A Lean implementation framework encompassing South African Ubuntu

Abstract

Lean, a management philosophy originating from Toyota, is used to eradicate wastes and increase efficiency within an organisation. Even though Lean philosophy has become a global phenomenon, only about 10% of the implementations are done appropriately. Thus around 90% of Lean implementations fail, due to a multitude of reasons. As many researchers have begun to investigate the barriers of Lean implementation, they have found that culture plays an important role in the success or failure of Lean implementations. Within any organisation striving to be Lean, there are three main cultures at play: organisational culture, Lean culture and national culture. At times, the different types of cultures may cause poor synergy within an organisation. Ergo, it has been recommended that more investigations and research be done on Lean cultural adaptations within different countries. Ubuntu is the ancient African concept of "Humanness", or what it means to be human. While South Africa is famously known as the rainbow nation for its diversity, it is believed that Ubuntu is the culture that unites all South Africans. The majority of South Africans unconsciously practice the teaching of Ubuntu regardless of their race, language or traditions, as the Ubuntu values and principles have become a part of the daily lives of South Africans. Since the 1990s, Ubuntu has transcended into the management sphere, giving rise to the Ubuntu management philosophy, which incorporates traditional Ubuntu teaching into the modern business world. Previous research has explored the relationship between Lean management philosophy and Ubuntu management philosophy. It was found that these philosophies share various correlations and have variations between them. This study, therefore, focuses on the problem of low Lean implementation success rate in South Africa, due to a lack of culture-specific Lean implementation frameworks. In order to address this problem, the aim of this study is to develop a culture-specific Lean implementation framework for South Africa, utilising the Ubuntu management philosophy. This research followed the elaborated action design research (eADR) methodology, utilising the diagnosing, concept design and build stages. A systematic literature review was conducted, during the problem diagnosing stage, in order to explore existing South African Lean implementation frameworks and investigate culture-specific frameworks. However, it was found that no culture-specific Lean implementation frameworks exist in South Africa. For design stage 1, interviews were conducted with Ubuntu experts to explore established Ubuntu common practices and derive Ubuntu management principles that would correlate with the Lean

principles that did not have correlating Ubuntu principles. This resulted in the naming of five Ubuntu principles that correspond to the process themed Lean principles. During design stage 2, a further systematic literature review was conducted. This allowed for the exploration and analysis of available Lean frameworks, in order to determine common design methods and elements amongst them. This led to the development of the "House of guidance for designing a Lean framework", which included the following: 1) guidelines to the applicable literature to consider, 2) design elements to include, 3) design methods to consider, and 4) methods to test a Lean framework. The third design stage of this study guided the design and development of "the Lean-Ubuntu implementation framework". This framework was designed by utilising the "House of guidance for designing a Lean framework" (from design stage 2) and incorporated the matching Lean and Ubuntu principles (from design stage 3). The framework offers a guideline for practical implementation of Lean in a South African organisation. It considers the actions that must be taken on the three levels of business execution (strategic, tactical and organisational) and the organisation through the three stages of change. The newly designed Lean-Ubuntu implementation framework was verified and validated by surveying South African Lean experts. The framework could act as a bridge for South African organisations striving to implement Lean, aiding them in understanding the Lean principles better and contributing to a more successful Lean implementation.