Organizational Tools and Cultural Change in the Success of Lean Transformations: Delving Into Sequence and Rhythm

Even if the original seminal authors developed the tools used in lean manufacturing (LM) as inherently culture-dependent, western companies have found a variety of alternatives to implement them. We can simplify them by theoretically identifying two different extreme approaches that in real life are normally combined with diverse intensities: one emphasizes the intrinsically efficient nature of lean tools (lean-toolbox perspective), whereas the other stresses the cultural side (lean-culture perspective). The inappropriate interaction between both approaches has been put at the root of the low success rate of LM in non-Japanese firms. On the one hand, there is no agreement on which sequence to follow regarding managerial tools and cultural change during lean transformation processes. On the other hand, there are also different views on what the correct rhythm should be, since the pace at which organizational tools and cultural transformation occur can also determine the synergies that both can generate. This article synthesizes and compares empirically the different perspectives and tests them in a wide dataset of 1692 North American manufacturing firms. Results suggest that cultural change does not moderate or precede lean transformations, but instead totally mediates the relation between the deployment of tools and enhanced plant performance. These findings not only offer managers a tentative sequence and rhythm in the deployment of lean tools and values but also offer a relevant theoretical byproduct: the integration of Western and Japanese approaches.