Discussion of the Findings

Lean management is an approach adopted by the organisations for running their businesses
with an aim of ensuring continuous improvement. It is an ongoing process which is focussed
on improving services, products, and processes, which are in requirement of making
incremental improvements so as to increase their quality and efficiency.
Lean management is focused on adopting methods that can eliminate those factors which lead
to wastage of time, money and efforts. This is performed by analysing an entire business
process and eliminating the steps that do not add value for the customers. Before making an
investment in any project, it is essential that organisations conduct a cost-benefit analysis,
same is the case with lean management.
The benefits of lean management outweigh the costs aspect in its implementation in the
organisations. It plays a significant role in the cost reduction of manufacturing concerns and
provides both short-term and long-term benefits to the company. It is not necessary that the
benefits realised by one company are observed in another company, rather the benefits may
vary as per the planning done by the company and the commitment level of its employees.
The significance of lean management can be seen in an organisation in the form of improved
quality and visual management. A lot of activities in the lean process are focused towards
improving quality and setting up the plant in such a manner that the entire area can be
evaluated with a visual scan, thereby providing the merit of management by sight.
As the lean activities are also focused on improving the efficiency levels, the increased
efficiencies and standardised work help in minimising the manpower in the organisation.
Moreover, it becomes easier for the managers to manage the company’s operations,
processes, and issues arising, as lean management involves the entire company.
In the context of the research, it is apparent from the findings that lean management has been
significant for both the companies, namely- Bajaj and Jaguar. For Bajaj Auto, lean
management has proved to be a useful tool for building competitiveness in the global market.
With the application of lean management processes, the company has been successful in
reducing its costs and improving its efficiency.
The case discussed by IBEF (n.d.) also highlights the same fact. As per the literature, the
company made a shift from its traditional manufacturing processes to lean manufacturing
processes in the late 90s and early 2000s. The company adopted lines of TPS (Toyota
Production System) and TPM (Toyota Productivity Management) to overcome the drawbacks
of using traditional processes.

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As a result of the company's move, the company had a significant gain, which was observed
in form of an increase in the workforce productivity by 10 times. The company came in a
fortunate position to lower down its raw materials inventory to half a shift stock from a week.
The stock of finished goods was also cut down to 3 days from 1 month.
In addition to this, the figure for rejected goods was also reduced to 2,000 parts per million,
which was earlier reported to be 20,000. The company’s 9 th annual report also indicates that
with the implementation of lean manufacturing, there has been a continuous improvement in
the company’s performance along with higher quality, tight supply chains, cost reduction and
the introduction of new processes and products (Bajaj Auto Limited, 2016).
On the other hand, the findings for the Jaguar case study also indicates that lean management
in the company, Jaguar has been vital in providing numerous benefits to the company. The
findings indicate that lean management has played a significant role in minimising the wastes
in the company. The literature by Yazdani (2015) also supports the findings wherein it is
apparent that the lean approach has helped the company with both operational and strategic
advantages.
As a part of strategic advantages, it has helped in pre-empting competition, developing
innovation potential, providing greater product development capability and ensure sustainable
growth and profitability. On the other hand, in terms of operational benefits, it has allowed
the company to have faster movement of goods to the market, lowering of costs, skills
development, and building brand image (Yazdani, 2015).
However, the analysis of the findings also reveals that while implementing lean management,
both the companies had to face certain challenges and make modifications in the
organisational structure and processes. The findings indicate that the management at Jaguar
had to make changes in the organisation culture wherein the employees were made liable for
their own tasks.
The lean implementation also required the adoption of just in time approach, which created a
challenge for the company. The findings also support the literature provided by Pol and
Shankar (2018) asserts that for implementing lean, the company required the development of
new working styles. The most significant change that the company had to undergo was the
adoption of just in time approach where a system of continuous flow of production was to be
created.
In terms of factors that enabled successful lean implementation in Bajaj, the findings indicate
that the in-house training provided to the staff members and company's vision to enhance its
sales by launching new products along with effective vendor management helped the

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company widely. Bhattacharya, Mukhopadhyay and Giri (2014) also indicate that in the
Indian auto industry, the supply chain implementation emphasises on the development of
vendors. This signifies that risks and accountability are shifted to vendors. Moreover, the
availability of vendors in a particular region served as a base for lean implementation which
further contributed to cost reduction.
The findings of this study reveal that for both the companies, people, process, and purpose
serves as the main pillars of lean management. For Bajaj, the purpose of lean was to
reorganise its processes to reduce costs wherein the focus was to go for automation of
activities. On the other hand, the purpose of lean in Jaguar was to enhance the production
value by adopting just in time approach and holding employees liable for their tasks.
The literature also supports the findings, as in case of Jaguar, the aim of the company while
implementing lean was to reduce the time between the delivery chain and end of line so that
the wastage of time can be minimised and production value can be increased (Supply Chain
Services, 2012). Similarly, Panday (2016) also asserts that with lean management as the
centre of operational thinking, Bajaj Auto has focused on automation in order to provide a
boost to the company’s productivity. The company is using collaborative robots to drive
efficiencies in its operations across different plants.

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References
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Bhattacharya, S., Mukhopadhyay, D. and Giri, S. 2014. Supply chain management in Indian
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