Lean production and willingness to change: German industrial survey

Abstract

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology led a global benchmark analysis within the automotive industry in the late 1980s. The results showed significant differences in the organization of production between Western and Japanese companies. For these differences one of the researchers involved, John Kraftcik, distinguished between “lean” and “buffered” production systems. In addition to the fact that Japanese car builders met higher quality standards, also productivity and flexibility were significantly higher in these companies. Against a growing competitive pressure from globalization and short product life cycles due to technical progress a flexible production organization is increasingly important to still remain competitive. Therefore the first main question of this article is, how nowadays industry has responded to the results of the mentioned study and set up structured holistic production systems. Taiichi Ohno, the designer of the Toyota production system, had to cope with the resistance of employees during the introduction of lean production at Toyota. It took about ten years until lean production was implemented at Toyota. This was because existing resistances had to be dismantled and overcome and to achieve a complete reorganization of production. Ohno emphasized the importance of the involvement and training of all workers for a successful implementation. Already this example shows, the willingness to change of the staff involved is very important for success of the implementation of lean concepts. This raises the second major question of this survey whether and to what extent producing companies are ready and open for change. The aim of this article is to provide an overview about both dimensions, the degree of penetration of lean methods and the willingness to change in the field of production.