The Lean Manufacturing Enterprise: An Emerging Sociotechnological System Integration

Lean production represents a change in production system paradigm that calls for integration of the human and technological practices. This article reviews previous models of lean production that concentrated mainly on some distinct features of its philosophy, organization, and techniques and presents a framework of lean production as a sociotechnological system. The proposed framework provides an integrated view based on the interactions of human and technological elements. The lean enterprise is viewed as a dynamic process that translates its goals (zero waste, flow, and pull) into combined techniques that should be implemented throughout the entire organization. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.