The perceived effect of lean manufacturing on Thai garment shop floor workers and how to sustain the lean culture.

Abstract

This paper provides basic Lean knowledge in an easy to digest manner and illustrates some ideas for and against Lean manufacturing in various context and culture. The paper shows bottom-up approach of understanding Lean manufacturingvia the case study of a Thai garment manufacturer based on the perceptions of the shop floor workers as supposed to the management’s. Lean understanding of the shop floor operators were assessed to determine the success fullness of Lean implantation in any organization and to provide some of enablers that would lead to sustainable Lean implementation. KEY WORDS: Lean/ TPS/ Manufacturing/ Garment/ Thailand