Barriers to integrated lean management-industry 4.0 technologies

Abstract

Lean management is a well-known manufacturing and service supply chain management philosophy. The various industry 4.0 technologies have also received enough attention because of their capabilities and initiated a debate among practitioners and academicians on integrating both paradigms. Despite the potential benefits estimated in many research studies and reports, the implementation status could be more encouraging in organisations. Therefore, in this study, all potential barriers are identified and analysed. These barriers were identified from existing literature and finalised with the help of experts. Further, ‘Interpretive Structure Modeling (ISM)’ was used to reveal their contextual relationship. Finally, the ‘Analytic Network Process (ANP)’ ranked the key barriers based on their importance. The results revealed that ‘lack of skilled and experienced workers’ and ‘lack of government policies’ are the most critical barriers. Based on the study’s outcomes, policymakers could make a more effective strategy to address these critical barriers. Additionally, organizations can adapt the proposed hybrid approach to address the barriers more effectively.