Sequences of manufacturing improvement initiatives: the case of delayering

Changes in manufacturing often result in decision making being decentralised. As a consequence of the decentralisation of decision making, the number of hierarchical levels in the organisation is often reduced. This paper examines when a delayering of the organisation takes place during manufacturing improvement. For two and a half years, the authors participated in and studied one company’s implementation of lean production. The observations from the clinical study are compared with existing operations management theory. The findings indicate the importance of delayering the organisation early during manufacturing improvement, to create a platform for further improvement.