Assessment of the lean frameworks and barriers in implementing lean manufacturing in South African manufacturing industries

Abstract

Global competition and high customer expectations have forced manufacturing organizations to always consider ways in which they can be competitive, adaptive, and resilient in the face of change. Lean manufacturing is one of the most common improvement initiatives that businesses explore to improve their operations and reach targeted business goals such as financial savings, reduced inventory, reduced turn-around time, and manufacturing flexibility, to mention but a few.

Literature is replete with studies on the drivers of Lean success, Lean barriers and enablers, and Lean frameworks. However, a gap was identified from reviewing previous Lean research, where it was observed that while there has been diverse studies on Lean implementation barriers and enablers and their impacts on operational performance, on the development of various implementation frameworks for Lean, and on the review and classification of these framework based on different criteria such as practicality, amongst others, there has not been research that considers the interdependence of these concepts, specifically the relationship between the Lean enablers and the design of Lean frameworks.

Consequently, a model was developed in the current study, using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), to hypothesize the relationships between the three variables: Lean framework design effectiveness, Lean implementation enablement, and business operational success. Data was collected using a survey that was distributed across different manufacturing fields. The research questions were developed with justification from literature and SmartPL4 software was used for the analysis of the data.

The main findings are that there exists a relationship of considerable strength between Lean enablers and the design of Lean framework. Furthermore, Lean implementation enablement has a positive influence on business operational success. These findings are important because they highlight the importance of organizations implementing Lean to be Lean-ready by considering Lean enablers. This applies for both managers and practitioners of Lean. The relationship between Lean enablers and Lean framework design shows the importance for designers of frameworks to organically design framework and consider the enablers of Lean, as opposed to simply modifying existing frameworks by trying to improve their shortfalls, without reflecting on what positions their organizations are for the success of their Lean implementation.