121 IMPACT FACTOR VALUE: 0.615 ISSN: 2320-9704- Online ISSN: 2347-1662-Print Volume 2, Issue 6 (June, 2014) INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE RESEARCH REVIEW VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY TEST OF A SELF LEAN ASSESSMENT MODEL FOR APPAREL INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA D.M.A. KULASOORIYA 1 R. S. CHALAPATHI 2 1 Director, NIBM and Dean of School of Business of NSBM, Member of Board of Directors of NSBM. 2 Mechanical Engineer, Director of Institute of Sigma Learning, India and PhD in Mechanical Engineering . ABSTRACT Lean is a buzz word in the world of work and many industrialists are of the view that a comprehensive tool to measure the degree of leanness would serve industries to sustain their cutting edge over the consumption of resources. In this paper, a study has been conducted to test validity and reliability of a Self- Lean Assessment Model developed by authors using the current lean assessment models being used in industries in the world. A validity test was carried out using the factor analysis after collecting data from subject matter specialists in the field of lean management. Results indicated that there were several items of the model which were in poor correlation. Modification was done for all related items before testing the reliability. The Reliability test was carried out using the Reliability Calculator created by Del Siegle for both in terms of overall and constructs wise. Study was conducted in five garment manufacturing companies and found that both internal consistencies of overall and component wise are acceptable for a wide scale of field study. Hence it is recommended to make use of the tested Self – Lean Assessment model for further studies to measure the degree of leanness of manufacturing companies. Keywords: Lean Manufacturing System, Maturity Model, Just In Time, Kanban, Load Leveling, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, Total Productive Maintenance, Value Stream Mapping 1. INTRODUCTION Lean management is becoming a robust management system in the world of business. It was originated in Toyota Corporation as Toyota production system and consequently the same production system was implemented by many industries both in manufacturing and services. Implementing lean principles have been made profound impact in many industries. As a result, it has become a trend in all industries to practice lean tool and techniques which demands assessments criteria to measure the degree of leanness. Some of the trends influencing today's manufacturing environments are making the shape of modern business : global competition; shortened product life cycle; increasing requirements for quality and reliability; increasing need for product customization; faster paced advances in increasingly complex technology; and rapidly expanding options in materials and processes (Sameh M. Saad-2007). Global competition and the increased