IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v62y2019i3p359-371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The disintegration of lean manufacturing and lean management

Author

Listed:
  • Schonberger, Richard J.

Abstract

Lean management—in manufacturing, supply chains, healthcare, services—has lost its way. Telling evidence of lean’s dissolution shows up for inventory-intensive organizations in the form of worsening inventory numbers. My research of financial records of more than 1,500 global companies over 15 years shows growing inventories since the turn of the 21st century. Reduction of inventory is a concrete and visual marker of leanness and quicker customer response, while inventory growth is one of the more salient factors that degrades financial health. As to what has gone wrong with lean, the answer is nearly everything: ambiguous terms and concepts, trivializing the essence, botching the basics, going through the motions, analysis paralysis, puffery masking action, abetting organizational silos, discontinuity, and losing interest. This article addresses these in more specific terms with reference to key outcome measures, especially those most customer-relevant.

Suggested Citation

  • Schonberger, Richard J., 2019. "The disintegration of lean manufacturing and lean management," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 359-371.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:62:y:2019:i:3:p:359-371
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2019.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681319300047
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.bushor.2019.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ketchen Jr., David J. & Short, Jeremy C., 2011. "The good, the fad, and the ugly," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 7-16, January.
    2. Shafer, Scott M. & Oswald, Sharon L., 1996. "Product-focused manufacturing for strategic advantage," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 24-29.
    3. Douglas J. Thomas, 2016. "Improvements in Inventory Management: Past Success and Future Opportunities," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Srinagesh Gavirneni (ed.), Cross-Functional Inventory Research, chapter 1, pages 1-19, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Slater, Stanley F. & Olson, Eric M. & Hult, G. Tomas M., 2010. "Worried about strategy implementation? Don't overlook marketing's role," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 469-479, September.
    5. Miller, Danny & Hartwick, Jon & Le Breton-Miller, Isabelle, 2004. "How to detect a management fad--and distinguish it from a classic," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 7-16.
    6. Lehmberg, Derek & Dhanaraj, Charles & Funai, Akie, 2013. "What do we make of Japan? Myths and realities," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 219-229.
    7. Carson, Paula Phillips & Carson, Kerry D., 1993. "Deming versus traditional management theorists on goal setting: Can both be right?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 79-84.
    8. Ireland, R. Duane & Ketchen Jr., David J., 2008. "Interesting problems and interesting research: A path to effective exchanges between managers and scholars," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 65-71.
    9. Schonberger, Richard J., 2018. "Frustration-driven process improvement," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 297-307.
    10. Mazzei, Matthew J. & Shook, Christopher L. & Ketchen Jr., David J., 2009. "Selling strategic issues: Crafting the content of the sales pitch," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 539-543, November.
    11. Pangarkar, Nitin, 2015. "Performance implications of strategic changes: An integrative framework," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 295-304.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mai Mostafa Awad & Abd‘Elazez Hashem & Hend Mohamed Naguib, 2022. "The Impact of Lean Management Practices on Economic Sustainability in Services Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-27, July.
    2. Olga Orynycz & Karol Tucki & Miron Prystasz, 2020. "Implementation of Lean Management as a Tool for Decrease of Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emissions in the Fast Food Restaurant," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-26, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vojko Potocan & Zlatko Nedelko & Matjaz Mulej & Marina Dabic, 2021. "How University’s Activities Support the Development of Students’ Entrepreneurial Abilities: Case of Slovenia and Croatia," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 12(1), pages 22-40, March.
    2. Daniel Holland & Chad Albrecht, 2013. "The Worldwide Academic Field of Business Ethics: Scholars’ Perceptions of the Most Important Issues," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 777-788, November.
    3. Tutar Hasan & Sarkhanov Teymur, 2022. "Tracing Management Fashions in Selected Indices: A Descriptive Statistical Study," Organizacija, Sciendo, vol. 55(3), pages 199-213, August.
    4. Hill, Alex, 2008. "How to organise operations: Focusing or splitting?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 646-654, April.
    5. Danielle Morin, 2008. "Auditors general's universe revisited: An exploratory study of the influence they exert on public administration through their value for money audits," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(7), pages 697-720, July.
    6. Geovana Alves de Lima Fedato & Vanessa Martins Pires & Guilherme Trez, 2017. "The Future of Research in Strategy Implementation in the BRICS Context," Brazilian Business Review, Fucape Business School, vol. 14(3), pages 288-303, May.
    7. Chris C. Gernreich & Sebastian Knop, 2019. "Empowering Creative Employees: Phase-Specific Support In The Front-End Of Innovation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(08), pages 1-31, December.
    8. Corredor, Pilar & Goñi, Salomé, 2011. "TQM and performance: Is the relationship so obvious?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 830-838, August.
    9. Mashalah, Heider Al & Hassini, Elkafi & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Bhatt (Mishra), Deepa, 2022. "The impact of digital transformation on supply chains through e-commerce: Literature review and a conceptual framework," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:62:y:2019:i:3:p:359-371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.