Employee Perceptions of Lean Production System Implementation: Linking Method Integration and Perceived Success with Occupational Health and Safety Outcomes

Abstract

Manufacturing companies operate in increasingly volatile and turbulent market environments, requiring the implementation of effective organizational and operational measures to remain competitive. Lean Production Systems (LPS) have evolved into a widely adopted management framework in manufacturing, providing structured principles and methods to enable continuous improvement across the entire value chain. In Germany, the technical guideline VDI 2870 serves as a reference framework for LPS implementation and reflects the current state of the art in terms of Lean principles and methods. Beyond efficiency gains, Lean offers significant advantages such as improved process stability, enhanced quality, waste reduction, and increased organizational adaptability. However, despite the central role of employees in manufacturing systems, the human dimension of LPS implementation is insufficiently addressed in existing integration approaches. To investigate this gap, a systematic literature review was conducted to analyze employee perceptions of LPS implementation. The findings reveal substantial variation in how employees experience Lean transformations. A key result is the strong relationship between the degree of systematic method integration and perceived implementation success. Organizations that implement LPS in a coherent and structured manner report more positive employee perceptions, higher engagement, and improved occupational health and safety outcomes. In contrast, fragmented or isolated application of Lean methods often fails to produce sustainable improvements and may increase psychosocial stressors. The results indicate that employee perception serves as an early and sensitive indicator of the quality and sustainability of Lean implementation, highlighting from a Human Factors perspective that long-term success depends not only on technical-methodological integration but also on social coherence and employee sensemaking.

Keywords: Lean Production System, LPS, Employee Perception, Occupational Health And Safety, OSH, Human Factors

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007788