This work seeks to characterize the adoption, intensity of use, effectiveness and the perspective of future use of a group of twelve work and production management practices: Outsourcing; Business Process re-engineering; Supply Chain Management; Learning Culture; Empowerment; Team Based Work; Total Productive Maintenance; Concurrent Engineering; Production Cell; Just in Time; Total Quality Management; Integrated Computer-based Technology. A nationwide sample of 220 companies, with more than 150 employees, of the different industrial sectors was used. Data collection was done by phone interviews with production managers and directors. The findings point toward a broad use of the practices, which have been introduced during the last decade, based on a very good evaluation on its impact over costs, quality and responsiveness. This research also provides a comparative scenario of a nationwide perspective with similar research projects which might deepens the comprehension of the phenomena here described.
work and production management practices; adoption; intensity of use; effectiveness; perspective of future use
