Lean manufacturing system focuses on providing impeccable customer service at an incredibly quick pace. For most of the American manufactures, superimposing their existing production methods with lean production techniques would cause huge disturbance and pain (Womack, Jones & Roos, 2007). Also, lean is basically a change in the management paradigm from the traditional small craft approach to mass production. One of the most important factors that led most of the American companies to fail in implementing the lean manufacturing system is the absence of a standardized procedure in practicing the lean system. For instance, even as Toyota successfully implements the Lean approach with several inspiring ideas, the company does not follow the exact practices in all its manufacturing plants (Denning, 2011). Besides, neither do the experts tell the manufacturing units what should be done nor audit if things go as planned; instead, the process of manufacturing gets refined in each unit through a series of cyclic processes that comprise of planning, doing, checking and acting. Each Toyota manufacturing unit has its own standard operating procedures as they remain in various learning cycles at a particular point of time.
The failure rate of implementing lean manufacturing system in America has been predicted to be at least 50 percent. The most common reasons for the failure to include the fact that leaderships either understand the philosophy of the system or show keen interest in introducing the system in the workplace (Quirin, 2016). Secondly, lack of coordination between staff at various levels leads to the system’s failure. For instance, even if at the shop floor level, it shows a considerable degree of success by following certain standard procedures the system fails as it moves to the next level. Failure to deal with basic structural issues within the organization, for instance an inefficient wage and benefit structure, also causes the lean system to fail in many plants. In short, most of the times the increased risks against the benefits lead to the failure of lean manufacturing systems.
References
Denning, S. (2011). Why Lean Programs Fail -- Where Toyota Succeeds: A New Culture of Learning. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ stevedenning/ 2011/02/05/why-lean-programs-fail-where-toyota-succeeds-a-new-culture-of-learning/#cc6e875733c2
Quirin, C. (2016). Why lean efforts fail: Views from a 25-year plant leader.Reliable plant. Retrieved from http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/22985/lean-efforts-fail-plant
Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T. & Roos, D. (2007). The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production-- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry. New York: Free Press.
