The role of workers' trust and perceived benefits in lean implementation success

Both the academic and practitioner literature agree upon the importance of employees’ perceived job security in order for lean implementation to succeed. However, anecdotal evidences seem to indicate that too many organisations embark on a lean journey with the implicit and/or explicit goal of reducing labour costs, laying off people when lean implementation success leads to enhanced productivity and efficiency. Such practices would only decrease the level of perceived job security of workers, leading to decreased level of employees’ trust in management and their perception on personal benefits of lean. This research investigates, through a survey of 180 production workers in the Midwest USA, the critical role of perceived job security, trust in management, and lean training in enhancing the perception of personal benefits of lean, which leads to lean implementation success. The results support the notion that lean implementation success depends upon conducive mindset for lean among production workers.