Abstract
Abstract : Research reveals that sustainability of lean is a subject worth studying. Lean sustainability is subject to the ability of the organisation to maintain the energy and interest of the established pilots, keeping up with improvement ideas and unleashing the capabilities of the teams to implement lean. Research acknowledges that upon implemenation of lean in the organisation sustainability is a major challenge. The research focus is on investigating the factors that affect the practice of lean manufacturing principles in a manufacturing environment and to examine the application of the principles as suggested in literature. The literature highlights best practices paramount in the integration of lean principles in an organisation to ensure sustainability. In this regard, the main argument denoted in literature is centred on organisational culture, leadership involvement and the manner with which lean principles are practised in the organisation. In addition to this, research reports that the answer to the issue of sustainability is subject to the adoption of the Toyota philosophies to sustain lean. The research explores the application of lean principles in the organisation under consideration in relation to what is proposed in literature. The case study is based on an automobile manufacturing organisation. The research conducted is structured into five main themes of investigation being, shop-floor meeting, training, value streams, problem solving and shop-floor coaching. Without overlooking the other themes of the research, the research reports that of all the observed themes with different observable items the main themes which need attention are shop-floor meetings, training and problem solving. The analysis of the entire research reveals that if the manner with which training is conducted improves could alleviate many other problems as training proves to be the main contributor towards other factors.
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)