East –West Philosophical Integration: The Practice of Lean Manufacturing in Thailand

Abstract

         A constructivist paradigm was applied to find meaning for theory generation and to understand how to integrate East and West philosophy for Lean Manufacturing in Thailand with the collaboration of five participants who had experience implementing Lean Manufacturing. A qualitative case study research methodology was employed to answer the research questions. The researcher selected the qualitative approach and purposive sampling, in order to value the diverse approaches to understand how the approaches are adapted. Data were collected from five executives who has had experiences in American, European and Asian organizations. The researcher used manual coding and interpreted the data. The major findings of this study were constructed by providing a comprehensive description as follows: (1) What is the lean manufacturing practices in the view of a Western organization? (2) What is the lean manufacturing practices in the view of an Eastern organization? (3) What are the differences in the approaches between the West and the East? (4) What are the selected approach to be used for Thailand? (5) Why are those approaches selected? (6) How are the approaches adapted? In conclusion, the research reported in this dissertation has presented the “LEAN MANUFACTURING IMPLEMENTATION MODEL” which can be used as a guide to start or improve Lean Manufacturing execution in Thailand.