Barriers to Lean Implementation: Perceptions of Top Managers, Middle Managers and Workers

For years, companies have tried to figure out how to consistently organize their businesses for improving quality and efficiency, and at the same time reduce costs and lead times. Lean principles and techniques have become a benchmark for Western manufacturing companies, founded on the success of the Toyota Production System. Despite its popularity, many companies still struggle to achieve a successful and lasting lean implementation. Existing research indicate that both organizational and technical barriers are important, such as lack of management support and commitment, poor involvement of employees, and excessive confidence in lean tools and practices. A gap in current research is the limited focus on identifying how different groups at different hierarchical levels in an organization perceive barriers to lean implementation. Unless the opinions of different groups are taken into account, efforts to overcome the barriers may be misguided. This paper reports on a two-year in-depth single case study of barriers to lean implementation, aiming at understanding why the company only to a certain extent has succeeded with their lean activities. Based on 28 interviews and observations, results indicate that the different groups at different hierarchical levels experience different types of barriers. The article will provide an important contribution to how companies can organize lean implementation processes better for future success, which should be relevant to both academia and industry.