Search results

Research has shown that one of the reasons lean transformations fail is inadequate lean knowledge of supervisors. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development of a lean training program for front-line manufacturing supervisors to provide them with the knowledge needed to engage their teams in daily continuous improvement.

A literature review was conducted on best practices in training design for positive transfer. Action research using qualitative methodologies was used to develop and pilot a new lean leadership training program for supervisors at one site within a case study company. The pilot was evaluated and continuously improved for future waves of training, consistent with action research, lean philosophies and training best practices.

Employee engagement has dramatically increased since the training class began and the number of lean improvements implemented in Operations at the case study company has increased 160 per cent. Manufacturing lead-time has also been reduced by more than 30 per cent. Because of the positive results from the training, it has been expanded at the pilot site and spread to other sites within the case study company.

As with any case study, one must take care when attempting to generalize findings beyond the case being examined. However, the pilot training program was successfully extended to several sites across different business segments of the case study company, increasing the likelihood that similar results may apply in other cases.

The case provides empirical evidence of the development of an effective training program to mature the lean capability of supervisors. Other companies seeking to provide training to develop front-line lean leaders can benefit from the lessons learned from the case study.

This study describes how two organisations transitioned to teaching Lean online during and post Covid-19. This study aims to establish how Lean teaching and training can be designed and delivered effectively online without adverse effects on the student’s learning experience of Lean concepts.

A case study approach was used to review the design, application and results of the transition to online Lean teaching and training. Qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed to assess the results.

Online Lean learning and application were assured via the design of practical problem-based teaching environments, aided by using the virtual classroom as an obeya room and as a kaizen environment where students worked in teams. Students were enabled to learn and apply Lean tools practically and reflect on their learnings.

This study demonstrates that effective online design can ensure. Lean methods are understood without affecting the student's learning, classroom experience and grasp of concepts.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first studies on implementing Lean training and education online during COVID-19 under the lens of both a training provider and university education viewpoint. The changes validated best practices for virtual Lean education and training in the organisations under study, maintained post-COVID.

Lean manufacturing has the potential for simultaneously improving the competitiveness and the social sustainability of the apparel industry in developing countries. However, there is limited research on the ways to a successful lean implementation in developing countries and with an emphasis on occupational health and safety (OHS) improvement.

The paper investigates four cases of lean implementation in garment factories and uses the design science research strategy, building on the context-intervention-mechanism-outcome (CIMO) framework to identify explanatory mechanisms that can be used for designing future action.

The study identifies tangible mechanisms that can lead to successful lean implementation. The most important mechanisms relate to practical top management support, worker involvement, application of lean tools and training.

The findings of this study can guide better lean implementation for the many garment factories in developing countries.

While the lean literature provides general recommendations for lean implementation, knowledge about the transfer mechanisms in developing countries as well as the connections between lean and OHS is limited. This paper contributes to lean implementation theory and to the discourse of positive lean by integrating efficiency and working conditions. In addition, the paper identifies transfer mechanisms for lean implementation in the garment industry in a developing country.

This study aims to explore how placement of lean practices (removal of waste from all areas of an organization’s value stream) (Worley and Doolen, 2006) within different organizational strategic contexts can affect the factors that lead to lean implementation success.

The authors use empirical data to examine how strategy affects various factors that are identified as prerequisites for successful lean implementation. Specifically, this study uses Venkatraman’s (1998) measures to examine various types of strategy within organizations, how they correlate with both the workers’ mindset (perceived job security and perceived personal benefits of lean) and the processes in implementation (training on lean concepts and techniques).

Findings indicate that a relationship exists between strategy and factors needed for lean implementation success. Perceived job security had a positive relationship with all four types of strategies examined (proactiveness, defensiveness, analysis and futurity) (Venkatraman, 1998). Moreover, perceived personal benefits of lean had a positive relationship with futurity but negative relationships with proactiveness and defensiveness strategies. Finally, training on lean concepts and techniques was positively related to analysis and futurity strategies but negatively related to proactiveness strategy.

The authors’ research illustrates the positive impact of aligning lean with strategy. This topic may be of particular interest to executives, especially middle managers, looking to improve firm performance.

Application of operations management in healthcare is particularly promising to improve the overall organisational performance, although the Italian system is behind in introducing related techniques and methods. One of the recent experiments in healthcare is the implementation of “Lean Thinking”. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which exogenous forces are driving knowledge transfer on Lean, both in the private and public healthcare sectors.

Informed by institutional sociology (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Powell and DiMaggio, 1991), the paper builds on the case study methodology (Yin, 2013) to elucidate the environmental pressures that are encouraging the adoption of Lean thinking by Italian hospitals and Local Health Authorities.

The study highlights the economic, coercive, mimetic and normative pressures that are triggering the adoption of Lean thinking in the Italian National Health System (INHS). At the same time, the authors reveal the pivotal importance and innovative roles played by diverse prominent key-actors in the different organisations investigated.

Considering that little is known to date regarding which exogenous forces are driving the transfer of knowledge on Lean, especially in the public healthcare sector, the paper allows scholars to focus on patterns of isomorphic change and will facilitate managers and policy makers to understand exogenous factors stimulating the transfer of Lean thinking and the subsequent innovation within health organisations and systems.

Lean principles are applied in manufacturing and service industries extensively, but its successful application in the printing industry has been poor. The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that impede the uptake of lean in the printing industry.

Qualitative case study research methods were used to explore success factors and barriers to implementing lean in printing by interviewing two managers and three employees at each of two printing firms that had implemented lean to different degrees.

A number of critical success factors and barriers to implementing lean are identified. Success factors include practitioners’ understanding of lean philosophy, principles and methods, management leadership and commitment, upfront training in lean and effective communication.

The work contributes to empirical research on implementing lean in the printing industry. This research identified critical success and failure factors in implementing lean in this industry. Management knowledge, commitment, and support emerged as key factors. A theoretical framework is provided that proposes relationships of causality for the successful implementation of lean in this industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how just-in-time (JIT)-related job demands, problem-solving job demands and soft lean practices (SLPs) jointly influence employee well-being in terms of work engagement and exhaustion.

Based on the job demands-resources model, lean-related job characteristics were classified as resources or demands, and a set of hypotheses was developed to test their effect on work engagement and exhaustion, including the potential interaction between job resources and demands. The hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression and structural equation modelling, based on data from 138 workers.

SLPs act as job resources in a lean company, increasing work engagement and reducing exhaustion. Conversely, JIT-related job demands act as a hindrance, reducing work engagement and increasing exhaustion. However, SLPs can reduce the effect of JIT-related job demands on exhaustion, and JIT-related job demands may enhance the positive effects of SLPs on work engagement.

The study provides no conclusive evidence on the hypothesized role of problem-solving as a challenge job demand.

The results can guide practitioners’ understanding of how to implement lean without harm to employee well-being.

By employing a well-grounded psychological model to test the link between lean and well-being, the study finds quantitative support for: the buffering effect of SLPs on exhaustion caused by JIT-related job demands, and for the role of JIT as a hindrance. These novel findings have no precedent in previous survey-based research. In addition, it reveals the importance of studying SLPs at an individual level, as what matters is the extent to which workers perceive SLPs as useful and supportive.

The purpose of this paper is to study the attitudes of higher education employees to the change with Lean at public universities in Morocco in order to determinate the factors of resistance to change and to look for the motivating factors that encourage these employees to participate in change project with Lean.

A questionnaire sent to all administrative and technical staff of higher education at five public universities in Morocco during year 2019. This study has analyzed both a person-oriented approach and a variable-oriented approach and characterized by using Lewin’s change model to manage change with Lean.

The results show that individual, organizational and group factors have a positive impact on employees’ attitudes toward change with Lean but individual factors are more important than other factors.

The research is limited to universities in Morocco and mainly public universities. It is only interested in the first stage in the change process with Lean (unfreezing). Understanding employee attitudes, determining motivation factors and the causes behind resistance to change before embarking in change journey with Lean Higher Education (LHE) enables the public universities in Morocco (management) to better prepare for change by reducing resistance to change to create a favorable climate to implement LHE.

The majority of research works to date focus on implementation of LHE without giving interest to the preparation of the organizational change, this last is very much requested to determine the driving and restraining forces in order to reduce the resistance to change that is the main reason of failure of many change programs. This paper attempts to determinate the factors of resistance to change which allows to the public universities in Morocco to overcome them before moving to the changing stage.

The purpose of this research is to identify key interrelated components of successful, sustained lean transformation. When implemented successfully, lean not only allows for cost reduction while improving quality but it can also position a company to achieve tremendous growth. However, although many companies are attempting to implement lean, only an estimated 2-3 per cent are achieving the desired level of success.

A thorough literature review was conducted and the findings indicated six key constructs that can act as enablers or inhibitors to implementing and sustaining lean. A theoretical framework was developed that integrates these constructs and develops research propositions for each. A multiple-case study analysis was used to test the framework on four companies that have achieved successful lean transformations to validate the model.

Sixteen propositions were supported in all four of the case studies and one proposition was supported in three of the four case studies.

This research proposed and tested a model lean transformation on cases drawn from the very small number of companies in the USA that have achieved successful, sustained lean improvement. The case studies represented a broad variety of manufacturing industries, increasing the likelihood of the research being able to be broadly generalized and applied. The model provides a set of related tangible actions that organizations planning to undertake a lean transformation can focus on to help insure successful implementation and sustainment.

Construction management is ameliorated by the lean construction concept in many direct and indirect ways to reduce waste of construction process and improve the value. The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges of the implementation of lean construction in the Bangladeshi construction industry and to prioritize these factors that constitute these challenges.

A comprehensive literature review was used for shorting the global challenges of implementing lean construction. Subsequently, these challenges were incorporated into a structured questionnaire for survey. A total of 164 valid responses were collected from Bangladeshi construction practitioners involved in different types of construction organizations. The results were analyzed using the Relative Important Index (RII) and Mann–Whitney U test.

The findings revealed 41 challenges of lean construction implementation in the Bangladeshi construction industry. The highest ranking challenges are the lack of awareness about lean construction, lack of skills, training and lean techniques, unwillingness to change the existing culture, lack of management commitment, fragmented and cyclic nature of the construction project and unavailing communication between all project participants. The study also discusses some universally applicable solutions to overcome these challenges.

By the findings of this study, the Bangladeshi construction industry could get a new insight into the challenges of implementing lean construction. It could play a very important part in the body of knowledge, as it reveals the challenges of implementing lean construction for the first time with the socio-economic context of Bangladesh. Exploring the findings, the study could help the stakeholders, companies, academician, researchers and government to focus their effort and resources on the significantly appropriate issues. Furthermore, this study may beneficial to those developing countries especially in South Asia, who have shared the same socio-economic status with Bangladesh.