Title: Manufacturing assessment using Schonberger's 16 customer-focused principles

Authors: Ruth J. Boaden, Jonathan M. Sims

Addresses: Manchester School of Management, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK. Manchester School of Management, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK

Abstract: This paper describes the use of Schonberger|s 16 customer-focused principles as an assessment tool to compare and contrast four manufacturing sites within the same organisation. The major objective is to examine the extent to which the tool has industry and/or cultural bias and this is achieved by comparisons between plants manufacturing the same products in Australia and another country (either Thailand or China) and also between plants manufacturing different but related products in the same geographical area (Australia and the Far East). It provides a critical assessment of the utility of the Schonberger model as a consultancy tool and as a model for research of this nature and concludes that the tool is very useful in this context, although care is required in the use of the scoring system: there is some bias towards batch manufacturing and larger companies but very little cultural bias.

Keywords: assessment tool; manufacturing; joint ventures; Schonberger; Far East; performance measurement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2000.001366

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2000 Vol.2 No.1/2/3/4/5/6/7, pp.580-619

Published online: 02 Jul 2003 *

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