Interview Plan

Hi there (Smile and greetings) Thanks for making some time to let me interview you.
As I mentioned in person, I’m doing this interview for my dissertation project on
implementation of lean manufacturing in lift manufacturing industry. I want to find out
more about the process involved in the manufacturing of lifts in your firms. There are
four topics I’d like to ask you about this morning: some facts about the
implementation of lean manufacturing, how you maintain your inventory, the training
of your employees, and the challenges you faced in implementing lean
manufacturing. For your information there are no risks involved in taking part and all
the information you provide will remain anonymous and complete confidentiality is
assured. This interview will be audio recorded for future reference.

Do you have any questions before I start?

Section One - Background Information about the respondent

Please state your name?

Please state your age?

Please state your gender?

Please state that how many years of experience do you have in lift manufacturing
industry?

Please describe an average day of work for yourself?

Please describe your main role in the office?

Thank you for letting me know you more personally. Now we are going to talk about
the implementation of lean manufacturing. Your perception and opinions about lean
manufacturing is important to me. Can we proceed to the topic?

Section Two – Knowledge and Implementation of lean manufacturing

What is the best way you use to produce lifts without waste?

Why do you believe in this method?

What is the strategy you use to deduct waste?

How do you overcome the waste?

Have you implemented lean manufacturing?

Was it difficult to implement?

Are you trying to implement lean manufacturing?

 Can you tell me more about how you plan on implementing lean
manufacturing?

Are your competitors using lean manufacturing? Can you give an example about
this?

That was quite interesting. I think I gained a lot of knowledge about lean
manufacturing. We are going to move into the next topic i.e the inventory
management maintained by your organization. Do you have any questions? Can we
proceed?

Section Three - Inventory Management

What is the current inventory system used to maintain minimum inventory?

What was the outcome?

What methods do you use to predict customer demands?

How do you manage your inventory to meet the customer demand

fluctuations?

On what basis do you analyze your supplier’s capability to meet your

fluctuating demand?

I’d like to hear more.

Have you implemented just-in-time in your firm?

Was this difficult to implement?

What changes were made/ has to be done in the process to implement just-in-
Time?

Well we are halfway through our interview. Do you need a break or can we proceed
to the next topic? The next topic focuses on the employee participation and the
training programs needed for them to achieve implementation of lean manufacturing.

Section Four - Employee Training

What do you think is the level of commitment by top management in

implementing lean?

What techniques were/will be used for the employees to adapt the change from
traditional work process to lean manufacturing?

How will you train your workers to gain knowledge about lean manufacturing?
How effectively your shop floor employees respond to problems?

Give me more detail about how you did it please?

What is the level of flexibility does top management provide to the employees
to make decisions?

We have reached the final topic of our interview. This topic focuses on the
challenges you faced for implementing lean manufacturing. This won’t take that
much time. Can we proceed?

Section Five - Challenges in implementing lean manufacturing

How did/will you manage the financial investment for implementing lean
manufacturing?

How would you explain the circumstances?

How did/will you gain the expertise on lean manufacturing?

(This should not take more than a sentence)

Did/Will you hire expert consultants to guide towards lean manufacturing?

Closing

Is there anything we have not talked about that you think I should know?

Is there anyone else you would recommend I speak to?

Thank you for your time.

I have learned a lot.

Goodbye.