Lean Management and Organizational Effectiveness

In Chapter 1 we outlined the scale of the productivity challenge facing many countries. Productivity or efficiency can be thought about in different ways — how busy and utilized people and resources are — or, more constructively, how fast value can be delivered to customers. We have chosen lean management as the third of our strategic performance drivers because in a post-credit crunch world, it has gained renewed attention. The conditions that spawned the birth of lean management — a shortage in both capital and resources in Japan after the Second World War — have become features once more in the new context of an “age of austerity.” Efficiency and effectiveness, coupled with attention to quality, are major drivers of change. Lean thinking has now been applied to a wide range of issues, spanning management, design and service delivery, and also business functions such as product development, logistics, service, sales, HR and production. Again, we need to look to expertise outside of HRM. Whilst the previous chapter took us into ideas and research from marketing and service management, this chapter takes us into work done mainly within operations management and management science.