Predicting the behavioural intention to adopt lean practices: an empirical study in the manufacturing industry

The purpose of this paper is to test the efficacy of Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) in predicting lean adoption practices, which holds that intention is a strong determinant of the behaviour. With this cue, a study was conducted among the employees of Awarpur Cement Works, Maharashtra UltraTech Cements, Aditya Birla Group. Seven variables of theory of planned behaviour (TPB) comprising perceived direct advantages (PA), perceived indirect advantages (P_IA), perceived disadvantages (P_DisA), perceived usefulness (PU), subjective norms of peers%supervisor (SN), self-efficacy (SE) and facilitating conditions (FC) have been studied in relation to lean adopting intentions. The results indicated that FC, SE and PA were the strongest, positively related predictors while PP_DisA and PU were the strongest, negatively related predictors of the lean implementation intentions. The implications of the study are detailed in the paper. The originality of the paper lies in identifying four constructs to define attitude towards lean methods.