Industry 4.0 as a moderator on the relationship between lean and operational performance

Due to both convergent and divergent characteristics of Industry 4.0 and Lean Production (LP), it is unclear whether their concurrent implementation may increase performance. This paper examines the moderating effect of Industry 4.0 on the relationship between LP and operational performance improvement within a developing economy. A survey was distributed among 147 Brazilian manufacturing companies that had implemented both LP and Industry 4.0. Findings indicate that, although LP’s low setup practices enhance performance, its effect varies when Industry 4.0 practices are also adopted. Managers should thus carefully prioritize the parallel adoption of different bundles of Industry 4.0 and LP practices

The impact of lean practices on operational performance - an empirical investigation of Indian process industries

In deciding to adopt lean manufacturing, it is imperative to investigate where and how lean practices are most needed to influence manufacturing and business performance. Such an investigation becomes indispensable when lean thinking is to be considered in a production arrangement different to the conventional, repetitive, high-volume, stable-demand and discrete-manufacturing environment. This study provides explanations of how performance is improved through the adoption of lean practices in process industries. This is a relatively under-researched area compared to the performance effects associated with the introduction and implementation of lean principles in traditional, discrete manufacturing. Based on a survey of Indian process industries, this study attempts to develop an empirical relationship between lean practices and performance improvement through the use of multivariate statistical analysis. The findings have led to the conclusion that lean practices are positively associated with timely deliveries, productivity, first-pass yield, elimination of waste, reduction in inventory, reduction in costs, reduction in defects and improved demand management. However, within a process-industry context, lean practices related to pull production were found to have a marginal impact on performance improvement. A detailed discussion of the findings along with their theoretical and managerial implications is provided in the paper

5 Stages Improvement Model (5sim) For Integrating Lean Manufacturing And Six Sigma Dmaic

Pada permulaan abad ke dua puluh satu, ekonomi dunia telah menjadi semakin terbuka kepada persaingan berbanding dengan abad-abad yang lalu. At the dawning of the twenty first century, the world economy had become more open to competition as it had been for the past centuries

Time to be responsive in the process industry: a literature-based analysis of trends of change, solutions and challenges

The current uncertain and volatile business context is challenging firms worldwide, leading to the need to be responsive at a competitive cost. This trend is so substantial that it even affects industries traditionally competing in rather stable contexts, such as the process industry. Although the process industry includes multiple sectors with different technologies and processes, these share several aspects that make the industry as a whole distinctive to the discrete manufacturing industry. Based on a literature review, this study identifies and describes trends leading the process industry to the need for responsiveness, corresponding solutions to accommodate the need, and related challenges hindering the industrialization and diffusion of solutions in this industry. This study shows that trends, such as the uncertainty and volatility of market requirements, are challenging the process industry to develop reconfigurability solutions across multiple production levels. The development of reconfigurability solutions is hindered by modularity, integrability, co-ordination and collaboration challenges

Lean manufacturing in small and medium-sized food processing enterprises : practice, performance and its determining factors

Why do only a few food processing SMEs take advantage of lean manufacturing? Is there anything inherent to food processing SMEs with respect to plant, product, process and organizational behavior influencing the applicability and effectiveness of lean manufacturing? In other words: What are the determining factors that contribute to the variations in operational performance in food processing SMEs and most importantly, how? This doctoral research provides some interesting insights into this topic. Firstly, food processing SMEs are mainly focusing on quality assurance (food safety) and less on quality improvement. Secondly, lean manufacturing implementation improves the operational performance, especially in relation to productivity and quality. Thirdly, variations in the use of lean manufacturing practices are substantial and some practices are yet to be fully used in the food sector. Fourthly, the size of the company is positively correlated with the degree of use of lean practices. Fifthly, the commitment of the top management, training, change agent, product and process characteristics of the food sector are critical for the success of lean manufacturing implementation. Food processing SMEs that manage these determining factors effectively have a higher probability of implementation success. Finally, a framework - house of lean for food SMEs - that takes into consideration the needs and characteristics of food processing SMEs has been proposed in order to assist managers in lean practices implementation

Identifying Barriers in the Implementation of Agile Methodologies in Automotive Industry

Projects have grown into more dynamic and complex endeavors, and agile project management should be considered as a way to deal with them. This is a novel study in this field, because the implementation of agile project management in the automotive industry was not explored so far, thus, this work intended to fill this gap, by identifying barriers in the implementation of agile methodologies in project management regarding the automotive industry. This was conducted through a questionnaire survey, which was developed and distributed to 148 manufacturing companies of components for the automotive industry, out of a total number of companies of 240, and 56 complete answers were obtained (23.33%). Statistical analyses were performed using a Kruskal–Wallis test, a Mann–Whitney test, and Spearmen’s correlation. A real picture of the implementation of agile project management in the Portuguese automotive industry is depicted through this work. ‘Organizational’, ‘Knowledge and Technology’, ‘Institutional’, and ‘Financial’ barriers are found to be the most important. However, in overcoming these barriers, companies can be more sustainable in economic, environmental, and social terms. Recommendations on how to overcome these barriers were presented, and a framework sequencing these recommendations was presented, leading to an effective implementation of agile methodologies. It starts with the willingness of the company, and all collaborators, to adopt the agile methodologies, looking for the agile values as an input in order to achieve a competitive advantage. It is followed by an initial investment, which intends to attain the deployment of an agile team, composed of highly skilled collaborators with a clear understanding of the agile objectives, who disseminate knowledge about agile methodologies to the other collaborators, increasing their ability to implement agile methodologies in project management. This team should work and develop frameworks and workflows, according to each company’s characteristics and environment. The studied aspects can be replicated in other countries, and allow a comparison of the situation between countries, trying to correlate the culture of each country with the ability to implement agile methodologies, among other aspects, such as economical level of the companies, type of production, and the commitment of the collaborators to improve processes and create competitive advantages with which to face competitorsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

5 Stages Improvement Model (5SIM) For Integrating Lean Manufacturing And Six Sigma DMAIC [HD58.87. Y38 2007 f rb].

Pada permulaan abad ke dua puluh satu, ekonomi dunia telah menjadi semakin terbuka kepada persaingan berbanding dengan abad-abad yang lalu. Ini didorong oleh permodenan dari segi teknologi, sistem komunikasi, pelonggaran perjanjian perdagangan dan juga sistem pengangkutan. At the dawning of the twenty first century, the world economy had become more open to competition as it had been for the past centuries. Fueled by advancement of technology, communication and deregulated trade and transportation, low cost countries around the globe had taken the advantage on this access to compete with high cost countries on all fronts of industries

Operational initiatives in the food industry

This research attempts to investigate the use & applicability of lean thinking concepts in the food industry & to develop a strategy for the productive adoption of lean thinking in the food industry. In . order to investigate the application of lean manufacturing concepts in the food industry, a lean manufacturing framework comprising of lean goals, lean principles and lean practices, has been developed through a systematic review of the literature. Considering that the food industry is not one industry but a collection of several types of industry producing a diverse range of products and employing a varied range of processes, a food industry classification system is proposed on the basis of visits to various food plants and the available literature. To investigate specific issues pertaining to the adoption of lean concepts in the food industry, a multiple case study research strategy approach is selected for the research investigation. This research investigation includes fifteen case studies. Except for one case study of a vehicle plant the rest of the case studies relate to food manufacturing plants. The case study of a vehicle assembly plant was selected in order to undertake a comparison with the food industry. The fourteen food manufacturing plants and the one vehicle assembly plant have been studied through a visit tour together with interviews, documentation and a questionnaire. Each case study has been described with regard to product, market, raw materials and process aspects of a plant. Subsequently the case studies have been assessed in order to understand the degree of leanness by examining the status of lean practices. All the cases pertaining to the food industry were mapped on the food industry classification scheme to identify specific food industry types of each of the food plants. It is observed that the lean model widely adopted in a discrete manufacturing environment, particularly automotive, is not applicable as such in the food sector. Therefore, a lean approach consisting of lean principles, lean practices and lean vision has been suggested for continuous, batch and assembly type of the food industry which would enable food industry to stay competitive.The major contributions of this research are, the development of a lean manufacturing framework consisting of goals, principles and practices which can be used to assess the leanness of any manufacturing plant, the development of a food industry classification system which would help researchers and managers to better understand the specificity of the production systems, an investigation of issues pertaining to the use and applicability of lean manufacturing in the food industry to help the food industry take advantage of operational improvement initiatives to stay competitive in today's global market, the development of a lean approach comprising of lean principles, lean practices and lean vision for the food industry which would enable the managers to transform their plants into lean plants

Concept development for designing an optimal production planning and contro

As opposed to the widespread use of lean in discrete manufacturing industries such as automobile, motorcycle or computers, Process Industries have historically lagged behind in the application of lean practices due to the rigid conditions of their manufacturing activities (e.g. inflexible equipment, long set-ups and expensive changeovers). However, even process industries present some degree of discretization as introduced by some authors [ABDU07, POOL11]. In addition to the discretization point of a process manufacturing environment, recent studies presented by several scholars [KING09, KING13, LYON13, PACK14] have highlighted the importance of analysing the manufacturing environment in detail in order to classify products and production resources for optimizing production planning and control processes. This work takes a real example as a case-study to analyse the manufacturing environment in the Process Industry. Besides analysing the current manufacturing operations, this study will also assess the impact of the implementation of a new semi-continuous production process in the factory. Finally, it will suggest a lean production planning and control approach based on Josef Packowski’s High-mix Rhythm Wheel [PACK14]