Organizational practices lean enterprises adopt to focus on value streams

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which practices lean enterprises adopt to focus on value streams. An exploratory case study of four plants is developed. The four plants have successfully performed a lean transformation with significant performance improvements, and belong respectively to Delphi Diesel Systems, Sogefi Filtration, a company within the furniture industry and Renault. The organizational practices associated with value stream focus identified are: (1) the establishment of organizational units based on value streams; (2) the use of a performance measurement system based on value streams, and (3) the adoption of a formal meeting system. These organizational practices were found in all four of the studied companies. The adoption of these practices was standard and consistent across the different organizational units within the studied plants. However, the application of the concepts strongly depended on the specific circumstances of the plants such as size, complexity and lean transformation maturity. This exploratory research provides a contribution in the fields of organizational practices involved in the transition to lean enterprise. Managerial implications consist of the possible application of the described practices to other cases and situations.