Handbook of Management Scales/Supplier feedback

Supplier feedback (alpha > 0.7; composite reliability = 0.77; average variance extracted = 0.53) Description The research takes a step toward clarifying the concept of lean production and develops and validates a multi-dimensional measure of lean production. The 10 distinct dimensions of a lean system are continuous flow, customer involvement, employee involvement, JIT delivery by suppliers, pull, set up time reduction, statistical process control, supplier development, supplier feedback, and total productive/preventive maintenance. Definition Lean production is an integrated socio-technical system whose main objective is to eliminate waste by concurrently reducing or minimizing supplier, customer, and internal variability. This dimension of lean production is about providing regular feedback to suppliers about their performance. Items Please indicate the extent of implementation of each of the following practices in your plant. (1) no implementation; (2) little implementation; (3) some implementation; (4) extensive implementation; (5) complete implementation. We frequently are in close contact with our suppliers. We give our suppliers feedback on quality and delivery performance. We strive to establish long-term relationship with our suppliers. Source Shah/Ward (2007): Defining and developing measures of lean production. Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 785-805. Comments Only the second item is about feedback rather than relationship. It is therefore questionable if this scale really measures what it is intended to measure.