Abstract
Lean principles, aiming at eliminating waste and increasing efficiency at a company, take their roots from the initiatives of Taiichi Ohno. After the implementation of the principles at the Toyota Motor Company for the first time, businesses started to discover the benefits of lean implementation in terms of efficiency increase. As the adaptation of lean into the manufacturing sector is continuing, the necessity of assessing the level of leanness at the firm-level maintains its importance. Taking systems approach as a basis, the lean performance of an organization should be assessed as a whole. Therefore, we propose a holistic leanness assessment framework, which encapsulates various dimensions of the leanness assessment and we identify the importance and causal relationships between the sub-criteria. In order to identify the importance and causal relationships between the sub-criteria, we used fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL). Our findings show that the most influencing factor in the cause group is ‘technology and product design’ which indicates the companies’ necessity to focus on Industry 4.0 during their operations. The results also illustrate that the most influenced factor in the effect group is ‘productivity’, in which companies can investigate strategic competitive advantages. The design of a holistic framework and the implementation of fuzzy DEMATEL offers a way to identify the importance and the causal relationships between the sub-criteria. With the help of a case study conducted in the plastics industry of Turkey, we offer managerial implications that could help managers to implement the proposed structural leanness assessment framework.
Highlights
Lean principles, first implemented at the Toyota Motor Company, were mainly developed by Ohno (1988)
This study aims to contribute to the lack of the any systematic measurement in the literature by (1) Presenting a new holistic leanness assessment framework within a three-level structural format as criteria, subcriteria and measures, (2) Revealing different criteria of lean assessment, such as supplier issues, manufacturing activities, marketing, just-in-time, cost & financial management, workforce, management responsibility, and quality management under one framework, (3) Using fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method in order to determine the importance level and causal relationships between the sub-criteria and proposing managerial implications which may guide managers to implement the proposed structural leanness assessment framework
The concept of lean is founded on the principle that customer needs are to be provided at the right time, at the right place and at the right quantity
Summary
First implemented at the Toyota Motor Company, were mainly developed by Ohno (1988). The principles used at Toyota and gained a worldwide reputation due to their success. These principles aim at eliminating waste, increasing efficiency. According to Schonberger (1987), lean is “the most important productivityenhancing management innovation since the turn of the century.”. The lean concept works synergistically and aims to create systematic and high-quality processes. Shah and Ward (2003) specified that lean fulfills customer demand within the required time. Lean is a management philosophy with the goal of supplying the customers the right product at the right place, at the right time, at the right quality and quantity.
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