Lean Leadership 4.0 framework: a case study in an automotive company

Purpose In the competitive environment, the companies have to meet customer expectations, such as high-quality standards, as well as lower costs and delivery times of their products. Faced with the mentioned context, the objective of this work is to present Lean leadership as pillar of new Lean 4.0 framework. To this end, the Lean leadership has been identified inside the organizational environment, as well as the difficulties, overcoming resistance to change, that provide conditions to get tangible gains in reactive and overloaded environments found in the company. Design/methodology/approach The proposed framework was based on the state-of-the-art Lean 4.0 framework, as well as Lean leadership. The approach was applied in a case study in the Brazilian automotive company that belongs to a multinational corporation. Findings The results showed significant improvements through the application of the new framework in the studied company. This project resulted in a 31% increase in the overall equipment effectiveness and 57% in quality and a reduction of 58% and 46% in the set-up and lead time, respectively. Originality/value The main contribution was that the organizational impacts enabled one company leader in automotive to apply a new framework through Lean leadership, creating a culture of continuous improvement as a foundation for Lean 4.0. It was directed towards learning, which in turn contributed to management through training and education. This article fills the gap in a Lean 4.0 implementation through Lean leadership. It presents through an update of the Lean 4.0 framework as well as the application in a case study in an automotive manufacturing. This framework can be extended to other sectors, such as aeronautics, agriculture, healthcare, logistics and green.