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Lean thinking and practices entail the reduction of waste, time, effort and cost while perfecting the quality of products and services towards improved customer satisfaction. Lean practices are regarded as global business best practice; especially in light of the recent global recession, greening of the planet initiatives and the millennial need for streamlined systems and processes. The purpose of this article is to propose a set of lean tools by exploring the advantages and difficulties of lean implementation in the South African hospitality sector. The motivation for this paper is that there is a gap in the literature with limited conceptual and empirical knowledge on lean practices in South African organisations, especially in the hospitality sector. This conceptual paper presents the intensive literature study undertaken to explore the advantages and challenges of lean thinking, implementation and practice. The implications of this paper are that the hospitality sector in South Africa and Africa may benefit by adopting the lean advantages and eliminating the lean challenges highlighted by this theoretical paper. Furthermore, leaders and managers can practically engage with the identified lean benefits and challenges and adapt it as required by the process and systems in their organisation. This paper adds theoretically and practically. Theoretically, it increases the body of knowledge on lean thinking, lean practices, advantages and challenges as applied in the South African context. The practical contribution is that it creates awareness on lean thinking and practices as hospitality operational managers may immediately be able to reduce waste, increase profit and improve product, performance and people in their line function. |
