Lean vs agile in the context of complexity management in organizations

Abstract

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to provide a deeper insight into the relationship of the issue “lean vs agile” in order to inform managers towards more coherent decisions especially in a dynamic, unpredictable, uncertain, non‐linear environment.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is an exploratory study based on secondary data analysis.Findings“Lean” and “agile” are two exclusive concepts “in the limit” and “agile” has a higher potential for serving as an instrument for starting “a journey” towards a new sustainable organizational paradigm.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research in the context of the arguments presented is necessary, especially in the “field” and on primary data.Practical implicationsThere are clearly indicated contexts of primary applications of “lean” and “agile”, and especially along with the techniques, methodologies and system‐thinking informed by chaordic system thinking (CST), which should be of help for managers.Originality/valueThe novel contribution of the paper is the presentation of the argumentation on “lean” and “agile” as exclusive concepts and their analysis through the CST lenses, as well as the presentation of suggestions for development of new manufacturing systems paradigms.

Kaizen event process quality: towards a phase-based understanding of high-quality group problem-solving

“…Whereas kaizen is advised to be used for day-to-day problems for which some data is available, kaikaku is recommended for whenever a more fuzzy system-level change is needed to break through persistent organisational barriers (Imai, 1997). The goal of scrum is to deliver product innovation (Putnik, 2012), which is a slightly different focus compared to the other mentioned problem-solving strategies. The other aforementioned continuous improvement strategies focus on solving operational problems and have therefore more similarities (Andersson et al, 2006) although some differences can be seen in terms of the group composition and roles.…”

“…To explore the least-studied "process" side of groupbased problem-solving further, we focussed on kaizen or KE groups. (Putnik, 2012) Table 1. Overview of groupbased structured operational problemsolving methods IJOPM 2.3 Kaizen events and their internal process Kaizen translates to "improving for the better" and involves both the needed mindset for continuous improvement and the KE approach to group-based problem-solving (Liker, 2004).…”

A Systematic Literature Review for Better Understanding of Lean Driven Sustainability

“…All stakeholders including, but not limited to, consumers, shareholders of companies, unions, regulators, and authorities, started to be more demanding in terms of corporate and social sustainability outcomes [102,103]. Several journals dedicated some of their issues to sustainability and lean concepts and issued call-for-papers due to the emerging interest in sustainability-related developments [93,104]. Such actions have triggered increased interest by researchers and professionals in discoveries related to synergies, divergences, and two-way permeability between these concepts.…”

Out of Africa

“…From a business perspective, the characteristics of the VUCA world strongly affect corporations, social organisations, and governments beyond the innovation sphere. Agile management is currently expanding in a vast area of business sectors in Western societies (Amato and Molokhia 2016;Putnik and Putnik 2012). A number of lean software development methods evolved in the 1990s to overcome former methods of micromanagement, i. e. highly regulated, planned, and supervised management.…”