Senior managers’ perspectives on obstacles to Lean implementation
2016 (English)In: International Journal of Lean Enterprise Research, ISSN 1754-2294, E-ISSN 1754-2308, Vol. 1, no 4, p. 317-328Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Many lean implementations fail; previous research suggests an important reason is that senior managers are unable to support the implementation. We investigate this problem by exploring senior managers' perspectives on lean implementation, aiming to identify possible obstacles to their support of implementation processes. The paper is based on an explorative case study at a global manufacturing company implementing lean. Interviews were performed with senior managers at the top two hierarchical levels, the president and area presidents. The analysis revealed four main obstacles: 1) competence development needs of senior management were not addressed; 2) the lean development initiative was not connected to company strategy; 3) key players within the organisation were initially not involved or tasked; 4) the initiative was not system wide. The results stress the importance of initial competence evaluation and development of senior management in lean development.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2016. Vol. 1, no 4, p. 317-328
Keywords [en]
change management, organisational development, competence evaluation, strategy, lean management, lean implementation, senior managers, senior management, organisational change, manufacturing industry, key players, system wide initiatives
National Category
Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-20868DOI: 10.1504/IJLER.2015.076658OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-20868DiVA, id: diva2:882902
2015-12-162015-12-152018-12-07Bibliographically approved