This paper describes the use of several improvement tools and benefit levels obtained in production processes in large and medium-sized enterprises of the Metropolitan Area of Medellín (Aburrá Valley). The impact on organizational factors such as quality cost, machine failure, planning, and scheduling failure, as well success factors, were analyzed. This study was conducted analyzing variables to make comparisons between groups of companies according to size. A sample of 40 medium-sized and large enterprises were analyzed using tools of descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. This study shows that medium-sized enterprises differ from large companies on use of improvement tools and the large firms gain greater benefit. This work also provides the academic and business community with a greater understanding of the influences in the performance of large and medium enterprises as a consequence of the use of improvement tools. In large enterprises that have implemented improvement tools in the last three years, lower quality costs and failures in planning / scheduling were found; whereas they were higher are higher in the medium firms investigated. There were no differences between the improvement tools regarding these variables, thus the support of academia and government to the improvement of SMEs is evident focusing on strategy rather than the "WHAT" but "HOW" to incorporate the improvement tool within people.
Improvement tools; Large companies; SMEs; Manufacturing practices; Continuous improvement
