Application Of Lean Practices Research Articles

Consolidating lean practices with quick-response manufacturing: a boon or bane for the textiles industry during the era of COVID-19

Purpose This study aims to find out whether firms in the local textiles industry are benefiting from the combined implementation of lean practices (LPs) and quick-response manufacturing (QRM) during the era of COVID-19. The study further explores the mediating role played by quick response manufacturing in the relationship between LPs, internal process performance (IPP) and customer performance. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire is used to garner data from 123 local firms in Ghana’s textile industry. The analysis for all the hypothesized relationships is done using partial least square structural equation. Findings The results of the study indicate that LPs significantly strengthen the implementation of QRM. The result also suggests that LPs and QRM can be combined to influence IPP and customer performance. The results further suggest that QRM mediates the relationship between LPs, IPP and customer performance. Originality/value This study proposes and develops an integrated research model that explores the synergistic application of LPs and QRM in achieving improvements in IPP and customer performance from an emergent country perspective during the era of COVID-19. QRM serves as an important mechanism through which the relationship between LPs, IPP and customer performance can be explained.

Moderating effect of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between lean practices and operational performance

Purpose The view that dynamic capabilities theory can help explain how lean organizations improve has been put forward by scholars. However, there is still a lack of research on the matching relationship between the application of lean practice and the internal elements of enterprise organization from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. The purpose of this study is to validate the moderating effect of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between lean practices and operational performance. Design/methodology/approach This study used the method of survey and empirical research to collect sample data from 263 enterprises in China. Through literature review, this study put forward the moderating hypotheses around dynamic capabilities, lean practices and operation performance and used the method of regression analysis to validate these hypotheses. Findings The results showed that dynamic capabilities have a partially moderating effect on the application of lean practices. Specifically, dynamic capabilities have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between just-in-time, total quality management, total preventive maintenance and operational performance, while dynamic capabilities have no significant moderating effect on the relationship between human resource management and operational performance. Originality/value The research conclusion complements and enriches the lean practices literature from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. Existing studies mainly focus on the moderating role of external environmental factors, while there is a lack of empirical research on the role of dynamic capabilities in lean practices literature. The research results will help enterprises further understand the matching relationship between lean practices and dynamic capabilities and then improve the success of lean practices application.

Lean in Higher Educational Institutes: A Literature Review

The application of Lean practices in higher educational institutes has gained tremendous attention in recent years as the sector strives to improve operational efficiency, enhance student outcomes, and efficiently manage resources. A comprehensive literature review is presented in this paper on the application of Lean methodologies in higher educational institutes. This paper seeks to answer the following research questions: 1) How is Lean methodology adopted by researchers in higher educational institutes? 2) Which Lean tools and methods are most suitable in higher educational institutes? 3) What are the barriers and challenges associated with implementing Lean in higher educational Institutes? 4) What is the future of Lean implementation in higher educational institutes? This literature review comprises a wide range of journal articles published in the last five years, from 2019 to 2023, retrieved from various academic databases, including Emerald Insight, Science Direct, Taylor and Francis, Web of Science, and Wiley Online. PRISMA protocol is used to collect and arrange the journal articles (36% analytical and 64% applied Lean) under several themes: (1) curriculum review and teaching methodology; (2) administration; (3) student satisfaction; (4) lean waste identification and elimination; and (5) barriers and challenges. The paper concludes that the Lean philosophy, which was originally formulated for the manufacturing sector, has been successfully adapted and applied to educational institutes. The application of Lean in higher educational institutes resulted in streamlined processes, waste reduction, and increased staff and student satisfaction levels. However, it also highlights the barriers and challenges such as cultural barriers, resistance to change, lack of knowledge among staff and students, and lack of leadership commitment. Overall, the review paper adds up to the existing body of knowledge by integrating and summarizing the key findings and trends in the application of Lean methodologies in higher education.

Application of Lean Practices in Food Supply Chain: The Case of Morocco

Application of Lean Practices in Food Supply Chain: The Case of Morocco

The Influence of Lean Management Practices on Process Effectiveness: A Quantitative Study in a Public Institution

The applicability of Lean practices has been growing in the most different types of organizations, including public ones. Considering the growing need for better and more effective management systems, the objective of this work is to evaluate the influence of Lean practices on process effectiveness. A literature review was carried out to find Lean practices applicable to the public sector organizations and to outline the hypotheses of the work. The method of work consists of a survey, whose data collection was conducted through a questionnaire. The population of the study was composed by all the administrative servants of a public institution in Brazil. A valid sample of 997 answers was obtained from the studied institution. The data analysis was carried out by means of descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple regression. The results allow identifying a positive influence of four Lean practices on the effectiveness of processes, which are: “Continuous improvement,” “Long-term thinking,” “Leadership support,” and “Focus on the final user.” The results also showed the influence of some dummy variables, such as “time in the public service” and “being head of sector.” As a conclusion of this work, it can be stated that Lean practices act as a basis for the effectiveness of processes and may optimize operational and administrative activities in public organizations.

Implementation of lean practices facilitated by BIM functionalities in the construction phase: advances and opportunities

Abstract Over the past few decades, construction productivity has been at a standstill. Lean and Building Information Modelling (BIM) is attracting increasing interest in the construction industry as a way to increase construction productivity. This paper aims to contribute to the body of knowledge by identifying hitherto unexplored opportunities for the use of BIM functionalities as a support and as facilitators of the application of lean practices in the construction phase. A systematic literature review was adopted as the methodological approach in this research, and reported case studies related to the scope of this paper were searched. The results show that lean practices can be classified into four degrees of BIM support based on the level of current exploration. Just one lean practice (the last planner system) has been extensively explored, three have been reasonably explored, and five have just been preliminarily explored. Five practices have not been explored at all. This research summarises the already studied and the potential additional uses of BIM functionalities to support each lean practice, showing that lean practices supported by BIM functionalities are still underused and that further studies can explore additional ways to support these practices. This study holds great value for a broader practical application of lean practices, bringing faster and easier results with more extensive BIM support.

A lean view of lean

A lean view of lean

Pathways of lean manufacturing in wood and furniture industries: a bibliometric and systematic review

As wood and furniture industries have little knowledge of the implementation of lean manufacturing particularly in emerging economies, the purpose of this study is to analytically and systematically review the literature in this context. To this end, a multi-method approach was implemented in two ways. Firstly, a bibliometric method was performed to analyse the scientific literature and examine all general papers on lean manufacturing in the Scopus database—2879 articles published in leading journals from 1991 to 2019 were accordingly identified and analysed. Secondly, a methodological approach was employed to systematically review all papers focusing on the topic of lean manufacturing in the wood and furniture industries. After fine-tuning, 36 articles were considered to classify the research findings into three sections: (1) growth of research interest, (2) motives and application of lean practices, and (3) lean implementation status, organizational context, barriers, and challenges. The findings revealed that lean has gradually evolved over the years, but not for the wood and furniture industries. The vast amount of scholarly studies has contributed to successful lean implementation in developed countries. Moreover, the existing literature on lean in the context of wood and furniture industries have insufficient evidence levels, and their findings have not yet been widely accepted. Interestingly, the first publication on lean implementation in the wood and furniture industries was recorded in 2003, accordingly revealing that the lean concept is new for practitioners. The present study offers a valuable insight into the development of a lean implementation framework specifically for the wood and furniture industries and is the first attempt to examining the industry-level variable which can lead to new theoretical insight.

An evaluation of the status of lean manufacturing practices in SMEs in Northern India

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the penetration of lean manufacturing practices and their effect on firm performance on the SMEs located in Northern India. Evaluation of the status of LMPs on the performance of SMEs has been done by the percent point score method which is a quantitative approach. Eight lean practices have been selected after an extensive literature review and validated through experts from the field. This study depicts the actual status of the implementation of lean practices in the 183 SMEs of Northern India related to manufacturing sector. Out of the selected, implementation of 5s, PM, supplier management has been discovered to have found favour with the manufacturers to a high extent. But other operational practices like JIT, kanban, SPC have are less in favour. The analysis reveals that some attempts have been made to enhance firm performance through the application of lean practices. And, this study has been successful in presenting the initiatives of the SMEs regarding lean manufacturing practices for enhancement purposes. It will help the stakeholders in enhancing their firm performance, reaping higher profits and contributing to the growth of the national economy.

Maturity of lean practices in Brazilian manufacturing companies

Using the instrument proposed by Bento and Tontini 2018. Developing an instrument to measure lean manufacturing maturity and its relationship with operational performance. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, (in press)], the present paper examines lean maturity in the Brazilian manufacturing industry, verifying the relationship between lean maturity and the size of the company. The instrument evaluates companies’ maturity on 38 lean practices, divided into eight dimensions. The perceptions of professionals from 90 manufacturing companies are used to examine lean maturity levels, according to five degrees of maturity, ranging from ‘1 – Not implemented or implemented informally.’ to ‘5 – Implemented, controlled, and continuously improving.’ In general, application of lean practices is non-existent or informal in the surveyed companies. Problem-Solving and Supplier Integration are the dimensions with the lowest level of maturity. On the other hand, Customer Focus presents the highest maturity of the research, ranging between 4 and 5, where the practices can already be considered implemented, showing sustainable results. There was no statistically significant difference between small and medium companies. However, there is a statistically significant difference between small and large and medium and large industries. The use of this instrument in different segments of industry can help to demonstrate that it is reliable for practical application. It also can be used for benchmarking purposes. The paper contributes to the expansion of scientific studies of lean manufacturing and maturity of Brazilian organisations. Moreover, the study of differences between small, medium and large companies can help managers to understand which tools to prioritise when adopting lean, according to each company size.

The impact of lean practices on performance: based on meta-analysis and Bayesian network

It has always been the primary concern of the researchers and practitioners to carry out lean production successfully in enterprises. Most of the existing studies use performance as a measure to investigate the impact of lean practices on performance through empirical methods, and stated that lean practices have a positive impact on enterprise performance. However, there is a scarcity of in-depth studies on the non-linear relationship between lean practices and enterprise performance. In this paper, a composite approach was proposed to solve this problem. First, the relationship between lean practices and enterprise performance was examined by Meta-analysis. Then based on the analysis result, a Bayesian network was constructed, which was used to analyse the non-linear relationship between lean practices and enterprise performance. The results indicated that lean practices have positive effects on operational performance and non-operational performance. However, the probabilities of different enterprise performance levels change disproportionately with different lean practices levels. The conclusion of this paper can be used to understand the non-linear relationship between lean practices and enterprise performance, and provides a broad perspective for understanding the application of lean practices in the enterprise.

Integration of green lean approach with six sigma: an application for flue gas emissions

Environmental considerations have led organizations to take an important role in designing environmentally-friendly, recyclable products to complement improvements in the environmental standards of services. In this context, the application of lean practices may result in pollution reduction. In this paper, firstly, the integration of green lean approach is discussed, and then the limitations of green lean approach are identified. Finally, we integrate the Six Sigma approach in order to overcome these limitations, and assess the performance of the green lean approach. Measurement System Analysis and Gage Control are used as methodology to measure the variations of the process in order to decrease unfavorable ecological impacts of companies' products or services, while enhancing environmental efficiency.

A scale for measuring the applicability of lean practices in IT support services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present research that was conducted with an objective to conceptualize and develop an instrument for the measurement of the perception of IT support service practitioners about the applicability of lean concepts in IT support services. Design/methodology/approach – Scale items were identified from current literature and the survey instrument was used to collect data from IT support service practitioners. The constructs’ measurement models were tested and the scale was validated by using statistical tools. Findings – The results of the study indicate that the operational measures developed here satisfy the criteria for unidimensionality, reliability and validity. Research limitations/implications – While selecting and excluding measurement items for the survey, the researchers have followed established principles of survey research; but it may have been affected by the personal bias of the author. The sample for the survey was drawn from IT support service companies located in India, thus the results are generalizable only to the extent that these businesses represent the population of all businesses. Another limitation is that no prior survey/case studies were carried out to collect IT service practitioner's perception about the applicability of lean practices. Originality/value – This paper provides a new measurement instrument for measuring the applicability of lean practices in IT support service environment.

Application of lean practices in small and medium-sized food enterprises

Purpose– Recent literature emphasizes the application of lean manufacturing practices to food processing industries in order to improve operational efficiency and productivity. Only a very limited number of studies have focused on the implementation of lean manufacturing practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the food sector. The majority of these studies used the case study method and concentrated on individual lean manufacturing techniques geared towards resolving efficiency issues. This paper aims to analyze the status of the lean manufacturing practices and their benefits and barriers among European food processing SMEs.Design/methodology/approach– A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data. A total of 35 SMEs' representatives, mostly CEOs and operations managers, participated in the survey. The study investigated the role of two control variables in lean implementation: size of the company and country of origin.Findings– The findings show that lean manufacturing practice deployment in food processing SMEs is generally low and still evolving. However, some lean manufacturing practices are more prevalent than others; e.g. flow, pull and statistical process control are not widely used by the food processing SMEs, whereas total productive maintenance, employee involvement, and customer association are more widespread. The key barriers encountered by food SMEs in the implementation of lean manufacturing practices result from the special characteristics of the food sector, such as highly perishable products, complicated processing, extremely variable raw materials, recipes and unpredictable demand. In addition, lack of knowledge and resources makes it difficult for food processing SMEs to embark on the lean journey.Originality/value– The gap in the literature regarding the application of lean manufacturing in the food sector is identified and addressed in this study. The originality of this paper lies in analyzing the current status of the use of lean manufacturing practices among food SMEs in Europe and identifying potential barriers.

A comparative analysis of Lean practices and performance in the UK manufacturing and service sector firms

For the last two decades, Lean has been primarily used to improve manufacturing processes. However, Lean is now increasingly applied to a wide range of service operations as well. This realisation of Lean among service firms is an important progress, as there are potentially more benefits to be accomplished in this sector rather than in traditional manufacturing, where decades of good work have already paid off. To look beyond the manufacturing sector, this paper empirically analyses the difference in Lean practices as well as their relationship to firm performance between manufacturing and service sectors in the UK. Though this study supports the proposition concerning the applicability of Lean practices in the service sector, these practices need to be further adapted to suit service operations. Specifically, the empirical results affirm that service firms are interested in the soft practices of Lean such as people and customer involvement while they are found underperforming in manufacturing-related practices such as total productive maintenance, set-up time and supplier feedback. Moreover, the results show a positive relationship between Lean practices and firm performance in both sectors, also the degree of effect on performance was found to be identical between the two sectors.