ABSTRACT
Many manufacturing companies when implementing lean manufacturing, they only
emphasize on lean tools and techniques. They ignored the human factor or more
specific they failed to build the right culture. Hence, these companies could not
obtain the full benefits of lean manufacturing implementation, and in fact, they are
having difficulties sustaining the success attained. This paper provides a theoretical
lean culture criteria framework for implementation of lean manufacturing. This
framework builds on the literature review that involves major sources of lean
manufacturing community and also based on Toyota way culture. This study
investigates how the lean culture influences the implementation of lean system in all
organizations. The study further explains how an organization can benefit from
assessment of their culture by adopting lean culture framework. It is found from the
literature review that a number of factors need to be taken into account in order to
implement a successful lean system. The framework would enable the organizations
to assess their internal culture before implementing lean methodology.