Relationship between organisational change and lean manufacturing implementation in Malaysian automotive industry

Lean manufacturing is a proven approach for success in manufacturing industry.However, several organisations failed in their attempt to implement lean manufacturing. The transformation to lean manufacturing system requires radical change which involves total reshaping of purpose, system and culture of the organisation.This paper presents an investigation on the influence of organisational change to the lean manufacturing transformation.The survey was completed by 60 firms in the Malaysian automotive industry. The respondents were chosen from those who involved directly with lean manufacturing practices such as production and quality personnel.The survey findings show that organisational change factors such as change readiness, team development,leadership and management support, effective communication, employee training, employees’ empowerment and review process have significant influence on lean manufacturing implementation.Furthermore, there were also significant differences that exist between organisational change in companies which categorised as non lean, in-transition and lean firms