The effect of equipment management capability maturity on manufacturing performance

Equipment management capability is crucial to the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises. Past studies ignore its significance and have not assessed manufacturing performance from the perspective of capability maturity yet and still want evidence from empirical test. For addressing this research gap, we combine research methods of qualitative and quantitative to define equipment management capability for exploring and verifying the relationship between equipment management capability maturity and manufacturing performance. Results of this study from 136 valid questionnaires indicate that capabilities of strategy, personnel and IT infrastructure have direct positive effects on manufacturing performance. Among them, equipment management strategy takes organisational & process and IT infrastructure as mediating variables, which have indirect positive influence on manufacturing performance. Meanwhile, organisational & process takes IT infrastructure as mediating variable which has indirect positive influence on manufacturing performance. Our work opens the black box of equipment management capability system and provides theoretical guidance for improving manufacturing performance.