Purpose: This paper investigates how manufacturers can develop a learning-to-learn capability for enabling Industry 4.0 adoption.Design/methodology/approach: This research design is guided by our research question: How can manufacturers develop a learning-to-learn capability that enables Industry 4.0 adoption? The authors adopt action research to generate actionable knowledge from a two-year-long action learning intervention at the Danish rooftop window manufacturer VELUX.Findings: Drawing on emergent insights from the action learning intervention, it was found that a learning-to-learn capability based on lean was a core construct and enabler for manufacturers to adopt Industry 4.0 successfully. Institutionalizing an organizational learning scaffold encompassing the intertwined learning processes of systems Alpha, Beta and Gamma served as a significant way to develop a learning-to-learn capability for Industry 4.0 adoption (systematic problem-solving abilities, leaders as learning facilitators, presence of a supportive learning environment and Industry 4.0 knowledge). Moreover, group coaching is a practical action learning intervention for invoking system Gamma and developing leaders to become learning facilitators – an essential leadership role during Industry 4.0 adoption.Originality/value: The study contributes to theory and practice by adopting action research and action learning to explore learning-to-learn as a core construct for enabling Industry 4.0 adoption and providing a set of conditions for developing a learning-to-learn capability. Furthermore, the study reveals that leaders are required to act as learning facilitators instead of relying on learning about and implementing Industry 4.0 best practices for enabling adoption.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the digitalization of operational processes and activities in lean manufacturing firms and explore the associated learning implications through the lens of cumulative capability theory.Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a multiple-case design, we examine four cases of digitalization initiatives within lean manufacturing firms. We collected data through semi-structured interviews and direct observations during site visits.Findings: The study uncovers the development of learning capabilities as a result of integrating lean and digitalization. We find that digitalization in lean manufacturing firms contributes to the development of both routinized and evolutionary learning capabilities in a cumulative fashion.Originality/value: The study adds nuance to the limited theoretical understanding of the integration of lean and digitalization by showing how it cumulatively develops the learning capabilities of lean manufacturing firms. As such, the study supports the robustness of cumulative capability theory. We further contribute to research by offering empirical support for the cumulative nature of learning.

This study presents empirical evidence for the ongoing discussion about the link between Lean Management (LM) and industry 4.0 (I4.0) by exploring a non-technical perspective on how manufacturers can capitalize on their technological investments. The paper, therefore, studies the link between LM and I4.0 from a learning organization (LO) perspective by examining the implementation, commissioning, and utilization of a real-time operational data gathering system at a Danish building material manufacturer. This six months in-depth case study finds that for the manufacturer to utilize real-time operational data from a LO perspective, several barriers must be addressed: problem solving that is not initiated by operators, operators who do not have second-order problem-solving abilities, operators who perceive the new real-time data technology as coercive, poor learning environments and processes, and a lack of leadership that supports learning. This study can help practitioners understand the importance of balance, the prevalent technocentric focus when implementing new I4.0 technologies with a LO focus. Furthermore, the study provides practitioners with a list of specific barriers from a LO perspective to be mindful of when aiming to combine LM and I4.0 to improve production performance.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to empirically test how problem-solving lean practices, along with leaders as learning facilitators in an action learning approach, can be transferred from a production context to a knowledge work context for the purpose of becoming a learning organization while enhancing performance. This is important to study because many organizations struggle to enhance efficiency in the short term while still trying to be long-term learning oriented (i.e. learning organization development).Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on theory on learning interventions to show how lean practices for problem-solving can foster learning and help an organization to become adaptive. This study’s subject is a non-production department of 100 employees at the LEGO corporation. The authors applied survey results from a natural experiment lasting 18 months between a pre-measurement survey and a post-measurement survey. The results were compared to a control department of 50 employees who were not exposed to the lean practices intervention. The authors’ focus was on the individual level as individuals have different perceptions of lean practices, performance, and learning.Findings: Using repeated-measures tests, difference-in-difference regressions analyses, and structural equation models, the authors find that a package of contemporary lean practices for problem-solving, along with leaders who function as learning facilitators, significantly improved learning organization dimensions while also enhancing efficiency and quality and that learning organizations positively mediate the relationship between the lean intervention and quality-related performance, while efficiency is directly affected by the lean interventions. Data from LEGO's key performance indicators (KPIs), benefit trackers, on-site observations and more than 40 interviews with managers provided results that were consistent with the survey data. A detailed description of the lean practices implemented is provided to inspire future implementations in non-operations environments and to assist educators.Research limitations/implications: The authors contribute to the learning literature by showing that a learning-to-learn approach to lean management can serve as an active and deliberate intervention in helping an organization becoming a learning organization as perceived by the individual organizational members. The authors also add to the lean literature by showing how a learning approach to lean, as used by LEGO, can positively affect short-term efficiency and quality and create a foundation for a longer-term competitive advantage (i.e. a learning organization) in a non-production context. By contrast, most of the lean literature streams treat efficiency separately from a learning organization and mainly examine lean in a production context.Originality/value: The extant literature shows three research streams on lean, learning, and performance. The authors built on these streams by trying to emphasize both learning and efficiency. Prior research has not empirically tested whether and how the application of problem-solving lean practices combined with leaders as learning facilitators helps to create a comprehensive learning organization while enhancing performance in a non-production context.

Purpose: Being acquainted with both lean and action learning in theory and in practice, this study finds that the theoretical complementarity of these two research streams has traditionally been underexploited. In this conceptual paper, this study aims to advance the theoretical understanding of lean by exploring the complementarity of lean thinking and action learning leading to a proposed integrated theory of these two research streams. Target audience is the operations management research community.Design/methodology/approach: By deliberately adopting a process of theorising, this paper explores, reflects upon and combines individual experiences of researching, teaching and engaging in lean and action learning as operations management scholars.Findings: Having taken a gemba walk through the literature and practices of lean and action learning, this study views and notices a systematic and complementary relationship between the two domains. The overlapping theoretical and practical complementarities of lean and action learning suggest that these two research streams are ripe for synthesis into an integrated theory. This finding provides an opportunity to (1) progress towards an integrative design of interventions leading to more sustainable lean system adoptions and (2) add new depth to our theoretical explanation of the success and failures of lean system adoptions.Originality/value: This paper contributes an original integrated theory perspective on lean and action learning.

This paper seeks to advance the understanding of the complementarity between action learning and lean. Today, this is an underexplored research area, despite the high degree of similarities and syngeneic possibilities between these two research streams. The paper describes an action learning intervention at VELUX, a Danish rooftop manufacturer designed to develop its leaders as lean learning facilitators to cope with the increasing velocity of change stemming from growth, sustainability, and digitalisation agendas. The paper locates the complementary between action learning and lean in the extant literature and presents an account of practice from VELUX for extrapolating five promoting factors for developing leaders as lean learning facilitators. The paper concludes that lean complements action learning with a suite of concepts, systems, practices, and methods for institutionalising ongoing action learning and concepts on how to think and act as a leader to foster a lean learning system consisting of empowered and proficient problem-solvers. Furthermore, action learning complements lean with the underlying learning mechanisms of facilitating and sustaining the change towards instituting leaders as lean learning facilitators and adopting a lean learning system.