Effect of Lean Practices on Innovation Skills of Pharmaceutical organizations in Thailand

Abstract

Pongsak Jaroenngarmsamer, Kittisak Jermsittiparsert

Lean practices are crucial to decrease wastages and enhance the quality of pharmaceutical products by the implementation of lean strategies and standardization method in production. However, there is a need to sustain the effectiveness of such strategies by developing the innovation skills of employees. Thus, the core objective of this study to investigate the effect of lean practices on employees’ innovation skills of pharmaceutical firms in Thailand. To investigate the proposed relationship among the variables and hypotheses testing, data was collected from the 350 employees of pharmaceutical firms in Thailand. Collected data was analysed by applying PLS software. This study found that lean strategies have positive influence on innovation skills of pharmaceutical firms’ employees. Standardization also has significance effect on innovation skills of pharmaceutical firms’ employees. Findings of this study offer new insight to the policymakers of pharmaceutical industry. Results of this study exemplified howinnovation skills of employees in pharmaceutical organizations can improve by the implementation of lean practices.