Abstract

Lean production has been more and more applied in systems with various levels of complexity, which tends to create a gap between Lean-as-Imagined (LAI) in design and Lean-as-Done (LAD) in practice. This paper presents a framework for investigating the influence of complexity on that gap. The framework was applied in a nine-month study in a large plant of a transnational auto-parts manufacturer in Brazil. Three main sources of data were used: 21 interviews, around 196 hours of observations, and documents. Twenty-two examples of the gap are presented; each example is analysed in terms of what LAI and LAD look like, lean principles involved, mechanisms by which complexity influences the gap, and practical implications. Findings suggest that resilience arising from the self-organization of employees, which is a manifestation of complexity, plays an important role for the implementation of lean production. In addition, the framework’s contribution to leanness assessment is discussed. Four research propositions to be tested in future studies are also presented.

摘要

精益生产越来越多地应用于具有各种复杂程度的系统中，这往往会在设计中的想象中的精益 (LAI) 和实践中的完成时的精益 (LAD) 之间产生差距。本文提出了一个框架，用于研究复杂性对该差距的影响。该框架在巴西一家跨国汽车零部件制造商的大型工厂进行了为期 9 个月的研究。使用了三个主要的数据来源：21 次访谈、大约 196 小时的观察和文件。提出了 22 个差距示例；每个示例都根据 LAI 和 LAD 的外观、所涉及的精益原则、复杂性影响差距的机制以及实际意义进行了分析。研究结果表明，弹性源于员工的自我组织，这是复杂性的体现，对实施精益生产起着重要作用。此外，还讨论了框架对精益评估的贡献。还提出了将在未来研究中测试的四个研究命题。