The impact of lean leadership on lean supply chain management

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of Lean leadership on Lean supply chain management in the mining organisation. This was investigated using cross sectional quantitative design, where a survey was used to collect data from supervisors, junior, middle, senior and executive management. A total of 113 responses were obtained, of which they were equitably distributed from Engineering Department, Production (mining), Technical Services (Survey, Geology, Ventilation Occupational Health Engineering) and Supply Chain. The 113 responses constituted a response rate of 50.2% from the distributed sample of 225. This data was analysed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Based on the analysis, there were several main findings in the study. Firstly, the results revealed that the respondents were of the view that Lean leadership was critical for the implementation of the Lean system particularly, Lean success factors, Lean leadership behaviour, Lean concepts and principles and Lean skills and competencies. Secondly, the results had revealed that there is no improvement or slight improvement on the Lean supply chain in the mining organisation, some of the worst highlighted were the contracts management, purchase catalogue, after hours purchasing and bypassing of supply chain procedures. Lastly, there was a positive significant weak relationship between Lean skills and competencies, while there was a medium significant relationship between Lean concept and principles. Noticeably, there was no significant relationship found between Lean leadership behaviour and Lean success factors with Lean supply chain management. With these findings it could be concluded that Lean leadership does have an impact on Lean supply chain management. As such, it is recommended that management put plans in place for the implementation of Lean leadership and Lean supply chain management in the organisation. Furthermore, management should align Lean leadership and Lean supply chain management in order to ensure the smooth and effective implementation of Lean supply chain management in the organisation