Sustaining a lean ideology

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the interface between Lean strategy and organisational transformation, by scrutinising the literature on why Lean strategies fail to be implemented and/or sustained. Design/methodology/approach As a conceptual and research paper it develops a hypothesis. It encompasses philosophical discussions and comparative studies of others' work and Lean thinking alongside its links to the principles, ideology, philosophy and the underpinning values. The search involved a total of 1,931 articles spanning across 75 different journals. The content analysis approach suggested by Mayring (2004) was selected. Findings Successfully implementing Lean is more complex than often recognized within literature and the alignment between strategy and organisational transformation is repeatedly not undertaken. The investigation indicates policy makers need to view Lean as an ideology and not simply another process. Research limitations/implications This paper addresses the inaccurate representation which exists of the concept of Lean as a strategy. Whilst a major evolution has occurred comprising the inputs 2 perceived as imperative for Lean success, a translucent empathy of its philosophy alongside an acknowledgement of the magnitude of the change and transformation necessary has been comparatively perplexing. This paper has implications for academic scholars of strategy and organisational change as well as for practitioners seeking to implement organisational change. Originality/value Empirical evidence suggests that most Lean strategies struggle. Customers are becoming more demanding, markets are becoming more customised, and product life-cycles getting shorter are dictating that Lean needs to be embraced as an ideology

Condition monitoring for airport baggage handling in the area of industry 4.0

Purpose: The findings of a recent study are presented, which was conducted with the objective of addressing the problem of the failure of baggage carts within the high-speed baggage tunnel at Heathrow Terminal 5 through the development of an innovative condition-based maintenance system designed to meet the requirements of 21st century airport systems and Industry 4.0. Methodology: An empirical experimental approach to this action research was taken to install a vibration condition monitoring pilot test in the north tunnel at Terminal 5. Vibration data were collected over a 6-month period and analysed to determine the threshold for good quality tyres and those with worn bearings that needed replacing. The results were compared with existing measures to demonstrate that vibration monitoring could be used as a predictive model for condition-based maintenance. Findings: The findings demonstrated a clear trend of increasing vibration velocity with age, with the wheel mass unbalanced inertia of the carts being transmitted to the tracks as vibration. This research demonstrates that a healthy wheel produces a vibration of less than 60mm/s whereas a damaged wheel measures up to 100 mm/s peak to peak velocity, which can be used in real-time condition monitoring to prevent baggage cart failure. It can also run as an autonomous system linked to AI and Industry 4.0 airport logic. Originality/Value: Whilst vibration monitoring has been used to measure movement in static structures, such as bridges, and in rotating machinery, such as railway wheels (Tondon and Choudhury, 1999) this application is unique as it is the first time vibration monitoring has been applied to a stationary structure (tracks) carrying high-speed rotating machinery (baggage cart wheels). This technique has been patented and proven in the pilot study and is in the process of being rolled out across all Heathrow terminal connection tunnels. It has implications for all other airports world-wide, and also to other applications that rely on moving conveyor belts

Failure demand: a concept evaluation in UK primary care

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess failure demand as a lean concept that assists in waste analysis during quality improvement activity. The authors assess whether the concept’s limited use is a missed opportunity to help us understand improvement priorities, given that a UK Government requirement for public service managers to report failure demand has been removed. Design/methodology/approach The authors look at the literature across the public sector and then apply the failure demand concept to the UK’s primary healthcare system. The UK National Health Service (NHS) demand data are analysed and the impact on patient care is elicited from patient interviews. Findings The study highlighted the concept’s value, showing how primary care systems often generate failure demand partly owing to existing demand and capacity management practices. This demand is deflected to other systems, such as the accident and emergency department, with a considerable detrimental impact on patient experience. Research limitations/implications More research is needed to fully understand how best to exploit the failure demand concept within wider healthcare as there are many potential barriers to its appropriate and successful application. Practical implications The authors highlight three practical barriers to using failure demand: first, demand within the healthcare system is poorly understood; second, systems improvement understanding is limited; and third, need to apply the concept for improvement and not just for reporting purposes. Originality/value The authors provide an objective and independent insight into failure demand that has not previously been seen in the academic literature, specifically in relation to primary healthcare

How did the publication of the book The Machine That Changed The World change management thinking? Exploring 25 years of lean literature

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to take a critical, analytical approach to explore the growth and spread of lean through the academic and practitioner community over the last twenty-five years. Design/methodology/approach A comprehensive and systematic review of the extant of literature of lean was undertaken. The review spans from 1988 to 2013. To enable us to effectively manage and understand the diffusion of this set of literature a database, the Lean Publications Database (LPD), was constructed. Findings Lean has evolved to be one of the best-known, yet fiercely debated, process improvement methodologies. It emerged during a proliferation of such methodologies in business and management literature. Lean has developed from a generic description of Toyota Production System (TPS) to a particular type of organizational and management intervention focused on best practice and process improvement methodologies. Research limitations/implications This paper provides the first comprehensive review of the Lean literature, from the perspective of Lean as the unit of analysis. It covers both sides of the academic debate and categories the progression of Lean from its origins as a generic description of TPS to a movement that has change management systems in many and diverse sectors. Practical implications This paper demonstrates how Lean research, application and thinking has evolved over 25 years from its origins in explaining the performance improvements in Japanese auto-manufacturing to a holistic value system that is applicable to all business sectors, both private and public. Originality/value This study is original in that provides a different perspective to that of most previous studies. In most empirical studies on Lean, the unit of analysis is the organisation. However, in this study, the unit of analysis is the Lean phenomenon itself and represents a first step to developing an underpinning theory of Lean by linking it to the theory of swift, even flow (Schmenner and Swink, 1998), as such, it of interest to academics in the field of operations management and contributes to knowledge. It is also likely to be of interest to policy makers. Considerable amounts of public money have been spent, and continue to be spent, on promoting Lean. Taxpayers and policymakers are likely to be interested in whether that expenditure is justifiable. Twenty-five years of publications have been analysed to provide clarity around this popular approach to improvement

Multi-level Management and Leadership Skills in Lean Organizations

Research shows that senior management commitment is essential to a successful and sustainable transition to a Lean enterprise but less focus has been given to the role of middle managers. This paper represents two strands of connected research that explore the behaviors and competencies of desired leaders and managers across different levels of the lean organizations and identifies the skills required to support and sustain a Lean transition. The Cardiff University (UK) SUCCESS program discovered that there are subtle differences intop management and leadership skills required to facilitate successful change from those required to sustain the change. Whilst research at University of Twente (NL) concluded that middle managers in established Lean organizations display higher levels of aptitude in certain skills from those in earlier stages of the transformation process. Hence, we suggest that both top and middle management need to adopt double-loop learning in order to improve their management and leadership skills over time to sustain Lean

Resistance in Organisational Change

Purpose: This paper investigates the contributing factors that lead to resistance to change, and ascertains the relationship between organizational culture and employee resistance in organizational change programmes, such as Lean. Design/methodology/approach: This methodology for this research is in three main parts. Firstly, a systematic review of the literature pertaining to resistance to change followed by a case study, involving an anonymous survey and semi-structured interviews to test the assumptions drawn from the literature. Finally the literature research and case study results are drawn together to present a new model of resistance. Findings: The finding of the literature, along with the finding of the case study confirm that a lack of communication and participant involvement during change are highlighted as significant contributing factors to resistance and that these are related to organizational culture. Research limitations/implications: Whilst the secondary sources of information provide a significant weight of evidence to support the results from the case study, the results of the research are based on a single case study; therefore caution should be applied before making generalizations from the data. Practical implications: The findings can provide organizations, and change practitioners, with an insight into a number of the issues that should be considered in relation to an organizations culture before attempting large-scale change programmes. Originality/value: The research findings provide a new model, the ‘Resistance Model’ that identifies the interconnected issues that affect employees’ attitude to, and therefore acceptance of, organizational change. Keywords: Organisational change, Change, Resistance to Change, Lean, Resistance Model

Developing a conceptual framework for PSS business models

This paper proposes a conceptual framework to assist with the development of PSS business models. The paper includes a literature review of theory applied in existing PSS research, and a review to identify existing theoretical perspectives that could be applied in the field of PSS business model development. Five theoretical perspectives are considered as a basis for the creation of a new conceptual framework. The output of the paper is a new conceptual framework that can be used to help researchers to identify existing theories to help to develop understanding of PSS business models

The Change of Production Systems through Consultancy Involved Projects: a Multiple Case Study in Chinese SMEs

Production systems, such as Lean Production System (LPS), have been developed to improve organisational performance. In their application to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), resource constraints mean that business assistance from external agencies, such as management consultants, is often required. Building on organisational learning research associated with knowledge flow across boundaries, this study aims to explore the practical issues associated with consultancy-involved LPS implementation in Chinese SMEs and the possible approaches to deal with them. A multiple case study is conducted focusing on four real-life, consultancy-involved, lean projects in Chinese SMEs. Four key problems that arise from consultancy-involved change of production systems are identified and four relevant approaches to handle these problems are also addressed. The case study implies that to better embed new production systems, such as LPS into SMEs, both consultants and SME clients need to adopt a more proactive approach when engaging with each other