The Development of a Lean Culture Diagnostic Tool

Abstract

Prevailing research suggests that organisational culture plays a significant role in successful lean manufacturing implementation. Given the abstract nature of organisational culture it would be useful to crystalise the concept so that efforts may be made to identify actions that lead to a lean culture. Prior research has led to the development of a lean culture causal framework that outlines the categories of leadership actions shown to contribute towards a lean organisational culture. The purpose of this paper is to further extend the idea of a causal framework and to develop a tool that can be used to diagnose organisational culture in the context of the lean philosophy.