Developing a Lean implementation roadmap for South African manufacturing companies

Abstract

This report documents the steps followed in designing a Lean Implementation Roadmap for South African manufacturing companies. A Literature Review on Lean principles and tools is done, after which gaps and challenges of Lean implementation in South Africa are identified through research and two case studies. Two literature sources, namely the House of Lean and an existing Lean Six-Sigma implementation roadmap are used as a basis for designing the new roadmap. The identified Lean challenges unique to the South African manufacturing environment are used to identify specific attributes that are included in the new roadmap. The final steps of the new Lean implementation roadmap are specified as follows: „h PLAN 1. Foundation 2. Employee Motivation „h DO 3. Training 4. Pilot Implementation „h CHECK 5. Assessment „h ACT 6. Company-wide Implementation The individual steps are divided into the phases of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and the Industrial Engineering methods used to achieve steps are explained by means of examples. Finally, the new Lean Roadmap is presented graphically to simplify and visualize implementation for managers