Abstract:
This research aims to study the factors affecting the suppliers participation in Kaizen of air-conditioning manufacturing in Thailand. The studys objective is to explore the effects of suppliers Kaizen knowledge, suppliers attitudes, and suppliers motivation toward suppliers participation in Kaizen. It is quantitative research utilizing a questionnaire for data collection. The population of suppliers is 115 firms, and it is non-probability sampling with purpose sampling. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze general information of the respondents and inferential statistics were used to test for all hypotheses: multiple linear regression analysis, at 0.05 significant level. It was found that (1) suppliers Kaizen knowledge does not affect suppliers participation in Kaizen (b = 0.145, p = 0.064) (2) suppliers attitude has no effect on suppliers participating in Kaizen (b = 0.095, p = 0.273), and (3) suppliers motivation has a positive effect on suppliers participating in Kaizen (b = 0.632, p < 0.001). Therefore, it is to confirm that suppliers motivation is the key factor affecting suppliers participation in Kaizen for a business value creating between buying firm and suppliers and maintaining the business sustainability.