Abstract
In the last decades, sustainable development has increasingly gained importance to service industry and the integration between Green, Lean and Six Sigma approaches in service systems is necessary in order to balance the need for operational efficiency with environmental commitment and social fairness. Because of that, the purpose of this paper is to critically review the Lean and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodologies and highlight their importance to achieve sustainable services. To do this, a systematic literature review of the subjects under investigation was conducted. The study has two major contributions. First, it is one of the first researches that examine the compatibility and divergences of Green, Lean and Six Sigma concepts and implications regarding its sustainable implementation in service industry. Second, it provides a holistic Green LSS framework attempting to help practitioners to find ways of institutionalizing it in numerous kinds of services, by pointing out nine critical factors for its implementation, such as continuous customer satisfaction, ethical relations and regulatory compliance, focus on knowledge management and human behaviors, and effective Jidoka automation. The proposed framework indicates new paradigms and pathways to achieve the balance in technical, economic, social and environmental priorities in services.
Highlights
Sustainable concerns have increasingly gained importance in societies and economies discussions over the last decades
This research aims to contribute to the scientific community on the theme studied, since it present a representative selection of international research in interdisciplinary area as it is a relevant issue in which there is a dialogue of sustainability science, business management and industrial engineering, enabling the researchers to contribute with relevant research
It is expected that the proposed framework benefit both researchers and industrialists in gaining valuable information on the influence of Lean and Six Sigma practices in increasing corporate triple bottom line (TBL)-sustainability, and thereby provide new paradigms and pathways to achieve a balance in technical, economic, social and environmental priorities in sustainable business practices
Summary
Sustainable concerns have increasingly gained importance in societies and economies discussions over the last decades. Since the 50’s, Lean principles of the Toyota production system have evolved, and have been implemented successfully by the Toyota Motor Company (Aziz & Hafez, 2013) They were formed by two main conceptions: Just-in-Time flow (producing according to the demand) and Jidoka automation (man-machine separation, in which a single operator manages several machines). Lean Thinking offers a unique methodology, which is to do more with less – less human effort, less equipment, less staff and less space – in order to achieve the real needs of its clients It results in the elimination of waste through more efficient processes, and that generates the essential capabilities a customer values (Comm & Mathaisel, 2005). Service companies that deploy the Lean approach quickly gain control of the key processes that deliver customer service, the practice of Lean behaviors helps to reduce ambiguity and re-work in interpersonal relationships and the Lean tools, such as value stream mapping and pull techniques, make people see the whole instead of only their part and they come to understand better the paradox related to flexibility versus efficiency (Abdi et al, 2006)
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