Open Access

Lisa Mastroianni

• The importance of lean management in indirect areas has drastically increased in recent years, as it allows companies to remain competitive. At Bosch Gasoline Systems, lean management has been practiced in indirect areas for some two years now, but the project team responsible still attempts to improve tools and processes wherever possible. This bachelor’s thesis therefore provides an overview of the possible improvements that might be made to the Lean Management System (LMS) in order to facilitate its introduction in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, the US, Japan and Korea. After an extensive literature review, an “ideal” lean culture profile is developed, which is then compared to the cultural profiles of the countries of interest. The basis of the “ideal” lean culture profile is derived from the study of Liker (2014) and Zollondz (2013) where they present 14 lean principles and then the significance of these principles is analysed using Hofstede’s cultural model. Thereafter, interviews are conducted with experts from the lean team as well as with locals from the various countries of interest in order to find out about the cultural differences between the countries of interest and Germany, as well as to find out about the applicability of the current version of the lean management system in these countries. Since there are differences between the developed “ideal” lean culture profile and those of the other countries discussed in this thesis, these differences are then analysed. The conclusions drawn, which are also supported by statements from the interviewees, are used to derive countermeasures and possible ideas for facilitating the introduction of the LMS abroad. In the conclusion, limitations and further research questions are discussed.