The impact of lean manufacturing practices acceptance level on employee productivity in ABC Company

Abstract

Lean manufacturing is rapidly getting to the top of many production companies' improvement strategies in a global manufacturing environment where businesses must know how to manufacture high-quality goods at the lowest cost. ABC company has tried many times to turn into a lean culture and used lean tools and techniques. These lean implementations failed because of less acceptance level of the employees. Therefore, this paper is aimed to investigate the impact of lean manufacturing practices acceptance level on employee productivity in ABC company in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study will have a real contribution for the managers in manufacturing firms, especially in the apparel field in Sri Lanka. The literature review highlighted four independent variables to measure lean manufacturing practices acceptance. The dependent variable of the study is declared as employee productivity and there is a moderating variable as lean culture, which effect the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The study used a mixed approach by including both quantitative and qualitative approaches. In this study, primary data for the quantitative part has been collected from a survey questionnaire with close-ended five-point Likert scale questions. The reliability of the questionnaire has been assessed by using Cronbach’s Alpha. The sample size in this study was 112 and a 100% responsive rate has been achieved. This study performed multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesis by using SPSS software. The moderating effect from the lean culture has been measured by installing PROCESS macro to the SPSS software. The regression model implied that the main four independent variables have a statistically significant relationship with the dependent variable. There is a significant moderating effect from the lean culture for the relationship between lean manufacturing practices acceptance level and employee productivity. The primary data for the qualitative part of the study has been collected through eight managers in the ABC company through structured interviews. Then thematic analysis has been used to develop the themes from the transcribed interviews. In summary, the study found main eight themes which are the barriers to implementing lean manufacturing practices in ABC company. These findings have been used in making possible solutions and recommendations for the study