* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9831190934 E-mail address: protik_basu@yahoo.com (P. Basu) © 2018 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2017.10.001 Management Science Letters 8 (2018) 51–68 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl Using structural equation modelling to integrate human resources with internal practices for lean manufacturing implementation Protik Basu a* , Indranil Ghosh b and Pranab K. Dan c a Army Institute of Management, Judges Court Road, Alipore, Kolkata – 700027, India b Calcutta Business School, Diamond Harbour Road, 24 Parganas South, West Bengal – 743503, India c Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: July 24, 2017 Received in revised format: Au- gust 6, 2017 Accepted: October 25, 2017 Available online: October 26, 2017 The purpose of this paper is to explore and integrate the role of human resources with the internal practices of the Indian manufacturing industries towards successful implementation of lean man- ufacturing (LM). An extensive literature survey is carried out. An attempt is made to build an exhaustive list of all the input manifests related to human resources and internal practices necessary for LM implementation, coupled with a similar exhaustive list of the benefits accrued from its successful implementation. A structural model is thus conceptualized, which is empirically vali- dated based on the data from the Indian manufacturing sector. Hardly any survey based empirical study in India has been found to integrate human resources with the internal processes towards successful LM implementation. This empirical research is thus carried out in the Indian manufac- turing industries. The analysis reveals six key input constructs and three output constructs, indi- cating that these constructs should act in unison to maximize the benefits of implementing lean. The structural model presented in this paper may be treated as a guide to integrate human resources with internal practices to successfully implement lean, leading to an optimum utilization of re- sources. This work is one of the very first researches to have a survey-based empirical analysis of the role of human resources and internal practices of the Indian manufacturing sector towards an effective lean implementation. © 2018 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada. Keywords: Lean manufacturing Lean implementation HR practices Internal manufacturing practices Lean benefits Structural model 1. Introduction Lean management is an integrated socio-technical system to bring about a competitive state in an or- ganization. In the recent years, Lean Manufacturing (LM) is gaining considerable importance (Shah et al, 2008) and popularity as an approach that can achieve considerable performance improvement in the industry (Susilawati et al., 2015). Though the lean concept itself was not a single-point invention but the outcome of a dynamic learning process that adapted practices emanating from the automotive and textile sectors in response to environmental uncertainties in Japan (Holweg, 2007), the term “lean” was coined by Krafcik (1988). In his landmark paper, Krafcik introduced the term “lean” to describe a