Lean Manufacturing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Lean Manufacturing - Essay Example HR departments are the primary change agents in most of the organizations. The aim of this paper is to look at the Human Resources approach regarding lean manufacturing in today’s world. The idea is to relate human resources contribution in the process of lean production which cannot be overlooked by today’s organizations. This paper will determine how decisions are taken by the human resource department, how the human resource department develops policies, and practices for the organization and how effectively the change processes are handled in the organization. It will also clarify what strategic HRM issues should be considered to bring about any cultural and fundamental change within organizations. The policies and practices developed by human resource departments represent important forces that shape employee behavior and attitudes. Human resource department needs to take a number of actions if it wants to deal with the changes regarding culture and wants to make it more customer-responsive. The commitment at the organizational level is enhanced with a positive culture and this also allows improvements to be observed in employee behavior. This certainly acts as a strong benefit for the organization. From the perspective of an employee, the organizational culture is valued highly and it also reduces the level of ambiguity (Oliver, 2006). On the other hand, it should also be noted that cultural changes are not easily acceptable by employees. Resistance is observed from employees when the element of change is observed in organizations and this resistance may create obstacles in the accomplishment of goals and objectives of the organization. Our broad problem area in this case would be an area requiring improvement. ‘Lean Manufacturing’ into an organization is seen to bring a number of benefits, i.e. efficiency savings, improved productivity, waste reduction (Genaidy, 2003). But it is felt