We outline several constraints on the diffusion of new work practices, and suggest directions for future research. The paper draws on an extensive survey providing detailed information on a wide range of manufacturing practices and retail relationships in the U.S. apparel industry. We find that recent diffusion of modular practices and retail relationships in the U.S. apparel industry. This research is based on interviews with managers and surveys of worker attitudes and perceptions. We find that a team production system in the apparel industry, called modules, performs better than the traditional bundle system on such measures as quality, costs, and responsiveness to retailers.
Modules also perform better than bundles in reducing work in process inventory and throughput time.
We argue that performance improvements are realized through coordination among the team members as a result of their ability to self regulate work, eliminate bottlenecks, resolve conflicts, help each other solve problems, and make improvements in the production process. In the machined durable goods sector, group-based participative structures are combined in a new organizational form, the participative bureaucracy. Older, larger organizations in product markets where collaborative ties between firms are important to innovation are more likely to have the features of a participative bureaucratic structure. Some large, bureaucratically structured organizations are demonstrating a capability for adaptation and change and achieving new productivity advantages through participative structures. For small firms where information technology is being used to automate the machining process, the participative bureaucracy also enhances performance.