Relevance of Lean Manufacturing in Present Business World

Running head: ORGANISATIONAL MANAGEMENT
RELEVANCE OF LEAN MANUFACTURING IN PRESENT BUSINESS WORLD
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1ORGANISATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Introduction
As opined by Hall (2016), the process of organisational management used by the
contemporary business firms have evolved in a significant manner in conjunction with the
changes undergone by the business world over the years. McAdam, Miller and McSorley
(2019) are of the viewpoint that unlike the earlier times when the business firms relied on the
traditional organisational management methods, the modern business firms need to take into
account a plethora of factors like their organisational goals, their manufacturing process,
operations process, the kind of target market that they are serving, the nature of commodities
or services that they offer and others. In addition to this, it is seen that the business firms over
the years had been taking the help of different business management process like lean
management or lean manufacturing and others for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency as
well as the business prospects of their firms (Handzic, Ozlen and Durmic 2016). However, at
the same time it is seen that because of the drastic changes in the business markets and also
the frequent fluctuations in the market demands the business firms rather than relying on the
organisational management approaches like lean and others, are taking the help of new
innovative approaches for enhancing the efficiency of their firms (Suarez, Calvo-Mora and
Roldán 2016). More importantly, it is seen that despite the benefits offered by the innovative
organisational management approaches the majority of the business firms even in the present
times are relying on the lean manufacturing or lean management approach because of the
benefits offered by the same. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the concept of
lean manufacturing and show that it is relevant even in the modern business world.
Main approaches to Organisational Management
Carayon et al. (2015) have articulated the viewpoint that organisational management
can be defined as the process of planning, structuring and directing the different employees as

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well as the resources of a firm for the attainment or the achievement of its business objectives
or goals. On the other hand, Ivens et al. (2016) have noted that the process of organisational
management can be seen as an applied behaviour analysis that “applies psychological
principles of organizational behaviour and the experimental analysis of behaviour to
organizations to improve individual and group performance and worker safety”. As opined by
Chandler (2017), the prominence held by the concept of organisational management over the
years can be explained on the basis of the fact that the financial returns earned by an
organisation or for that matter its business prospects greatly depend on the kind of
organisational management approaches or processes which are being used by the concerned
organisation. The resultant effect of this is that over the years, different kinds of
organisational management approaches have gained popularity which are being extensively
used by the different business firms. Some of the most important ones in this regard are listed
below-
Classical Management Approach
Berry, Broadbent and Otley (2016) have articulated the viewpoint that one of the most
important aspects of the classical management approach is the belief that the employees
within the spectrum of a business firm have only physical or economic needs. More
importantly, this approach of management relegates the social needs, job satisfaction, work-
life balance and others of the employees completely to the background stating that the
primary focus of the employees is on the effective fulfilment of their physical or economic
needs (Clegg 2017). The resultant effect of this is that the business firms often take the help
of the kind of organisational management approach which seeks the specialisation of labour
or for that matter maximisation of profit and loss or decision making (Wehrmeyer 2017).
Thus, it had been seen that the business firms over the years had taken the help of these
aspects for the formulation of the kind of management approach which will enable them to

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maximise the productivity of the employees and thereby the profitability or the financial
returns of the firm. In this regard, it needs to be said that the machinery of lean manufacturing
or lean management over the years had served as an important process which had been used
by the business firms for the attainment of the desired ends. As a matter of fact, Jasti and
Kodali (2016) have noted that one of the most important aspects of the construct of lean
manufacturing is the fact that it focuses on the minimisation of the waste generated by a firm
within its manufacturing department, in terms of wastage or resources, without hampering the
productivity or the performance of the concerned firm. More importantly, it is seen that the
process of lean manufacturing intends to minimise the waste generated by a firm on the score
of the over-burden on the manufacturing unit of the concerned firm or for matter because of
the unevenness of the work that the different employees are required to perform (Nhema
2015). In this regard, in needs to be said that back in the 20th century, automobile firms like
Ford company and others and also the Firearm industry were taking the help of the machinery
of lean manufacturing for reducing the amount of wastage of their resources and thereby to
improve the financial returns earned by them (Ghobakhloo and Azar 2018). Furthermore, it
was seen that the concept of lean manufacturing was used by these firms in conjunction with
the classical management approach used by them which focused on the effective fulfilment of
the economic as well as the physical needs of the employees.
According to Clegg (2017), the business firms using the classical organisational
management approach along with the usage of the process of lean management also take the
help of the 14 principles “Administrative Management Theory” of Henri Foyal. In this
context, it needs to be said that the 14 principles of this theory were meant as guidelines for
the managers of the 20th century who did not believed in the usage of the scientific
management approach. The 14 principles articulated by the theory under discussion are listed
below-