Desenvolvimento da abordagem lean por meio de práticas de liderança : pesquisa-ação numa área de planejamento da produção
Abstract
Companies, to sustain their products’ competitiveness (cost, quality and time), need to
maintain an improvement rate greater than the competitors, and not only possess good
strategies, systems or technologies. The concept of "continuous improvement" has become
increasingly popular in the business environment, and it is associated with a variety of
approaches, and the lean manufacturing as one. Although the lean tools and methodologies
are relatively easy to be implemented in different contexts, few companies can turn into real
lean enterprises, since they have good results in the early stages of implementation, but fail in
the long-term support. One of the key factors for sustaining lean approach is centered on the
leadership role. This dissertation aims to develop, by performing an action research, the
current leadership practices in a production planning area belonging to a company in the large industrial sector located in the State of São Paulo, and with a history of eight years working
through the lean approach, to lean leadership model for the people development, in which are
considerated the following factors: promoting employees self-development, people
developing and training, and support daily kaizen. During the action research was possible to
propose and evaluate the leadership practices to promote and support the implementation of
lean approach. It was observed during the action research as a major challenge to reconcile operational routine of leaders and the team with the implementation of the lean principles and tools.