Relevant Criteria for Implementing the Lean Management Concept

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 65 %, Prifysgol Cymru University of Wales, language: English, abstract: The initial situation of organizations is still shaped by rapidly changing environmental conditions. Unstable terms are caused by the globalisation, intensified market and competitive conditions, changing customer requirements and structures as well as new technologies and interconnected processes. Therefore, a lot of enterprises launched the Lean Management concept to optimize the efficiency of value-adding processes and the competitive position in times of change. Thereby, waste in form of, for instance, human activity which absorbs resources but creates no value such as mistakes that require rework or products that have not been sold and so tower up inventories influences the efficiency of the value chain negatively and, thus, should be avoided. The realization of a process and customer orientation while illustrating a lean structure and lean processes has become a challenge for every company (Womack & Jones, 2013). The elaboration constitutes an overview of relevant criteria for implementing the Lean Management concept. At first, a definition clarifies the meaning of Lean Management whereby the main part illustrates lean principles and methods as well as implementation barriers which should be taken into consideration by implementing the Lean Management philosophy. Finally, a conclusion will summarize the findings.