Lean implementation within SMEs: a literature review

Abstract

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 F o r P e e r R e v i e w IntroductionThe modern marketplace is commonly characterised in many sectors by hypercompetition, a state, which has accrued over many years (D'Aveni 1994). Hypercompetition has been driven by the combined impact of macro-forces changing the nature of both supply and demand. On the supply side, environmental factors such as the increasing globalisation and deregulation of commerce have opened up markets to be provided for by a greater volume of companies (Harvey et al. 2001). This has combined with the development and adoption of new technologies, which has enhanced the sophistication of supply capabilities (Harvey et al. 2001). On the demand side, customers, presented with this increased proliferation and sophistication of choice in supply, are characterised by a growing assertiveness in seeking out better and better values when selecting products and services (Bhamu and Sangwan 2014).For organisations, hyper-competition has led to a realisation that more demanding rules for business now exist to be successful in the modern age. There needs to be a full recognition of what customers' value combined with a focus on the optimisation of operating processes to effectively compete in serving customers (Bowersox et al., 2000). The "Lean" business ideology (Bhasin 2013), which has been one of the dominant research areas in Operations Management (Voss 1995, Shah andWard 2003), has thus been turned to by many organisations to guide their mind-set and efforts in addressing these needs. Lean sets out a methodology for being highly responsive to customers' demands whilst constantly challenging costs and wastes throughout supply networks (Bhamu and Sangwan 2014, Shah andWard 2007). So, it would appear that Lean can be applicable to all sizes of enterprise in their endeavours to become more competitive to sustain, and possibly enhance, their position in the modern marketplace. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 F o r P e e r R e v i e w Broadly, organisations can be simply categorised into two groups: Large Enterprises (LEs) and Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). It would appear however, that there is a significantly lower up take lower take up of Lean in SMEs compared to LEs (Shah and Ward 2003) and that many SMEs are still unfamiliar with Lean implementation (Achanga et al. 2006). Research has indicated that this is due to many factors, which will be further explored and examined in this paper. While several studies that have addressed Lean implementation in general (e.g. Hines et al. 2004, Holweg 2007, Moyano-Fuentes and S...

Toyota production system - one example to shipbuilding industry

“…ijmp.jor.br v. 8, n. 3, July -September 2017ISSN: 2236AGARWAL, 2015;BALL, 2015;PAKDIL;LEONARD, 2015;MUND;PIETERSE;CAMERON, 2015;CHAY, et al, 2015;HU, et al, 2015;WICKRAMASINGHE;WICKRAMASINGHE, 2016;BIRKIE, 2016;ALI;DEIF, 2016;NARAYANAMURTHY;GURUMURTHY, 2016;CHEN;SU;RO, 2017;KAMALAHMADI;PARAST, 2017;MOHAMMADDUST, et al, 2017).…”

“…Another relevant factor is the cost of unnecessary drives that are eliminated with the inclusion of a lean production flow HU, et al, 2015;BIRKIE, 2016;ALI;DEIF, 2016;NARAYANAMURTHY;GURUMURTHY, 2016;CHEN;SU;RO, 2017;KAMALAHMADI;PARAST, 2017;MOHAMMADDUST, et al, 2017).…”

“…So, an action plan may be strategically placed to eliminate or minimize them aiming to not to interrupt production. With the elimination of batch production and the insertion of a lean flow, reducing inventory, an essential factor that will be easily noticed is the quality of manufactured products, as problems related to quality will be easily detected and require quick, efficient and effective solution (VRIES, 2013;HASLE, et al 2012;SILVEIRA;SNIDER;BALAKRISHNAN, 2013;CHAVEZ, et al, 2013;DIBIA;DHAKAL;ONUH, 2014;THANKI;THAKKAR, 2014;PANWAR;JAIN;RATHORE, 2015;MARODIN;SAURIN, 2015;BR KUMAR;SHARMA;AGARWAL, 2015;BALL, 2015;PAKDIL;LEONARD, 2015;MUND;PIETERSE;CAMERON, 2015;CHAY, et al, 2015;HU, et al, 2015;BIRKIE, 2016;VENTO, et …”

“…Lean manufacturing is as a set of practices focused on reduction of wastes and non-value added activities from a firm's manufacturing operations (YANG, et al 2011;BROWN;SCHMITT;SCHONBERGER, 2015;HASLE, et al 2012;KUULA;PUTKIRANTA;TOIVANEN, 2012, BENNET;KLUNG, 2012;CHAVEZ, et al, 2013;HENDRY;HUANG;STEVENSON, 2013;BONNEY;JABER, 2013;DIBIA;DHAKAL;ONUH, 2014;THANKI;THAKKAR, 2014;PANWAR;JAIN, RATHORE, 2015;MARODIN;SAURIN, 2015;BR KUMAR;SHARMA;AGARWAL, 2015;BALL, 2015;PAKDIL;LEONARD, 2015;MUND;PIETERSE;CAMERON, 2015;CHAY, et al, 2015;HU, et al, 2015;WICKRAMASINGHE;WICKRAMASINGHE, 2016;BIRKIE, 2016;VENTO, et al, 2016;ALI;DEIF, 2016;NARAYANAMURTHY;GURUMURTHY, 2016;MOHAMMADDUST, et al, 2017).…”

“…Get output with high productivity will require that this concept is widespread in every stage of the production process. The industrial layout should be efficient and provide operational efficiency by eliminating most unnecessary transport and reducing the operation time in the shipyard (SILVEIRA; SNIDER; BALAKRISHNAN, 2013;CHAVEZ, et al, 2013;DIBIA;DHAKAL;ONUH, 2014;THANKI;THAKKAR, 2014;PANWAR;JAIN;RATHORE, 2015;MARODIN;SAURIN, 2015;EL-KHALIL, 2015;BR KUMAR;SHARMA;AGARWAL, 2015;BALL, 2015;PAKDIL;LEONARD, 2015;MUND;PIETERSE;CAMERON, 2015;CHAY, et al, 2015;HU, et al, 2015;BIRKIE, 2016;VENTO, et al, 2016;ALI;DEIF, 2016;NARAYANAMURTHY;GURUMURTHY, 2016;MOHAMMADDUST, et al, 2017).…”