Feasibility and Implementation of Lean Management on Operations of China National Electric Engineering Company in Pakistan

This engineering graduate project explores the feasibility and implementation of lean management on the operations of China National Electric Engineering Company in Pakistan. It includes a literature review on lean management, its effectiveness, critical success factors, and the history of its application in Pakistan. The project highlights the importance of linking lean management to all aspects of the organizational processes for successful implementation.

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Engineering graduate project
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Topic: “The Feasibility and Implementation of Lean Management on the Operations of China
National Electric Engineering Company in Pakistan”
1.0 Literature Review
1.1 Lean Management
As stated by Fullerton, Kennedy and Widener (2014), the process of continuous
improvements in the organizational processes and policies can be defined as lean management.
Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes (2014) states that lean management aim to bring about
small changes which will be incremental for the processes to make improvement in the quality
and efficiency of the processes. According to Tenera and Luís Carneiro (2014), lean
management aim to reduce any form of wastage of money, time or effort in each of the steps of
the business processes by revisiting the steps that do not add or create value to the organization.
Biazzo, Panizzolo and de Crescenzo (2016) states that idea can generate from any level of
operation so in order to achieve continuous improvement, people have to be respected.
Steinfeld et al. (2015) states that lean management consist of five basic principles and
they are identification of value, mapping of the value stream, developing the flow, establishing
the pull and continuous improvements. These phases are essential in the current business for
gaining competitive advantage and long term sustainability. The value identification process
identifies the part of the product or service that is adding value to the need of the consumers and
the remaining part of the solution can be considered to be a waste (Dora, Kumar & Gellynck
2016). The next step is the value stream mapping where workflow of any organization is being
mapped in order to chalk down all the actions and people involved in delivering the consumers
with the end products. The value streaming process will provide the overall picture of the teams

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involved in measurement, evaluation and improvement of the overall process. Continuous work
assists in smoothening of the overall processes in the organization (Martínez-Jurado & Moyano-
Fuentes 2014). The pull system is enabled to create a stable workflow and pull is generated
based on the demand of the products. The final step is the continuous improvement where
changes to the overall processes has to be made for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency.
1.2 Effectiveness of Lean Management
According to Ben Ruben, Vinodh and Asokan (2017), there has been significant increase
in the adaptation of the lean management process as it focuses on making improvements to the
overall processes at levels of the hierarchy. Lean management is effective as proper
implementation of the processes can provide competitive advantage for the companies.
Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes (2014) states that lean management reduces the number of
waste activities in the business processes and as discussed the principles of lean management
helps in keeping only those processes that add value to the consumers. Fullerton, Kennedy and
Widener (2014) opined that application of lean management have increased as it facilities
enhancement of efficiency and productivity. The processes are made smarter by lean
management as the products are developed based on the demand of the products which makes
the operations cost effective due to effective use of resources.
1.3 Critical Success factors of Lean Management Implementation
As stated by Netland (2016), critical success factors are critical in fulfilling the needs of
the managers based on information. Lande, Shrivastava and Seth (2016) argued that critical
success factors are key to developing the desired using any technique and program. The analysis
of various has highlighted different success factors for effectively implementing lean

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management systems. Albliwi et al. (2014) analysed the major factors for effective
implementation of lean management are commitment, involvement, management, understanding
the six sigma tools, techniques and methodologies, linking the lean management to consumers,
linking lean management to business strategy, project tracking, selection and review,
management skills in projects, cultural change, training and linking lean management to the
suppliers. This shows that linking lean management to all aspect of the organizational processes
is essential for attaining success. On the contrary, Luthra, Garg and Haleem (2016) stated factors
such as continuous training and education of the employees and managers, sustained
commitment to management and making effective choice of project leaders based on their level
of leadership skills. Bortolotti, Boscari and Danese (2015) summarized the critical success
factors into criteria such as project selection, organizational commitment, control skills, cultural
change, training and development and organizational involvement. The majority of the authors
have aimed to link all aspect of business strategy to lean management for successful
implementation. Ismyrlis, Moschidis, and Tsiotras (2015) identified thirteen factors that are
critical to success of the organization such as deployment plan, reviewing the projects, technical
support, project selection, training, project tracking, project selection, customer wows, supplier
plan, safe environment, part time vs full time resources and senior executives’ active
participation. Research conducted in most of the cases have provided similar findings and all
research have addressed the overall critical success factors for making an effective improvement
of the organizational processes.
1.4 History of Lean Management application in Pakistan
The implementation of lean management in a country like Pakistan has been slow and
majority of the sectors were reluctant in implementing lean until Pakistan significantly lost its

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share in the global market. The countries like China, India and Bangladesh have gained
significant market share in the textile industry where as the global share of the Textile companies
in Pakistan was less than 1percent where the total volume was US $ 18 trillion per annum
(Bhutta et al. 2017). The majority of the companies in the textile industry in Pakistan are still
using specific tools and techniques of the six sigma methodology and proper overall
implementation of lean management is still lagging in majority of the medium and small scale
organization. However, the large scale organization have implemented lean management
effectively but an overall holistic approach in the organization is missing (Aziz et al. 2017). This
is a result of lack of knowledge in this field which shows that even though larger organizations
have good implementation and knowledge regarding the lean approaches and techniques, there
are major organizations lacking in effective lean management approaches. Moreover, the
organizations in Pakistan face difficulties in adopting lean management and are unable to change
their organizational culture and production systems.

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References
Albliwi, S., Antony, J., Abdul Halim Lim, S. & van der Wiele, T., 2014. Critical failure factors
of Lean Six Sigma: a systematic literature review. International Journal of Quality &
Reliability Management, 31(9), pp.1012-1030.
Aziz, K., Awais, M., Rahat, Q., Hasnain, S.S.U. & Shahzadi, I., 2017. Impact of Outsourcing on
Lean Operations in Pakistani Healthcare Industry. International Journal of Engineering
and Information Systems (IJEAIS), 1(8), pp.116-123.
Ben Ruben, R., Vinodh, S. & Asokan, P., 2017. Implementation of Lean Six Sigma framework
with environmental considerations in an Indian automotive component manufacturing
firm: a case study. Production Planning & Control, 28(15), pp.1193-1211.
Bhutta, M.K.S., Egilmez, G., Chatha, K.A. & Huq, F., 2017. Survey of Lean management
practices in Pakistani industrial sectors. International Journal of Services and Operations
Management, 28(3), pp.309-334.
Biazzo, S., Panizzolo, R. & de Crescenzo, A.M., 2016. Lean management and product
innovation: a critical review. In Understanding the Lean Enterprise (pp. 237-260).
Springer, Cham.
Bortolotti, T., Boscari, S. & Danese, P., 2015. Successful lean implementation: Organizational
culture and soft lean practices. International Journal of Production Economics, 160,
pp.182-201.

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Dora, M., Kumar, M. & Gellynck, X., 2016. Determinants and barriers to lean implementation in
food-processing SMEs–a multiple case analysis. Production Planning & Control, 27(1),
pp.1-23.
Fullerton, R.R., Kennedy, F.A. & Widener, S.K., 2014. Lean manufacturing and firm
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Fullerton, R.R., Kennedy, F.A. & Widener, S.K., 2014. Lean manufacturing and firm
performance: The incremental contribution of lean management accounting
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Ismyrlis, V., Moschidis, O. and Tsiotras, G., 2015. Critical success factors examined in ISO
9001: 2008-certified Greek companies using multidimensional statistics. International
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Lande, M., Shrivastava, R.L. & Seth, D., 2016. Critical success factors for Lean Six Sigma in
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Martínez-Jurado, P.J. & Moyano-Fuentes, J., 2014. Lean management, supply chain
management and sustainability: a literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85,
pp.134-150.
Netland, T.H., 2016. Critical success factors for implementing lean production: the effect of
contingencies. International Journal of Production Research, 54(8), pp.2433-2448.
Steinfeld, B., Scott, J., Vilander, G., Marx, L., Quirk, M., Lindberg, J. & Koerner, K., 2015. The
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Tenera, A.M.B.R. & Luís Carneiro, P., 2014. A Lean Six Sigma (LSS) project management
improvement model. SELECTED PAPERS FROM THE 27TH IPMA (INTERNATIONAL
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