The Significant of Lean Practice on the Sustainability Performance in Automotive Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

This study attempts to evaluate the significant of lean practices on the sustainability performance in automotive manufacturing industry. Lean practices are typically used to eliminate waste that are produced by defects, waiting time, overproduction, extra motion, extra processing, excess inventory and unnecessary transportation. Meanwhile, sustainability performance is defined as the alignment of financial, environmental, and social objectives in the conduct of fundamental business operations with the goal of maximizing value. The study was conducted in the form of a questionnaire survey and the statistical analysis was carried out based on collected data. This study only focuses on automotive manufacturing industry in the area of peninsula Malaysia. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) is applied to answer the research objectives and to test the hypotheses. The results show the high levels of Cronbach's Alpha indicate that the questionnaire data are valid and dependable. All the companies have significant gain more in terms of environment sustainability performance by adopting lean techniques. The study also indicates the most tools that had been implementing among the four companies are 5S, kaizen, kanban, employee commitment and teamwork. Through the multiple regression analysis, the result indicates that the lean practices have significant and positive effect on sustainability performance in automotive manufacturing industry. The current study also benefits manufacturer by providing information on the extent of lean manufacturing practices and their impact on three bottom lines (TBL) sustainability performance, allowing helping their company achieve long-term economic, environmental, and social improvements.