Case research in production engineering: Structure and recommendations for its conduction

Abstract

One of the growing concerns in the production engineering and operations management not only in developed countries but also in Brazil is relatively to the research methodological approaches, among which case research is one of the most frequently adopted. However, the suitable conduction of a case study is not a simple task and, frequently, the research is subjected to criticism due to methodological limitations. In this sense, this work proposes a structure to conduct case studies and suggests a set of recommendations to its research planning and conduction. Finally, some important points are raised as well as some reflections and propositions for future studies in order to keep on with these efforts for continuous improvement in the study of methodological approaches for production engineering.