Lean from the first-line managers’ perspective – assuredness about the effects of lean as a driving force for sustainable change

The purpose of this article is to present the results from a survey concerning first-line managers’ assuredness about the effects of Lean after two years of Lean application in a Swedish healthcare organization. The purpose is also to reflect about assuredness as a driving force for sustainable change. Questionnaires were sent to all first-line managers in a healthcare organization in order to investigate how these managers consider their role, ability and conditions to create change according to Lean. One of the questions included 17 statements about how assured these managers were about the effects of Lean. The results from this question will be presented in this paper. The study showed that the majority of the first-line managers in this particular healthcare organization were assured that developmental work supported by Lean contributes to a higher patient focus, supports first-line managers with useful tools and methods, contributes to the development of an improvement culture and that the Lean concept in general is a support in improvement work. The question can either be used separately or as a part of an entire questionnaire in healthcare organizations. Asking first-line managers about their assuredness about the effects of Lean on a regular basis is one way to follow the Lean process from their perspective. The survey question might encourage discussions about the process of Lean and hopefully contribute to a greater understanding about the importance of assuredness and about the desired effects when applying Lean.