Dean M. Schroeder

The role of front-line ideas in lean performance improvement

Companies are increasingly embracing lean production techniques in their efforts to improve performance. Yet the majority of these companies fail to tap the full potential of “going lean.” By comparing a sample of successful lean initiatives with less successful ones (as defined by the rate of ongoing productivity improvement), this paper identifies a critical component that often is missing in underperforming initiatives—the ability to get large numbers of improvement ideas from front-line employees. High-performing idea systems—which the authors define as those that implement 12 or more ideas per employee per year—were found to be a major factor in successful lean initiatives, for three reasons. First, they created a “lean culture” of daily improvement. Second, they addressed improvement opportunities that were difficult for managers to spot. Third, they promoted rapid organizational learning. In addition to demonstrating the importance of high-performing idea systems for lean, this research provides insight into why such systems are relatively rare: 1) the predominance of the suggestion-box paradigm; and 2) they frequently require significant and difficult changes in operating practices.

MANAGEMENT EDUCATION IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Not since the early industrial age when advances in printing and paper technologies allowed large-scale access to printed material has the world experienced a period with as much potential for revolutionary change in the educational process as we have today. In the past, changes worked their way through society over generations as technologies developed and ancillary technologies emerged (Aryes, 1990). Now, information technology is creating massive changes within a single generation, with advances in computer, telecommunication, and related technologies announced almost daily. These technologies have now achieved a level of development and use that we can begin to identify the potential opportunities and challenges they provide to education. Consequently, the role of new information technology in education is the topic of this special issue of the Journal of Management Education . This issue pulls together nine articles addressing the emerging role of information technology in management education. The extensive and pervasive nature of the impact information technologies is having, and will have, on management education is well beyond the scope of a single special issue. Yet, it is our hope that the articles assembled here will provide some modest, yet important, insights to readers.