Lean in Sweden – the current situation

Many organizations are working with lean-inspired change programs in many countries. These implementations have spread from industry to e.g. the public sector, service organizations and microcompanies in for example agriculture. In Sweden, and also in the Scandinavian countries, Lean is defined and implemented in a way so that it should be more compatible with the sociotechnical tradition. The experience so far points to that some organizations seem to be successful in their change process, while others seems not. It is a very different thing to perform a change compared to making it sustainable and continuously developing over time. Longitudinal studies in this field are not common, which makes it more important to gain experience over time.

This session will bring up a discussion on the issue of what are the preconditions for sustainable Lean change, based on empirical studies from the public sector.

The session will contain four presentations and a concluding discussion. The presentations are the following:

A prospective study of the implementation of Lean, and its impact, in Swedish hospitals

Experiences from Lean implementations in Sweden

Strategies for leaders in Lean change

Experiences from Lean inspired work in a hospital 

The aim of this session is to identify common ways of working with Lean in Sweden, and preconditions for how working conditions develop as a result of the change. A further aim is to identify aspects that influence the sustainability of such changes. 

Contact person: Jörgen Eklund, jorgen.eklund@sth.kth.se