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The purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of internal lean consultants in western organizations during lean transformation processes and how these roles affect the outcomes of the changes.

Findings are based on a qualitative study of four Norwegian public organizations.

Characteristics of western organizations put internal lean consultants in important roles during the project initiation and change phases. However, consultants have less impact in the last phase of the transformation process while transferring the responsibilities over to line management. The organizations struggle to “make lean stick” due to the distribution of responsibilities between managers and internal consultants.

The distribution of responsibilities between managers and consultants should be carefully considered in lean transformation processes. Internal lean consultants should serve the managers as teachers and coaches, rather than doing their jobs for them.

The paper contributes with in-depth knowledge of the roles of internal consultants in lean transformation processes, a topic that the literature has left unexplored and undebated.

This paper aims to explore how manufacturing organisations’ performance measurement and management (PMM) systems are evolving when digital technologies (DTs) are deployed. It focusses on the operational level, asking whether DTs are used to promote command-and-control or empowerment-oriented performance management.

The findings are based on a single case study from a department of a Norwegian electrochemical plant. The department recently implemented a performance measurement system (PMS) supported by DTs to capture, analyse and visualise close-to-real-time performance data on individuals and teams. The authors analysed both the management practices associated with the new PMS and how those related to other PMM-subsystems in the organisation.

When seen in isolation, the new PMS was used to promote empowerment and operators reported a significant increase in perceived psychological empowerment. However, other parts of the organisation’s PMM system remained control-oriented, so that the overall balance between control and empowerment remained stable.

New PMSs might be added to support local needs and create arenas for empowerment without disturbing the overall balance in the PMM system.

Building on the insights from the case study, the authors propose that DTs may be deployed to promote both command-and-control and empowerment within different PMM subsystems in the same organisation. Hence, the deployment of DTs is likely to have contradictory effects, which are best understood through a “system of systems” perspective on PMMs.