The Role of Lean Management Practices in the Valorisation of Neurodiverse People in Production

Increasing awareness on the widespread presence of people with neurodiverse traits among manufacturing companies has been orienting Lean managers to understand how to ease the inclusion of such individuals to working environments. Neurodiversity, intended as atypical neurological developments due to natural variations of the human brain, is not a marker of neurological diseases, but rather of a different way the brain works. As such, people with neurodiverse traits possess a set of strengths and weaknesses that are not common among other workers, thus resulting in significant advantages for production effectiveness. This paper aims to understand how Lean Management techniques may unleash the full potential of neurodiverse people, enhancing their key assets and limiting their weak points, by putting into relation, from a human factor perspective, each tool with the neurodiversity they deal with, in a dedicated framework.