Investigating the implementation of production management to improve productivity-a manufacturing case in Taiwan

Manufacturing firms´ performance is significantly important for the development of an industrialized nation, and these firms are always seeking ways to assist the management in improving their business performance. Production management (PM) is considered an integration function of all production operations in the manufacturing industry, and therefore has a great effect on the performance. To help firms rectify weaknesses of PM, and thus promoting performance, the business performance of 50 large-scale manufacturing firms in Taiwan is measured in terms of their PM achievements. For measurements, total factor productivity and the associated partial productivity indices are used, and four kinds of production planning ranges are defined based on fourteen PM issues. Through a fuzzy clustering approach, the 50 sample large-scale manufacturing firms are grouped into three patterns based on the achievement degrees of production planning, i.e., moderate planning, under-planned and over-planned types. After analyzing the productivity characteristics of each pattern, the business performance seems to be not completely correlated with the achievements of PM. Moderate production planning can provide optimal business performance. Referring to the findings in this study, a firm can further investigate its position in the industry to find ways of increasing its competitiveness