Abstract
Lean manufacturing, has been identified as one of the most powerful productivity improvement tools. Many accompanies across the world, especially in the developed economies have aggressively implemented lean, resulting in drastic improvements in productivity. Since 2008, Botswana has suffered from a decline in productivity. Though productivity awareness training has been provided to Botswana business, productivity remains very low and on a downward trend. This indicates that there are either barriers stopping companies from adoption of productivity improvement tools or hindering the successful implementation of productivity improvement tools. The main purpose of this study was to investigate lean manufacturing adoption and implementation barriers for Botswana manufacturing industry. The study was carried out through a survey of manufacturing companies in Botswana. Results indicate that most manufacturing companies are unfamiliar with productivity improvement tools or lack the technical know-how of implementing the tools.