From Lean Production to Lean 4.0: A Systematic Literature Review with a Historical Perspective

Abstract

Over recent decades, the increasing competitiveness of markets has propagated the term “lean” to describe the management concept for improving productivity, quality, and lead time in industrial as well as services operations. Its overuse and linkage to different specifiers (surnames) have created confusion and misunderstanding as the term approximates pragmatic ambiguity. Through a systematic literature review, this study takes a historical perspective to analyze 4962 papers and 20 seminal books in order to clarify the origin, evolution, and diversification of the lean concept. Our main contribution lies in identifying 17 specifiers for the term “lean” and proposing four mechanisms to explain this diversification. Our research results are useful to both academics and practitioners to return to the Lean origins in order to create new research areas and conduct organizational transformations based on solid concepts. We conclude that the use of “lean” as a systemic thinking is likely to be further extended to new research fields.

Lean 4.0 in the value co‐creation in agro‐industrial services: An agenda for future studies for the efficient resource use

“…An SLR allows a reproducible review, which is highly reliable (Antony et al, 2022; Khanra et al, 2020). As such, it is a very common method in reviews related to Industry 4.0 and Lean thinking (Bonamigo et al, 2021; Gil‐Vilda et al, 2021). The SSF method consists of four phases, broken down into a set of eight activities (Figure 1).…”

“…The application of Lean methodologies has benefited the development of technological solutions in agro‐industrial production systems (Gil‐Vilda et al, 2021; Tortorella et al, 2019). Lean manufacturing (LM) is widely recognized as a traditional approach that eliminates the waste in the value stream and ensures the efficiency of production processes to maximize the use of resources through the minimization of waste (Valamede & Akkari, 2020).…”

Semantic data mining‐based decision support for quality assessment in steel industry

“…Employees operate according to the company's policy, which is the result of the market situation, management efficiency, investments, internal structure and many other factors. These are the reasons why quality problem solving is a common area in various management practices such as ISO, Six Sigma or Lean Gil‐Vilda et al (2021). SPC system deployed in the Hot Rolling Mill is a hardware and software solution to obtain high quality data and evaluation practices.…”

“…Gil‐Vilda et al (2021) noticed that production management standards such as Lean Manufacturing or Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2015) share certain values like focusing on customer satisfaction as a way of gaining an advantage in a competitive market. Despite the similarities, methodologies emphasize different accents.…”

Investigation and modelling lean six sigma barriers in service industries: a hybrid ISM-Fuzzy MICMAC approach

“…The term “lean production system” was created in 1988 to denote a systematic methodology aimed to eliminate the waste (Muda) that prevails within a manufacturing environment (Tortorella et al , 2017). Since 1990, the term “lean” has evolved, and its evolution and diversification can be described via four mechanisms: expansion, transfer, targeting and combination (Gil-Vilda et al , 2021). Nevertheless, the Lean philosophy and principle involved the identification of customer value, managing the value stream and using the pull system (Li et al , 2020; Isack et al , 2018).…”