“Lean Human Resource Management practices empower employees to support Total Quality approach to business performance.”

Human Resource Management (HRM)

HRM refers to the coordination of people in the organization to achieve a specific business objective, retain employees’ satisfaction, and fulfill their needs.  HRM achieves this by using technology, processes and people, and that primarily emphasis on the company’s internal affairs as opposed to external factors (Armstrong, & Taylor, 2020). The primary functions of HRM team includes recruiting, training, performance appraisals, employee’s motivation, safety at workplace, communication among others. The HRM team develops a plan and strategies for hiring the qualified staff and formulating employees’ obligations and the scope of tasks assigned to them. Also, the HRM department schedules training when necessary. Besides, it encourages the organization’s employees to utilize their potentials while offering suggestions that improve improvement fully. The team frequently communicates with the employee individually from time to time regarding their performance and roles (Armstrong & Taylor, 2020).

HRM team maintains a conducive working atmosphere or culture. A clean, safe, and healthy working environment can help bring out the best in an employee. Also, a friendly working atmosphere gives the employee’s job satisfaction. Furthermore, organizations engage in several issues that may lead to a dispute between employers and employees or even staff with their seniors. The team acts as a mediator or consultant to sort out those disputes in a significant way (Bratton & Gold, 2017).

Moreover, it is obliged to ensure good public relations. HR team organize seminars, consultations, and some firms gathering as an agent the organization to build relations with other businesses. This paper will discuss how lean HRM practices empower employees to support the Total Quality approach to business performance.

Lean HRM, Traditional HRM, and Total Quantity Management

Lean HRM focus on eliminating the type of wastes associated with a human resource in the supply chain.  Lean production can be well-defined as an combined socio-technical program with a primary aim of eliminating waste through simultaneously minimizing or reducing supplier, customers, and internal inconsistency (Signoretti, & Sacchetti, 2020). Therefore, the main lean HRM objective is to achieve maximum human resource effectiveness while carrying out operations at the minimal cost at nil waste of resources. The lean management philosophy is based on consistent improvement, which requires an employee’s improvement and commitment to the organization. It gives a chance to improve outcomes in cost, lead times, and quality (James, 2019).

The traditional HRM approach focuses on normal ongoing or routine activities such as recruitment, selection, hiring, training and development, human resource planning, job analysis, performance appraisal, etc. The majority of organizations use this approach. According to Teimouri (2018), traditional HR practices are not connected with organizational strategies. In such institutions, people are perceived as typical resources such as machines, buildings, raw materials (Teimouri, 2018).

Total Quantity Management (TQM)

TQM is a structured and extensive organization management approach that concentrations on continuous quality enhancement of an organization’s service or product through regular feedback. TQM acknowledges personnel’s involvement in the production process, and hence error occurrence is probable. The TQM stands have eight essential pillars: focus on the customer, employee involvement, process centeredness, integrated structure, strategic approach, clear communication, and iterative improvement (Mahmood, & Ahmed, 2014).

Ford and Toyota lean production system

The lean production(LP) concept was first familiarised in The Machine that Changed World (Womack et al., 2007), referring to a new approach of thinking to manufacturing organizations. It was separated from quantity production by its single-focused orientation, aiming to eliminate waste in all organization sections. Value adding to customer through a process that transforms variables to output is the main purpose organisation exist. Any extra resources that the minimum needed to carry out the production are considered waste (Signoretti, & Sacchetti, 2020).

Toyota developed the first lean thought of “Just-In-Time” (JIT), characterized by the aim of waste reduction- only produce what is required, in the quantity required, and when required. JIT principle among the comprehensive viewpoint characterised Toyota Production System (TPS). In TPS, the JIT thought is one of the lean management pillars used to improve quality at each stage of the production, not tolerating faults to increase through the value stream (Brunner, 2017).

The roots of TPS was derived from Henry Ford’s system of line assembly manufacturing and process. Ford systems manufacture autos in huge standard designs quantities, enhance efficiency, and deliver low-priced products. With its emphasis on employee training, its possible for anyone to work at Ford plant. All employees have and only need to perform a particular small task of the work like screw tightening or oiling or greasing assembly line, making it possible to standardize manufacturing. Ford originated the Ford 2000 program in 1995 that focuses to create and execute a production system known as Ford Production system(FPS). In other words, FPS implementation aimed on transformation from mass production to a lean manufacturing system (Chiarini et al., 2018).

HRM practices are seen in Lean management (LM)

Researchers use the term “Lean” to symbolize a set of techniques intended to improve organization competitiveness by scientifically reducing all potential wastes (Megha, & Iya, 2018). Many researchers have concluded that lean production (LP) is a complex concept that entails numerous bundles of practices; quality control, flow production, and industrious maintenance (Beauvallet & Houy, 2010).

Nevertheless, dealing effectively with lean management needs motivated, skilled, and HR practices integration into a firm’s manufacturing approach (Megha, & Iya, 2018). LM connects a bundle of production practices associated to eliminating or reducing waste with other bundle of HR practices associated to workforce skills and motivation and development. In other words, we concur with Beauvallet, and Houy (2010), who argued that HRM is a distinct set that comprises several practices that may or may not be directly related to lead production. According to Yang et al. (2012), JIT and infrastructure practices indicated a healthy relationship. These infrastructure practices included workforce management. Besides, the study related the combination of Infrastructure practices and JIT to production performance. Yang et al. (2012), also illustrated how lean system comprise some HR practices. Their findings defined how HR practices implementations, together with TQM, TPM, and JIT programs, give important descriptions for the difference in performance measures.

The other aspect of lean HRM is preserving a flexible workforce. First, the employees must get the required training on the new production methods. Operation self-inspection is one of the lean practices where workers at the production are responsible for their results’ quality impaction. The employees are given this responsibility, and hence they need training on the quality processes such as SPC. For them to undertake regular machine maintenance, they need the training to do it. The training reduces the need for support personnel on the floor. It reduces machine breakdown, where workers wait for the support personnel or machine operators to carry out the required maintenance. Based on root-cause analysis, workers’ training helps them analyze production problems and reduce or eliminate their occurrence (Beauvallet, & Houy, 2010).

The HR team of Toyota plays an essential role beyond considering people as typical resources. Toyota perceives team members as crucial competitive competencies of the company. Its views on establishing extraordinary people are the essential task of the organization. The company in charge with such accountability had better be outstanding. The lean management approach focuses on eliminating waste, especially from human resource departments such as labor costs. Toyota also seeks efficiency improvement over the long-term that is attained by eliminating waste. Besides, TPS program is devised to surface glitches to solve those issues, thus recurrently strengthening the system (Chiarini, 2012).

The lean system is about tools, processes, and methods, but it develops a culture. This culture allows for the process, tool, and procedures to create a continuous improvement environment. A significant part of culture development is giving workers the chance and tools needed for improvement. The lean management approach develops employees’ problem-solving skills that give them autonomy to implement improvement (Beauvallet, & Houy, 2010). The over benefits of employees’ improvement at Toyota is that the TPS has helped form a continuous improvement culture that morphs through communication, skills and competencies, and teamwork. TPS focus on transferring maximum power and task to the people doing the job.

Customer focus, TQM pillar, leads to customer satisfaction at Toyota and is one of the primary success factors. For a business to grow, it should have reliable, understanding, and trustworthy clients or customers. The implementation of TQM enhances employees’ involvement in the production process. Besides, TPS harmonizes the manufacturing process and reduced intricacy through minutes and simple machinery that is full-bodied and elastic (Yang, & Yang, 2013). Another key TQM objective is dependability. The JIT program comprises multi-skilled workers who work as a team. Also, the successful implementation of TQM has enabled Toyota to have an integrated organizational structure. Despite Toyota’s hierarchy and role specifications, employees can make independent decisions and take corrective measures when needed to ensure quality during processing (Ul Hassan et al., 2013).

Traditional Human resources focused on core HR tasks such as managers overseeing jobs related to recruiting and firing and administering company policies. In other words, traditional HR aims to solve employees’ issues, keep employees happy, and manage labor relationships. The main characteristics of the traditional Taylorism approach were hierarchy, bureaucracy, and specialization.

Drawbacks of lean and lean HRM

Inventory problem is among the significant drawback for lean and lean HRM. The Lean system aims to a low amount of inventory at hand and reduces carrying cost. The strategy exposed Toyota to supply risk since they depend on the supplier’s ability to deliver goods quickly and efficiently. Any inventory disruption would disorient the whole supply chain. In addition, employees’ negative perceptions and unwillingness to change over could hinder lean management implementation (James, 2019).

Employee empowerment entails giving staff substantial power or authority to decide on their own. When workers are empowered their self-confidence level tends to increase, which may cross the line into arrogance. Arrogant staffs are generally hard to manage.

The top management may fail to offer adequate training for a team, and new workforces may create a crack in the rigorous TPS system. Besides, the lack of competent top-level management might lead to TQM implementation challenges (Mahmood & Ahmed, 2014).

Quality control heavily relies on the people executing the actual task who turns to be the organization’s employee. Lean management focuses on lowering costs and minimizing waste by empowering its employees. Deming’s 14 factors and TQM philosophy are used to control quality. According to Deming’s 14 factors, management creates organizational purposes and adopts a new philosophy. The philosophy argues that organizations should cease reliance on mass inspection; thus, statistical control techniques must reduce mass inspection. Also, it discourages the use of price tags alone to award business. It suggests building long-term relationships with suppliers and constant system improvement (Chiarini, 2011). As TQM, the approach support employees training and employee are empowered to drive out fear. Employees should seek assistance from the team or supervisors when unsure of their tasks. The ninth factor insists on structural integration.

Moreover, Different departments should enhance good communication. Deming’s factors disregard the use of slogans and targets such as “Do It Right The First Time” and eliminating numerical quotas. The works standards focus on quality and quantity rather than quantity alone. As an opposed traditional approach, performance appraisal is considered as unnecessary (Chiarini, 2011).

In conclusion, the main lean HRM objective is to accomplish maximum human resource effectiveness carrying out productions at the minimal cost at zero waste of resources. TQM is an structured and extensive production management approach that concentrations on continuous quality improvement of an organization’s service or product through regular feedback. TQM acknowledges personnel’s involvement in the production process, and hence error occurrence is probable. TQM approach is based on eight elements that focus on the customer, employee involvement, process centeredness, integrated structure, strategic approach, clear communication, and iterative improvement.

The lean system is about tools, processes, and methods, but it develops a culture. This culture allows for the process, tool, and procedures to create a continuous improvement environment. The over benefits of employees’ improvement at Toyota is that the TPS has helped form a continuous improvement culture that morphs through communication, skills and competencies, and teamwork. TPS focus on transferring maximum power and task to the people doing the job. The Lean HRM practice through empowering employees can be seen to support the Total quality method. However, the approach may work better when integrated with Deming’s factors. Lean HR practice creates an environment that pressures employees to accomplish short-term goals, jeopardizing the quality improvement plan and hence poor business performance.

References

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