Purpose This study aims to improve productivity and customer satisfaction through lean manufacturing for metals and engineering industries. Its aims also to understand the concept of lean manufacturing, various tools and techniques of lean, lean implementation benefits and barrier toward its implementation. Then, on the basis of the result, a conceptual frame work was developed to reduce the existing gaps. Design/methodology/approach Lean thinking is one of the methods that can bring productivity and customer’s demand improvement for manufacturing and service giving industries. To arrive at the lean thinking productivity improvement and customer satisfaction of the sector (MEIs), intensive literature review and secondary data investigation were conducted. Findings Articles and secondary data related to the case were reviewed and found the existing gaps. The gaps identified such as missing energy waste, space waste and material waste, waste of knowledge or talents. In addition to the 5 S of kaizen, this study added safety as the sixth on the existing Kaizen’s strategies. In lean practice, managers give priority to waste reduction and ignore the product quality aspect, which lead to dissatisfaction among customers. Fragmented implementation of lean manufacturing and the conflict between human resource waste and unemployment were reconciled in this study. A model that can improve productivity and increase customer satisfaction was developed. Solutions to alleviate the problems and speed up development were forwarded. Research limitations/implications This study focused solely on the manufacturing industries of developing countries, specifically deals with basic metals and engineering industries. In addition to this, the research didn’t take a case study on a specific firm as it is a literature review. Practical implications The findings of this study emphasized that lean manufacturing is the key for wise resource utilization, which enables a firm for cost, lead time and waste reductions on one hand and productivity and flexibility improvements on the other. To the end, lean can bring sustainable development and bright images to firms, and wellbeing life to workers together with customer satisfaction. Originality/value The gaps that have not been identified by other researchers were clearly discussed, and on the basis of the gaps, a new conceptual model was developed. This is useful to basic metals and engineering industries in overcoming resource-limitation problems by eliminating wastes.

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