Employees’ Participation and Involvement in Lean Management: The Experience of a Training Program of Assembly Lines Workers

This paper tackles the problem of how to train employees to foster involvement and participation to support the implementation of Toyota Production System (TPS). To this aim, it presents the case of a training program aimed at involving workers in a TPS project, increasing their knowledge of the lean management model, and starting a discussion with them, to fine-tune the new organization, especially on the themes of versatility, knowledge exchange, cooperation and teamwork. The training program involved 450 workers of a manufacturing company, it lasted three days per participant, where activities in the classroom and in the shop floor were combined. Different didactic methods were used: theoretical lessons, group discussion and teamwork, didactic games and practical experience in the production line. Results show that the approach was successful and allowed the company to fully reap the benefits of TPS.