Development of an instrument to assess implementation of standardisation and continuous improvement

Paper in proceeding, 2011

This paper describes the development of an instrument to assess implementation of the two lean concepts standardisation and continuous improvement. The instrument is intended to be used when performing research on the relation between lean transformations and human well-being. Several instruments to assess lean production have previously been proposed but none of them are appropriate for use in this context. This relates to that they generally build on the notion that experts or managers should make an estimation of the organization’s lean transformation on a general level. The merit of the instrument presented in this paper is that it collects data from a higher number of employees of the organization. The assessment is focused on how the implementation is perceived by the employees. This is expected to correlate better with the outcomes on human well-being; in particular stress. The instrument is a questionnaire with 15 items. The reliability and the validity of the instrument have been tested in two organizations that have adopted lean and implemented both standardisation and a system for continuous improvement. The validity was considered reasonably high. The reliability of the five sub-scales, measured through Cronbach’s alpha, ranges between 0,636 and 0,766.