analye, through a literature review, how academics and practitioners understand the role of cultural differences on the implementation of production management tools. For this, it intends to explore existing studies on production management conducted in distinct countries.