A sustainable lean production framework with a case implementation: Practice-based view theory

Abstract

Due to its competitive advantages and mitigation of global climate change, sustainability development has become a center of attention in the manufacturing society to improve production processes. Scant research exists on the three pillars of sustainability ― economy, environment, and society ― in production frameworks through the lens of process improvement tools such as lean and six-sigma. Based on lean six-sigma, this paper develops a sustainable lean production framework (SLPF) for manufacturing companies supported by the theory of practice-based view. Since a high portion of production frameworks failed to reach the sustainability goals in the implementation, we use practitioners’ and scholars’ perspectives to build a framework including five stages and fifteen steps. To validate the framework, we empirically apply practitioners’ opinions using the Delphi method. Moreover, we experimentally verify the framework by implementing it in a cookware manufacturing company. The result showed that the proposed framework can significantly improve sustainability pillars, e.g., after an investment of $10,212, our case implementation was improved in the economy by $120,142 saving per year, the environment by reducing 257.14 tonnes CO2 per year and the society by minimizing 48 safety incidents per year, and 24 worker-absence per year.