How enablers for lean product development motivate engineers

This paper discusses how intrinsic motivation is affected by lean enablers such as clear project objectives and Customer Requirements (CR), continuous improvement and cross-functional teams. It is assumed that – if you know what the customer wants, are able to collect a broad variety of ideas and define potential risks as early as possible, and finally continuously work to solve all problems along the way – you probably work according to a lean product development approach. Nevertheless, how does this picture fit into motivation theory and engineer critical psychological states? To investigate this question, a survey was undertaken among Norwegian automotive suppliers. The results show that only the variable CR are significantly related to motivation. Accomplishing CR is seen as the primary activity by product developers and believed to be in closer proximity toan engineer than the other variables.

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