<p> The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to examine the perceptions and lived experiences of senior leaders of three different small-to medium sized manufacturing companies, located in the state of Colorado, as related to success strategies and barriers to lean manufacturing implementation. Findings resulted in nine emergent themes: (a) lean manufacturing implementation should be implemented in a way specific to the context of the individual organization; (b) time, resources, and changes in customer demand present challenges in sustaining lean manufacturing implementation; (c) resistance to change is a barrier to lean manufacturing implementation; (d) small-tomedium sized companies use outside consultants and trainers for training staff on lean manufacturing implementation; (e) front line workers need to be trained to apply lean tools and concepts for successful lean manufacturing implementation; (f) front line workers have to own and believe in lean manufacturing for it to be successful; (g) senior leaders have varying definitions of what their role is in leading lean manufacturing implementation; (h) senior leaders have differing perspectives regarding the degree of leadership knowledge required for successful lean manufacturing implementation; and (i) senior leaders struggle to expand lean manufacturing implementation into support departments. Recommendations included (a) viewing lean as a philosophy for managing the business, (b) training and education for senior leaders, (c) defining senior leader roles in implementing lean manufacturing, and (d) strategies when using outside consultants in a company’s lean efforts.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3583332 |
| Date | 05 September 2014 |
| Creators | Pentlicki, Joseph Henry |
| Publisher | University of Phoenix |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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