Lean manufacturing is an extended version of the Toyota Production System (TPS). It
was highlighted as the best practice in the 21st century. Therefore, top and senior
management in manufacturing firms are encouraged to adopt and adapt lean principles
and practices in running their respective firms. The main objective of this paper is to
investigate the extent of lean manufacturing perception and implementation in the
Malaysian automotive component industry. A survey questionnaire was developed to
collect top and senior management views with respect to their perception, judgement
and opinion on twenty four lean manufacturing (LM) practices. This preliminary survey
was conducted at 30 Malaysian automotive component manufacturing firms. The survey
results show that a large majority of respondents have a high perception of the
importance of lean manufacturing practices. However, it was found that their actual LM
implementation is still on the low side. In this study, the non-parametric test was used to
analyze the level of perception and implementation of the twenty four LM practices.
The analysis of the survey results revealed that there are significant differences between
the level of perception of the importance of LM practices and their actual
implementation.