Business Excellence with Customer Service in World Class : A Swedish Case Study of Lean in Supermarket

Lean is nowadays a well-known concept which has been applied in different types of organizations, who strive to improve in order to be more efficient and successful - reduce costs but still maintain and improve quality. The Lean mind-set is based on the use of the human and material resources, matching and getting the associated processes more efficient, by working with continuous improvements. Even if Lean origins from the manufacturing and production sector, research indicate that Lean is transferable into other sectors. Lean is used to develop more seamless processes, improve flow, reduce waste and develop an understanding of customer value.In this case study, the first part of Lean implementation in the Swedish retail sector, in particular a supermarket is outlined and further progression of the research is suggested. The purpose of this paper is to describe and outline the experiences from the implementation of Lean in the Swedish retail sector. In order to fulfil the goal in this paper the data collecting was made by interviews and participating observations during the period February to June 2016. The particular parts followed were the lean implementation process in the education part, different workshops and improvements startups in the chosen store. Analyzing the data was made by pattern-matching when the results were interpreted through the principles of Liker (2009). Though, the research is still ongoing some findings have been done. The result so far shows; Standardized routines and clearer information, eliminated waste and better structure, tidiness and orderliness when everything is in the right place. The co-workers in the supermarket find it more smooth and easy to work and they can see a clear target with better engagement in the store. Barriers and success factors while implementing Lean, picked out from earlier research, can be recognized in this study as well. Still the most important cause in Lean implementation is to avoid organizations built and structures their Lean work on hard core, such as quality methodologies and tools, rather than focus on soft core, i.e., the human perspective with values and human resources