HA.E109 - Lean Implementation: a change management perspective* *NOT ESTABLISHED*

Faculty
Malek Maalouf

Course Coordinator
Jan Mouritsen

Basic knowledge about Lean and/or some reading of the following books:

1- Womack, J., Jones, D.T. and Ross, D. (1990), The Machine That Changed the World, Rawson Associates, New York, NY.

Womack, J. and Jones, D. (2003), Lean Thinking, Simon & Schuster, London

The implementation of Lean is considered by many authors to be a radical change in the organizations. Despite attempts, many companies have not been able to capture or sustain the benefits of a lean transformation. From the literature, it is clear that Lean represents a fundamental change and that in order to succeed the companies should be willing to perform the transformation needed to implement and sustain Lean within the organization. The success of lean implementation depends on achieving a profound change in the core values of the company. Many authors attribute the failure in achieving the results expected from lean implementation to focus on implementing tools and neglecting the cultural and strategic side of lean.

In this course I will introduce a known change management model in order to approach the implementation of lean in companies. The course starts with a presentation of lean tools (hard part of lean) and philosophy (soft part of lean). In the following lectures the focus will be on the soft part of lean specifically: Culture, Leadership, mission and business strategy and Environment. The idea is to analyze and understand how the interplay among these components will impact the implementation of lean.

The course is composed of lectures based on cited articles.

After the course, the student will be able to understand the relation of areas and concepts like culture and Leadership to the success of the implementation of lean.

The students will practice the reading of articles from high ranking journals.

The students will also present and discuss findings and comments in groups.

In order to achieve the grade 12 at the exam, the students must be able to understand and justify how culture, leadership and other factors of the business impact lean implementation in a specific situation presented in the exam. The challenge will be the development of the ability in order to choose the best approach and use of the relevant theories presented in the class in order to explain the specific case.

4h written exam (open book)

Students at the HA programme are able to write their bachelor project in connection with this course: Yes

Lean articles:

Bhasin S. and Burcher P. (2006), “Lean viewed as a Philosophy”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, 2006, pp 56-72

Hines, P. et al. (2004), Learning to evolve: A review of contemporary lean thinking, International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 24, N0. 10, 2004 pp. 994-1011.

Holweg M. (2007), The genealogy of lean production, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 25, Issue 2,March 2007, P. 420-437.

Lin, Z. and Hui, C. (1999), “Should Lean Replace Mass Organization Systems? A Comparative Examination from a Management Coordination Perspective”, Journal of International Business Studies, 00472506, 1999 1st Quarter, Vol. 30, Issue 1

Culture articles:

Detert, J.R. et al. (2000), A Framework for Linking Culture and Improvement Initiatives in Organizations, Academy of Management review, 2000, Vol. 25, No. 4, 850-863.

Zeitz, G. et al (1997), An Employee Survey Measuring Total Quality Management Practices and Cultures, Group & Organization Management, Vol. 22, No. 4, December 1997, 414-444.

Change articles:

Almaraz, J (1994), Quality Management and the Process of Change, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 7, no. 2, 1994, pp. 6-14.

Burke W. W., Litwin G. H., (1992), “A Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change”, Journal of Management, Vol. 18, No. 3, 523-545.

Walker, H.J. et al, (2007), Factors Influencing Organizational Change Efforts, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 20, No. 6, 2007, pp. 761-773.

Leadership articles

Lakshman, C. (2006), A Theory of Leadership for Quality: Lessons from TQM for Leadership Theory, Total Quality Management, Vol. 17, No. 1, 41-60, January 2006.

Quality Management articles

Hackman, J.R. & Wageman, R (1995), Total Quality Management: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues, Administrative Science Quarterly, 40 (1995): 309-342.

Mission, Strategy and Environment articles

Prescott, J.E. (1986), Environments as Moderators of the Relationship between Strategy and Performance, Academy of Management Journal, 1986, Vol. 29, No. 2, 329-346.

Pearce II, J & David F. (1987), Corporate Mission Statements: The Bottom Line, Academy of Management Executive, 1987, Vol.1 No. 2, pp. 109-116.