The Impact of Lean Thinking on Organizational Learning

Lean management and organizational learning have been seen as two driving forces for today’s business’ success by contributing to competitive advantage in organizations. The aim of this paper is to explore and assess the implementation of lean from the perspective of organizational learning. By revisiting the lean concept and the relationship between lean and learning, we argue that lean has been through an evolution both in its scope and empirical application in the last two decades. We argue that the recent versions of the lean discourse open up theoretical possibilities for a better balance between exploitation and exploration. However, our empirical exploration of these issues in a single case study in a paper packaging manufacture suggests patchy evidence of organizational learning around lean thinking.