Evaluation of lean management: final report to Scottish Enterprise Grampian

The Lean Management Programme (LMP) was developed to assist companies with implementing actions to achieve continuous, sustained productivity improvement. The evaluation aimed to determine whether key delivery targets had been met, examine cost effectiveness and assess business and economic impact. It also had the objective of identifying learning points of both operational and strategic significance.

The methodology incorporated desk research, face-to-face consultations and telephone interviews. A number of case studies were developed with individual companies.

Overall, it was concluded that participation in the LMP has been very important or important to the performance of the companies interviewed. There was a generally high level of satisfaction with the Programme - expectations were met and there was a high level of satisfaction with the content and style of Programme delivery. Although it was noted that there was a bigger time commitment involved than anticipated. Participating companies attributed a diverse and in some cases a significant amount of change in business practice to engagement in the Programme. In terms of economic impact, it was estimated that for a total public sector investment of £270k in the LMP to date, Grampian businesses have achieved a total gross benefit of £3.7m from cost savings or productivity gains, accumulated over a five year period, and a net additional benefit of £2.2m. Most companies said they would be prepared to pay to participate in the LMP as long as the fee was not too high. There are concerns that raising the fee too high may result in putting companies off. The main reason cited for non-participation was the time commitment involved which was a significant issue for small companies.

It was recommended that the feasibility of re-designing the LMP delivery to make it more attractive to companies should be explored, such as making it a more intensive programme in order to overcome the issue if time commitments, and that the issue of pricing requires careful consideration in the future.