The Leadership Evolution In The Lean Production Application Process

Lean production, originated from Japan Toyota Production System, is a complex production operation system completely different from the traditional way of mass production from minds to method. Lean production not only reduce the waste and cost reduction effectively, but also improve the quality of products and services. Most Japanese manufacturing enterprises and their suppliers have adopted lean production mode, and the successful cases of lean production are too numerous to mention one by one in the United States. Recently, increasing number of domestic enterprises bring in lean production because of its superiority.Lean production has steadily gained success, while cases of failure and expectation also happen from time to time. Among the study of key factors ensuring that enterprise implement the lean production successfully, the leadership in the process of implementation begins to draw wide attention of scholars. process needs all of staffs’attendance and the support from leaders, so researching if there is a match style of leadership at every stage has great significance for managers to change their leadership style to adapt to the stage.This article uses single case study method find how managers change their leadership style during lean production process. According to this paper, there are some findings as below:On the one hand, the two kinds of leadership style have common inverse-U curve type characteristics and the curve goes up following the lean process implement and come down after several stages. On the other hand, transformational leadership take the top position in general, but it also coexist with transactional leadership.This paper is divided into five parts as follow:Firstly, this part focus on the importance of leadership style in the process of lean production, and describe the significance of theory and practice. Meanwhile, this part summarize the research method, the innovation points and the structure arrangement.The second part:theory review. Firstly, review the concept of lean production, principles and applied research, and definite application stage of the lean production; Secondly, review the definition of transactional and transformational leadership and measurement dimensions; Finally draw forth the research points based on the study of relevance of the two kinds of leadership style.The third part:research design. Firstly, introducing S company’s background as well as the reason of selection. Secondly, selecting data collection method, and discussing the reliability and validity of the method. Finally, analyzing and coding the data collected. The fourth part:case analysis. This part contains two modules, The one, analyzing the two kinds of leadership style horizontally at every stage of ACE implementation and summarizing characteristics of the leadership style. The other, analysising two kinds of leadership style vertically over all of stages, and finding the process of the evolution of leadership style.Lastly, discuss the article’s findings, shortcomings and future research direction.