Mikael Brännmark

A Proposed Model for Evaluating the Sustainability of Continuous Change Programmes

Many studies report that it is difficult to sustain change. This article focuses on how an organization can initiate and sustain a continuous change process. A theoretical model is proposed as a fusion of two previous models for evaluating the sustainability of a change programme; the first is based on analysing stakeholder interest balance as a prerequisite for organizational sustainability, the second on analysing the design of the implementation, indicating whether long-term effects will be achieved. It is argued that the combination of these factors provides a more comprehensive perspective, since it allows us to evaluate both the ‘form’ and the ‘direction’ of the programme. To assess stakeholder interest balance, the goal for the change programme is analysed, utilizing the broad stakeholder interest balance perspective. To assess the design of the implementation, four preconditions for long-term effects should be analysed: managements ownership of the change initiative, professional steering, competent leadership and participation. Reference is given to the management concept Lean Production, which is claimed to engage the organization in continuous change. Application of the model highlights the mismatch between narrowly focused change programmes such as Lean Production and sustainable change.

Lean production and work-related musculoskeletal disorders: overviews of international and Swedish studies

This paper aimed at summarizing the knowledge of the relationship between Lean and work related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD), and WMSD risk factors, in manufacturing companies. Literature search processes identified 23 publications studying this, in scientific journals. Eight included measurements of WMSD; three were mostly negative, two showed mixed results, one showed no results and two were mostly positive. Eighteen publications included measurements of WMSD risk factors; seven showed mostly negative results, eight showed mixed results, two showed mostly positive results and one was inconclusive. Three literature reviews were identified, which studied this question; two were mostly negative, while the third was inconclusive. Also, 12 publications of grey literature studying Lean and WMSD risk factors in Swedish organizations were identified; nine showed mixed results, two showed mostly positive results and one showed mostly negative results. Due to the varying quality and study design of the publications, together with the few identified studies, it is difficult to compare them. The context and the implementation also likely affect the results. The general conclusion was that a Lean implementation may increase the risk of WMSD and risk factors for WMSD, if it is not accompanied with an ergonomic intervention.

Packages of Participation: Swedish Employees’ Experience of Lean Depends on How They Are Involved

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONS The results presented here show that active and continuous employee participation in organizational change programs, e.g., the implementation of Lean, can have several positive employee effects. However, the benefit of participation may depend on “what is inside the package,” which is important for practitioners to know as they decide both whether and how to involve workers in implementing Lean. Structured and continuous “packages” of participation, such as improvement groups, may provide the most positive employee experience, whereas temporary packages, such as intermittent change projects, may provide the least positive. Packages combining both continuous and temporary participation may even diminish some of the positive effects of continuous participation, while also possibly being the most costly approach. Just as Lean interventions strive to maximize value and minimize waste, so must organizations planning organizational change identify the participatory approaches that will yield the highest value without excess waste. TECHNICAL ABSTRACT Background: Lean production is a dominant approach in Swedish and global manufacturing and service industries. Studies of Leans employee effects are few and contradictory. Purpose: Employee effects from Lean are likely not uniform. This article investigates the effect of employees’ participation on their experiences of Lean. Method: This study investigated how different packages of employee participation in Lean affected manufacturing workers’ experiences of Lean. During 2008–2011, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from Swedish manufacturing companies participating in the national Swedish Lean production program Produktionslyftet. Data from 129 surveys (28 companies), 39 semi-structured interviews, and 30 reports were analyzed. In the main analysis, comparisons were made of the survey-reported Lean experiences of employees in three groups: temporary group employees (N = 36), who participated in Lean mostly through intermittent projects; continuous group employees (N = 69), who participated through standing improvement groups; and combined group employees (N = 24), who participated in both ways. Results: Continuous group employees had the most positive experience of Lean, followed by the combined group. Temporary group employees had the least positive experiences, being less likely than their counterparts to report that Lean improved teamwork; occupational safety; and change-related learning, decision making, and authority. Conclusions: These findings support the importance of continuous, structured opportunities for participation but raise the possibility that more participation may result in greater workload and role overload, mitigating some benefits of employee involvement. Consequently, companies should consider involving employees in change efforts but should attend to the specific design of participation activities.

Walking around the pyramids: Managers’ shop-floor activities in Lean-inspired organizations:

The approach in this article is to study leadership activities from the shop-floor workers’ perspectives during the implementation of a Lean-inspired production concept – an angle of approach that corresponds to a need for a deeper knowledge of the interactions between organizational structures and the physical work environment. The empirical findings are from a national R&D program called the Production Leap and collected through different methods: semi-structured interviews carried out at eight manufacturing companies, the open-ended part of a longitudinal survey, and participative observations. Lean leadership practices at these companies do not enable the possibilities of developing the technical systems or work relationships between the managers and the shop-floor workers. Instead, they provide the means and activities to circumvent coordination problems and create a feeling of participation. The results here indicate that leadership activities and coordination of work do not, as it is sometimes argued by the proponents of Lean, ‘turn the pyramid’ of power upside down. One reason for this is the lack of social structures in the organization.