Constituent performance management ingredients necessary to gauge the performance of a lean manufacturing organisation

The ways in which manufacturing organisations gauge the impact lean has made is challenged in this investigation. Assertions that lean benefits profitability need substantiating as a chain of cause-and-effect associations impact this relationship. The methodology adopted involved an extensive scoping literature review substantiated by case studies undertaken in five organisations. Lean does not relate itself to traditional accounting systems. Lean demands considerable investment but the benefits analysis remains blurred. Impact on operational improvements is much clearer but effect on overall corporate profitability remains ambiguous. Performance measurement when executed mistakenly embodies a huge risk to organisations. This paper reinforces the fuzzy linear relationship between operational and financial performance. This investigation amalgamates the idiosyncrasies of lean manufacturing. It awards lean practitioners and academics precious information regarding aspects of performance which should be incorporated in an authentic assessment of lean's impact.