Lean transformation of multinational concerns

The project focuses on organizational transformation and uses a large Danish industrial company as case study ground. The company is multinational in its operation and is aiming at a corporate transformation towards lean and continuous improvement. The transformation process is initiated through implementation of lean practices via a pilot project approach. This provides ample opportunity to investigate mechanisms that affect such transformation processes in an international setting. Initial studies have pointed to the need for planning and execution of the transformation process beyond the practice implementation approach as well as to the need for more fine-grained and possibly normative theory on change dimensions. Multiple qualitative case studies are performed in a European context in order to investigate the concepts of room and need for change. The goal of the case studies is to investigate the possibility of creating a temporary sense of stability in one subsystem while change is ongoing in another system. This should help inform the planned organizational transformation by offering a set of dimensions along which to design, analyse, and manage the transformation process.