Not so different altogether : Putting Lean and sociotechnical design into practice in a process industry

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Orchestrated learning : creating a company-specific production system (XPS)

Author's accepted manuscript.This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact [email protected]: Companies create company-specific production systems (XPS) by tailoring generic concepts to fit their unique situation. However, little is known about how an XPS is created. This paper aims to provide insights into the creation of an XPS. Design/methodology/approach: A retrospective case study was conducted in a Norwegian multinational company over the period 1991–2006, using archival data and interviews. Findings: The development of the XPS did not start with a master plan. Instead, dispersed existing initiatives were built upon, along with an external search for novel ideas. Widespread experimentation took place, only later to be combined into a coherent approach. Once established, the XPS was disseminated internally and further refined. The CEO orchestrated the experimentation by facilitating the adaptation and combination of different concepts and by allocating resources to institutionalize the XPS in the global network. Originality/value: This paper is the first to study how an XPS is created. This study contributes with novel empirical insights, and it highlights the role of top management in facilitating experimentation and step-by-step organizational learning.acceptedVersio

Beyond the lean manager. Insights on how to develop corporate lean leadership

Although leadership is consistently found to be the main success factor for lean transformations, our knowledge about how to develop the necessary leadership competences at the level of the individual and the organisation remains limited. Based on an action-research study of lean leadership development in a Norwegian high-tech manufacturer, this article proposes an integrated model for how to develop corporate lean leadership. The model combines earlier research on ‘hard’ versus ‘soft’ leadership competencies and individual versus collective competency development in a two-dimensional framework, which highlights four areas of intervention. We argue that conventional lean leadership training should be supplemented by insights and practices from human resource management and organisational development. Hence, lean professionals (coaches and trainers) should reach out to HR-professionals often organised in different functional departments. The model might guide future practical interventions. We encourage further research to investigate the model with respect to its wider applicability.publishedVersio

Organizational Learning: Bringing the Forces of Production Back In

Under the influence of the ‘communities of practice’ perspective, research on organizational learning has lost sight of the role of science and technology. As a result, theory development in this field too often takes archaic work forms as its starting point. Based on a structural and materialist interpretation of Marx, this paper proposes an alternative approach that theorizes organizational learning as an outcome of contradictory processes in which the productive forces are progressively socialized, albeit unevenly. This approach leads to a very different perspective on tacit/explicit knowledge, work formalization, identify formation and the roles of managers and engineers. This structural-Marxist theory of organizational learning offers a more fruitful account of learning in technologically advanced, competitive sectors such as the manufacturing and process industries. Increasingly, it also applies to private and public service provision

Democratic Lean? : Work Systems in Norwegian Industry

Work organization in Norwegian industry has traditionally been characterized by industrial democracy. Industrial democracy implies that managerial prerogatives are limited by extensive and substantive worker participation, including union based representative participation in company governance and worker autonomy on the shop-floor.  In the late 2000s, the interest in so-called lean production was renewed and intensified as a blueprint for “best practice”. The prototypical lean production work organization, pioneered by Toyota Motor Company, can hardly be described as democratic. According to some critical commentators, lean production represents a reversal to Scientific Management and managerial autocracy.  In particular, lean production practices such as just-in-time logistics, process standardization and hierarchical governance leave little room for worker autonomy. The fundamental premise of this thesis is that work design in Norwegian industry needs to work out the tension between traditional ideals of industrial democracy and lean production. I argue that this tension can be approached in two principal ways. The first approach is to restore democratic work design as a radical alternative to lean production. The second approach is to aim for a combination of industrial democracy and lean production. The thesis critically evaluates each of the two approaches. Based on empirical findings and a theoretical examination of the performance of work organizations based on extensive autonomy, I argue that the first alternative is inferior. Extensive autonomy tends to upset both system wide coordination and organizational learning. The second alternative is a more viable design strategy. I argue that “democratic lean” work organization, that is, a coherent combination of lean production and industrial democracy, is possible. Democratic lean implies limited worker autonomy, but retains and renews the fundamental participatory and democratic qualities of the Norwegian working life, leading to efficient operations, continuous improvement and organizational learning. Coupled with strategic differentiation and extensive automation, a democratic lean work organization will enable Norwegian industry to thrive in global competition.Arbeidsorganisering i norsk industri har tradisjonelt vært preget av industrielt demokrati på virksomhetsnivå, dvs. kombinasjonen av representativ medvirkning gjennom fagforeninger og direkte medvirkning gjennom ansattes autonomi (selvstyre) på fabrikkgulvet. På 2000-tallet har vi sett en fornyet interesse for såkalt lean produksjon, av mange betraktet som ”beste praksis” for industriell produksjon. Den prototypiske arbeidsorganisering for lean produksjon, slik den ble utviklet av Toyota Motor Company, kan ikke beskrives som særlig demokratisk. Ifølge modellens kritikere innebærer lean produksjon et tilbakeslag for medvirkning og en tilbakevending til Scientific Management og autokratiske ledelsesformer. Især ansattes autonomi reduseres betraktelig som følge av lean prinsipper for just-in-time logistikk, standardisert arbeid og hierarkisk styring. Premisset for denne avhandlingen er at norske bedrifter designer sine arbeidsorganisasjoner i spenningen mellom tradisjonen for industrielt demokrati på den ene siden og lean produksjon på den andre siden. Prinsipielt kan denne spenningen løses på to måter. Det første alternativet er å vende tilbake til prinsippene for demokratisk organisasjonsdesign som et radikalt alternativ til lean produksjon. Det andre alternativet er å kombinere de to modellene for organisasjonsdesign. I avhandlingen vurderes hvert av disse alternativene. Basert på empiriske funn og en teoretisk diskusjon av sammenhengen mellom autonomibaserte organisasjonsformer og arbeidssystemets yteevne, viser jeg at det første alternativet er uhensiktsmessig. Utstrakt autonomi skaper store utfordringer med hensyn på koordinering av arbeidsprosessen og organisasjonslæring. Det andre alternativet er mer hensiktsmessig. Jeg viser at en koherent kombinasjon av industrielt demokrati og lean produksjon er mulig. Denne organisasjonsformen, kalt ”demokratisk lean”, innebærer riktignok en begrensning av ansattes autonomi, men bærer med seg og fornyer den norske tradisjonen for demokrati og medvirkning. Således muliggjør ”demokratisk lean” effektiv drift, kontinuerlig forbedring og organisasjonslæring. Denne organisasjonsformen, kombinert med automatisering og strategisk differensiering vil bidra til å opprettholde norske industribedrifters konkurransekraft

Organizational learning and bureaucracy: an alternative view

Purpose – This paper aims to reconceptualize the relationship between organizational learning and bureaucracy. Although the two are generally considered to be antithetical, this paper shows that, in some organizations, bureaucracy can be functional for organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach – The central argument is theoretical and builds on two main ideas: firstly, the nature of knowledge creation and organizational learning is conditioned by the organization’s main technological characteristics; and secondly, bureaucracy has a dual nature as an instrument of managerial control and as a vehicle of large-scale collaboration. This study uses examples from process industries as empirical illustrations. Findings – As products and production systems come to embody deeper and more diverse knowledge, their development takes on an increasingly collaborative character. The need to integrate differentiated knowledge and material artefacts calls for specialization, formalization, centralization and staff roles. Hence, technological complexity drives a bureaucratization of organizational learning. Research limitations/implications – The core argument is developed with reference to industries where organizational learning involves the accumulation of knowledge, not its periodic replacement associated with technological shifts. Its relevance outside these industries remains to be assessed. Practical implications – Organizations, whose knowledge creation fits the pattern of creative accumulation, should learn to harness formal structures for large-scale collaboration. Originality/value – The main thesis runs counter to mainstream perspectives on organizational learning. This paper explores organizational learning in sectors that have received little attention in debates about organizational learning

“Please use our ideas”: making parallel organizations work

Purpose Parallel organizations (POs) perform tasks that operating organizations (OOs) are not equipped or organized to perform well. However, POs rely on OOs’ goodwill for implementation of their ideas and recommendations. Little is known about how POs achieve impact in OOs; this paper aims to examine this important topic. Design/methodology/approach Through the analytical lens of boundary spanning, the paper analyzes the PO–OO relationship in a manufacturing organization. Data were collected through 31 semi-structured in-depth interviews with OO managers, PO team leaders and PO team members. Findings Primary PO–OO boundary dimensions were favoritism toward local practice in the OO, specialized knowledge across PO–OO contexts and power asymmetry favoring the OO. The main boundary-spanning activities were translating, which targets specialized knowledge, and anchoring, which targets favoritism towards local practice and power asymmetry. Research limitations/implications The findings on PO–OO collaboration, especially PO–OO power relations, complement conventional topics in PO literature, such as POs’ purpose, structural configuration and staffing. Practical implications POs should be staffed with team members, especially team leaders, who can translate effectively between the PO’s and the OO’s frames of reference, and facilitate complicated knowledge processes across these contexts. Additionally, senior managers should understand their role in anchoring the PO initiative and its results within the OO. Originality/value This is the first study to view the PO–OO relationship via boundary spanning, and thus to identify power asymmetry as a key challenge not previously described in PO literature, and describe how this asymmetry is overcome through anchoring

Bypassing the dinosaurs? - How middle managers become the missing link in lean implementation

Failure or unsatisfactory results from organisational transformations aiming at excellence are often attributed to lack of management support and commitment. Why these issues become problematic has only been superficially explored in the literature, and typically no distinctions are made between different layers of management. This study explores why management support and commitment become problematic in lean transformations in public service organisations. Based on multiple case studies, we argue that lack of support and commitment are most prevalent among middle managers, and that this lack can be explained by the organisations’ choice of transformation process. While top management is the sponsor of lean, the details of the transformations are worked out by external and internal lean experts along with front-line employees. As a result, middle managers are effectively bypassed and never get involved. This approach to lean transformation is not recommended. We suggest that lean transformations would benefit from earlier and more intensive involvement from middle managers

Unlocking work standards through systematic work observation: implications for team supervision

Purpose - Companies with routine operations often pursue team-based continuous improvement in the context of standardized work. Continuous improvement requires that work standards are periodically "unlocked", i.e. made objects of reflection and improvement. This paper theorizes and empirically explores a method for unlocking standards which has received little attention in the literature: systematic work observation. We identify which factors constitute and promote a work observation practice that supports continuous improvement. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents an explorative, qualitative case study of an industrial company, in which systematic work observation is practised. Empirical material was collected from two principal sources: 1) company documentation and teaching material; and 2) interviews with workers, managers and work design experts from three of the company’s major plants. Findings - Systematic work observation supports continuous improvement when there is genuine two-way communication between the worker being observed and the supervisor acting as observer. Through dialogue, the appropriateness of the standard procedure is reflected on. Systematic work observation is supported by frequent day-to-day interaction between supervisors and workers. Frequent interaction builds relationships of trust and a shared purpose. A necessary requirement is that supervisors are technically competent and know the details of the operating procedures. Our results also indicate that supervisors, not fellow workers, should preferably take the role as observers. Originality/value - Systematic work observation as an instrument for continuous improvement has not yet been explored in a serious scholarly manner. Our findings have practical implications for companies that wish to implement systematic work observation

Orchestrated learning : creating a company-specific production system (XPS)

Purpose Companies create company-specific production systems (XPS) by tailoring generic concepts to fit their unique situation. However, little is known about how an XPS is created. This paper aims to provide insights into the creation of an XPS. Design/methodology/approach A retrospective case study was conducted in a Norwegian multinational company over the period 1991–2006, using archival data and interviews. Findings The development of the XPS did not start with a master plan. Instead, dispersed existing initiatives were built upon, along with an external search for novel ideas. Widespread experimentation took place, only later to be combined into a coherent approach. Once established, the XPS was disseminated internally and further refined. The CEO orchestrated the experimentation by facilitating the adaptation and combination of different concepts and by allocating resources to institutionalize the XPS in the global network. Originality/value This paper is the first to study how an XPS is created. This study contributes with novel empirical insights, and it highlights the role of top management in facilitating experimentation and step-by-step organizational learning