Applying Lean manufacturing philosophy is one of the most important concepts that help enterprises to gain competitive advantage in the world market. Lean manufacturing or lean production is a production practice, which regards the use of resources for any work other than the creation of value for the end customer, as waste. Although a lot of companies started implementing Lean concept, and the number of Lean tools, techniques and technologies available to improve operational performance are growing rapidly, only ten percent or less of the companies achieved significant results. The purpose of the paper is creating a model illustrating successful Lean implementation based on prior analysis of Lean implementation progress measurement and the main barriers identification. Implementation of Lean philosophy and principles can be described as a set of actions and processes starting with planning the change and, defining the success factors, and finishing with the implementation and measurement of the progress. For each of the improvement dimensions, several groups of indicators with a set of metrics can show and measure the company’s progress: elimination of waste; continuous improvement; continuous flow and pull-driven systems; multifunctional teams; and information systems. Authors of this paper present the original model of the Lean implementation process, which includes success factors, barriers and progress measurement metrics. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.18.2.4732

Lean is a prominent philosophy and a practice that assumes the expenditure of all types of resources for any purpose other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and therefore a target for exclusion. This philosophy and the way of thinking expressed by a set of principles, supplemented by different tools and techniques helps for waste elimination, operational performance improvement, inventory reduction, and optimum quality level to the end customers. It is one of the paramount and wide-ranging concepts that contribute companies all over the world to gain competitive advantage and prosper in the world market. The purpose of the paper is to disclose the manifestation of multidimensional Lean concept in companies operating in Lithuania.

There is an increasing focus on bridging human behaviour and attitudes towards sustainability. This article focuses on the factors that influence sustainable behaviour of working people. Based on a systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature, the authors of the paper present the theoretical conceptual model, which illustrates sustainable behaviour. The aim of the empirical research is to examine how employees relate to sustainable behaviour across generations, genders and different modes of education through economic, environmental and social domains. A quantitative method in the form of a survey was selected to capture individual employee attitudes and actions regarding sustainable behaviour. A total of 412 complete responses from Lithuanian employees were used for data analysis. The results of empirical research revealed a significant relationship between gender, generation and education, and sustainable employee behaviour.

The paper reveals to the challenges and barriers to be faced and overcomed while implementing lean concept. Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or simply "Lean", is a practice, which regards the use of resources for any work other than the creation of value for the end customer, as waste, and thus a target for elimination. Its main goals are to eliminate waste, reduce the need for managing large inventories, and provide optimum quality at the least cost by making quality control decisions an immediate part of the manufacturing process. Lean concept has been proven to be transferrable and applicable to a wide variety of industries and services. Although it is one of the popular concepts with a number of tools, techniques and technologies available to improve operational performance, and a lot of companies started implementing lean concept, only about ten percent or even less of the companies achieved significant results. The aim of the paper is to identify the main challenges and barriers that companies face with while implementing Lean concept and measures that could be taken to facilitate it. Synthesis of scientific literature allowed finding out the core principles of Lean concept. On the base of conducted analysis and synthesis, the main groups of barriers were identified and recommendations how to overcome them were presented. Authors of the paper present the conceptual model of Lean implementation process which includes success factors, barriers and progress measurement indicators. The results of this research can be useful for scientists analysing this topic from theoretical and empirical perspective, and for practicians implementing lean concept in business. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n13p177

COVID-19 played a significant role in the spread of telework worldwide, changing people’s lives and behaviour. The paper aims to identify how teleworking affected the sustainable behaviour of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research design applies a multi-method approach, combining systematic and comparative scientific literature analysis and a semi-structured interview. The authors of the paper present the theoretical conceptual model, which illustrates links between teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic and the sustainable behaviour of employees. The results of empirical research revealed that teleworking during the COVID-19 pandemic changed employee behaviour in economic, environmental and social dimensions. Positive changes were identified due to reduced commuting and shopping; decreased costs for transport, food, clothing, and beauty services; better access to healthy and nutritious food; better opportunities for professional development. On the contrary, costs for home energy and household waste increased. Adverse effects on employees’ physical and mental health have been identified due to teleworking and COVID-19. Despite the identified negative effects, employees would like to continue teleworking even after the pandemic.