Abstract
This article aims to identify how the critical success factors (CSF), barriers and practices for lean manufacturing (LM) implementation in a small company are related. For this, the CSF, barriers and practices of LM related to small companies were initially consolidated from a literature review. Through semi-structured interviews and focus groups with the leaders of a small electronics manufacturing company in lean implementation, the relationships were evaluated and ranked through the incorporation of a multi-criteria analysis tool. The integration of a multi-criteria analysis tool into qualitative research methods (focused groups, semi-structured interviews and participatory observation) allowed quantifying these relationships in order to identify convergent efforts for a successful LM implementation. Existing frameworks for lean implementation are targeted at larger companies, disregarding the specific small company context. This study provides a guide to assist LM implementation in small manufacturing companies. Furthermore, the greater understanding of these relationships enables managers to anticipate potential problems, allowing a more successful implementation.
Highlights
The search for reducing costs and delivery times, and increasing quality and productivity motivates the continuous improvement of processes and products of the manufacturing companies (Dora et al, 2013)
The proposed method for this work is comprised of six stages: (i) definition of the focus groups participants; (ii) structuring of hypotheses and discussion script; (iii) holding focused group meetings; (iv) conducting participatory observation in the company; (v) data collected analysis and treatment; (vi) multicriteria analysis between lean practices, barriers and critical success factors (CSF); and (vii) ranking of the CSF and barriers to lean implementation
The production process of this company has a team of 34 employees and 4 industry leaders that encompass the entire assembly process of the converters (SMD mount, Magnetic Assembly, PTH Assembly, Testing and Mechanical Assembly/ Packaging), with an average demand of 6 thousand fonts per month distributed in 20 product models, being classified as a small company by both annual revenue and by the number of employees
Summary
The search for reducing costs and delivery times, and increasing quality and productivity motivates the continuous improvement of processes and products of the manufacturing companies (Dora et al, 2013). In this sense, the adoption of the principles and practices derived from the Lean Manufacturing (LM) helps in the systematic elimination of waste, while the organizational culture to support these improvements is solid (Womack et al, 1992). Company size, usually associated to the number of employees, is emphasized as one of the most relevant factors to be considered, since it influences several key aspects of lean implementation, such as availability of resources, structuring and process standardization, hierarchical levels, etc. It is important to highlight certain critical success factors (CSF) and barriers to the LM implementation in small companies, such as the proximity between top management (usually represented by small companies owners) and the operation, which tends to favor greater support to improvement projects (Antony et al, 2005; Hallgren et Olhager, 2009; Anand et Kodali, 2010)
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