Prof. Netland wins the Shingo Research Award 2020

The Shingo Institute, based in Utah State University, is named after Japanese quality guru Dr Shigeo Shingo (1909-1990). It is the world’s most renowned institute awarding individuals and organizations for their achievements related to operational excellence. With the award, the Shingo Institute celebrates thought-leadership in operational excellence. This is the second time Netland wins this prestigious award.

Netland has won the award for his research on the S-curve theory of lean implementation with Kasra Ferdows (Georgetown University, Washington D.C.) This research has appeared in two versions; a practitioner paper published in 2014 in MIT Sloan Management Review and a long version published in the flagship journal Production and Operations Management in 2016. The papers are the first to empirically test the pattern of performance improvement that should be expected when deploying an operational excellence program. Through an in-depth, real-life research investigation of the implementation of the Volvo Production System in 67 factories of AB Volvo, Netland and Ferdows uncovered a grounded theory that predicts how operational excellence programs affect plant performance: the S-curve theory. The S-curve theory has important theoretical and practical implications for operational excellence, which has now been acknowledged by the anonymous reviewers of the Shingo Institute.

Below are some endorsements of the awarded work:

• “This paper constitutes a fundamental contribution to the theoretical understanding of lean” Prof. Rachna Shah, Professor of Supply Chain and Operation, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, MN, USA
• “The S-curve research is cutting-edge and among the most important research contributions to lean.” Prof. Hironori Hibino, Professor of Production Engineering Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan
• “Netland and Ferdows have written one of the classic papers on lean in their ‘What to expect from a corporate lean program’.” Prof. Peter Hines, Founder SA Partners, UK
• “What distinguishes this very important research is that instead of starting from secondary literature and theory as many researchers do, the authors genuinely engages and observes lean practice as it is evolving over time in a leading organization.” Daniel Jones, Founder of Lean Enterprise Academy, Author of the Machine that Changed the World and Lean Thinking, UK
• “This outstanding paper by Netland and Ferdows helped us understand and reengineer our global approach to the Volvo Production System. The S-curve paper is an excellent piece of research with real impact on practice. Highly recommended!” Ebly Sanchez, Director OD/VPS Group Volvo North America, Greensboro, NC, USA
• “The research by Netland and Ferdows provides great insights into the different stages of a Lean implementation as well as the situational behavior of senior leaders depending on the stage.” Johan Wollin, Global Director VPS
Volvo Construction Equipment, Brussels, Belgium
• “If you are working on global operational transformation, this paper is a must read.” Lisa Norcross, VP Global Operations Foundry, Vesuvius PLC, Düsseldorf, Germany
• “The publication is a valuable source of actionable knowledge for lean implementations – and a worthy winner of the Shingo Research Award” Dr Daryl Powell, SINTEF Manufacturing, Norway
• “This work is an achievement in conducting rigorous applied research that is relevant and innovative.” Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) 1st Applied Research Contest

By winning the second Shingo Research Award, we are once again placing the Chair of POM among the top research groups for operational excellence in the world. 

We are pleased to share a Shingo Research Award version of the MIT SMR paper Download “What to Expect from a Lean Program” (PDF, 828 KB)