Purpose

The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of Japanese Lean management principles in South African contexts using Ubuntu, to improve buy-in during Lean implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

A scoping systematic literature review (SLR) was used to investigate the correlations and variations between Lean management principles and Ubuntu management principles.

Findings

Both similarities and differences were discovered between Ubuntu and Lean. It was noted that Lean adopts principles that do not have corresponding Ubuntu principles, such as levelling out workload, continuous process flow, stopping to fix the problem and visual management.

Research limitations/implications

While this research only used a South African concept (Ubuntu) to develop a novel Lean analogy, future research could be pursued in a similar vein for other countries outside of Japan.

Practical implications

The similarities could assist in “translating” Lean concepts to a South African context, ergo improving the understanding of the Lean principles and possibly contributing to more successful Lean implementations.

Originality/value

To the researcher’s knowledge at time of publication, this study is the first comparison of these two management philosophies. Ergo, the Lean–Ubuntu analogy is a novel comparison of Lean.

中文翻译：

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比较日本精益哲学和南非 Ubuntu 哲学的系统文献综述 (SLR)

目的

本研究的目的是在使用 Ubuntu 的南非环境中增强对日本精益管理原则的理解，以提高精益实施过程中的认同度。

设计/方法/方法

使用范围界定系统文献综述 (SLR) 来调查精益管理原则和 Ubuntu 管理原则之间的相关性和差异。

发现

在 Ubuntu 和 Lean 之间发现了相同点和不同点。值得注意的是，精益采用了 Ubuntu 原则中没有的原则，例如工作负载均衡、流程连续、停止解决问题和可视化管理。

研究限制/影响

虽然这项研究只使用了南非概念 (Ubuntu) 来开发一种新颖的精益类比，但未来的研究可以在日本以外的其他国家以类似的方式进行。

实际影响

这些相似之处可以帮助将精益概念“转化”到南非的背景下，从而提高对精益原则的理解，并可能有助于更成功地实施精益。

原创性/价值

据研究人员在出版时的知识，本研究是这两种管理理念的第一次比较。因此，Lean-Ubuntu 类比是对 Lean 的新颖比较。