Chapter 2 Clari fi cation of the Lean Concept

This chapter explores the concept of Lean in detail and will attempt to tackle many of the existing misconceptions regards Lean. Lean is a complex ideology that requires considerable effort if implemented appropriately. The procedural aspects will be discussed at length, outlining the importance of implementing the Lean principles in a systematic fashion. Furthermore, there exists empirical evidence that suggests that most Lean initiatives fail. The literature and evidence available is analysed to explain possible causes. HR, culture, and change management are often cited as prominent reasons for Lean not being successfully implemented. This aspect will be further scrutinised. Furthermore, as this investigation hopes to consider whether Lean aids competitiveness of organisations, a thorough evaluation will be undertaken to judge whether existing empirical research verifies or refutes this assertion. Understanding the Concept of Lean As intimated earlier, it was the Toyota Production System (TPS) that developed the relevant approaches, Lean practices, and instruments. The phrase “Lean” is attributed to John Krafcik who in 1988, as an undergraduate at the MIT, worked under the guidance of Jim Womack stated that: “Lean production is Lean because it uses less of everything compared with mass production – half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing space, half the investment in tools, half the engineering hours to develop a new product in half the time. Also it requires keeping far less than half the needed inventory on site, results in fewer defects and produces a greater and ever-growing variety of products” (page 43). An exploration undertaken by NIST (2003) has complete prominence in reference to this pursuing investigation; it suggested that Lean is “a systematic approach to identify and eliminate waste through continuous improvement; flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection” (page 1). Liker and Franz (2011) suggest that there are still only two per cent of Lean programme implementations that reach their expected results. The rationale for this is that there is often little understanding of organisational factors that enable successful © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 S. Bhasin, Lean Management Beyond Manufacturing, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-17410-5_2 11 implementations and continuation. There are many obstacles that a Lean journey encounters (Henderson and Larco 2003). Ransom in his investigation (2008) states that “there are really only 5 % who practice the art skilfully in a world class master practitioner kind of way” (p. 4). Liker’s earlier work (2004) reviewed that “50 % of the auto suppliers are talking Lean, 2 % are actually doing it” (p. 2). Likewise, the “Manufacturer” (2002) authenticated this whereby it suggested that whilst one hundred Lean companies were questioned regards their proximity towards becoming a total Lean organisation; only 3 % suggested that they were beyond “doubt” Lean; however, 22 % implied that they were only approaching this state. Toyota’s philosophies were moulded by the personalities, ethics, and capabilities of its creators in the Toyoda family. The Lean principles are firmly founded on shrewdness and scientific methods (Bicheno and Holweg 2009). Koenigsaecker (2005) proposes that Lean success as a strategy necessitates imagination, reflection, and trialling. Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo, Sakichi, and Kiichiro Toyoda reflected this doctrine. The prevailing assertion within a substantial amount of the literature states that the main objective for Lean “is to eliminate waste” (Lewis 2008). In practice, the chief driver for Lean is the need to construct a thriving and resilient company (Singh et al. 2010). Unfortunately, there still persist misconceptions regards Lean; this is in spite of hundreds of books and proportionately more papers and articles coupled with supplementary resources devoted towards Lean. Radziwill (2013) suggests that Lean is principally and notably a system, in essence an assimilated sequence of portions with a noticeably defined objective. Lean expects total dedication and should be extended further than just the engineering and management disciplines whilst stressing the concept of value in its endeavour to eliminate waste in a sustainable manner. Similarly, it is important that the companies distinguish the Lean ideology from the techniques and tools such as Six Sigma utilised to maintain the ideology. Whilst proponents of Lean such as Toyota inform us of the Lean instruments, organisations need to discover their own methods of improving these instruments (Liker 2004). The Toyota way fundamentally outlines the doctrine of the Toyota culture, allowing the TPS to operate successfully. Regrettably, many organisations consider the TPS has a collection of tools aiding better effectiveness. Instead, they should view Lean as a complete system which persuades its employees to constantly advance the processes they utilise (Singh et al. 2010). Consequently, often countermeasures were instigated and these have become a necessity for engineers and others in their manufacturing processes (Womack and Jones 2005). The TPS should be viewed as facilitating a complete management ideology focused upon overall customer fulfilment. Equally, Montgomery (2010) suggests that it promotes a setting of teamwork and enhancement simultaneously advancing quality in the process. Organisations hoping to demonstrate that Lean aids performance levels for their own company are required to implement a more wideranging approach to performance management (Neely et al. 2005). Dimancescu et al. (1997) made an initial breakthrough to measure the impact Lean makes on an organisation though the analysis was somewhat restricted. The reimbursement an organisation accrues from Lean is not always obvious and not captured 12 2 Clarification of the Lean Concept