The successful lean transformation : not an easy but worthwhile path

This Thesis aims to explore the burdens of implementing lean principles in the product development of a company, already mature in its lean manufacturing. With this research it should be examined more in detail which possible factors facilitating whereas other complicating the application of the lean approach. Through an initial introduction about the Lean Journey, pioneered by the automotive producer Toyota, the basic idea of Lean Thinking will be explained. Next the lean approach in the production from the lean approach in the product development will be differentiated. Thereafter the already challenges a company has to face, the factors known from the literature either facilitating the lean approach or hindering the approach are presented. Moreover it is discussed how much the cultural aspect can influence the lean approach and how different countries are implementing their lean approach. For better understanding the difficulties for companies to implement the lean concepts in their product development, although they are already successfully implementing the lean concept in their production, a case study was developed. Hereby employees of different hierarchical positions of an automotive manufacturer were interviewed. The results of the interviews revealed the overlapping with some lean enablers as well as some barriers, already known from the literature. Nevertheless some new factors could be examined that are hindering a company to implement the lean concepts for its lean product development. These barriers, or anti-enablers, are following: 1. Lack of Knowledge about the Lean thinking 2. Ignorance of the top management 3. Boundaries of a group membership 4. Organizational regulations 5. Socio-cultural aspects Four out of these five categorized anti-enablers can be also regarded as challenges that can be overcome. The last discovered anti-enabler is yet an aspect that is deeply grounded in the behavioral pattern of each individual and cannot be changed easily. It was remarkable that the interviewed company is already successfully implementing the lean approach for its production and there its employees are following the lean principles. Though for the product development its employees with the same cultural background seem to have problems to accept the lean concept applied on the product development. Nevertheless the literature has shown that automotive companies all over the world are implementing the lean principles both in the production and in the product development. Future research should therefore concentrate on how much impact the cultural background has on the mindset of an engineer. Furthermore it should be examined which behavioral patterns, originated from the culture, have a negative impact on the implementation of lean concepts, in order to explain if some countries have more complications implementing lean principles than others.