Blue ocean leadership for sustaining lean manufacturing in Malaysian Automotive Industry

Abstract

Many automotive related organizations in Malaysia embarked into the Lean journey to reduce cost due to pressure from market liberalization. However, Lean is not sustainable due to many factors and leadership is seen to be the most critical factor. Furthermore, it is not easy to change leadership style as it relates to behavior and traits of the leader. Thus, this study aims to explore the use of the Blue Ocean Leadership concept for sustaining Lean implementation. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between Blue Ocean Leadership activities with Lean manufacturing practices and firm performance in Malaysian automotive industry. An exploratory sequential mixed method research approach was carried out. The research began with the qualitative method where four expert opinions were gathered and then the findings were triangulated with information from literature to develop questionnaire for the quantitative method. A total of 64 respondents were involved in the second stage of the survey research. Seven themes of leaders’ activities were identified from the literature and experts which were later merged to four themes, namely: Genba-kaizen, motivation, communication and empowering-coaching. Quantitative data was analyzed using SmartPLS (v3.2.6) and revealed that Genba-kaizen mediate the relation between Lean manufacturing practices and firm performance, and could increase the correlation with firm performance by 30 percent. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test confirmed that the leaders did not practice what they perceived as important by 25.9 percent. The difference was much greater in firms without any Japanese staffs by 13 percent. In conclusion, this study has provided a new perspective on how to sustain Lean implementation from leadership strategy perspective. To the Lean practitioners, the findings provide a new strategy for sustaining Lean implementation. It has also provided a better understanding to academics. A small sample size which focused at only two level of management are some of the limitations in this study and suggested recommendations for future study in the area are also given. Hence, this study has successfully created value to Lean practitioners, leaders of Lean implementation companies as well as academics.