Leanness assessment in automotive industry: Case study approach

The main objective of this study is to develop a framework to assess the leanness of companies in the automotive industry. Although lean manufacturing (LM) has been discussed in previous studies, leanness assessment is less investigated. Therefore, to fill this gap, this study is conducted to assess the leanness of three manufacturing companies with regard to different supply chain drivers. Principally, six drivers of facility, inventory, transportation, sourcing, pricing and information are selected as the major components of supply chains. The lean-related activities of each driver are identified and a benchmarked questionnaire is applied to assess the leanness of companies. Next, different leanness of each driver is calculated accordingly. An overall quantity of leanness is also provided for each company. Finally, some managerial insights and future research directions are recommended. According to the results, second case study has the highest degree of leanness in comparison to other two companies. In addition, this company has the best performance with regard to each supply chain driver

Improved Decision-Making through a DEMATEL and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps-Based Framework

The decision-making process is highly demanding. There has been an increasing tendency to incorporate human thinking, individual experience about a problem, and pure mathematical approaches. Here, a novel integrated approach is investigated and proposed to develop an advanced hybrid decision-support system based on the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs). Indeed, knowledge acquisition and elicitation may present distortions and difficulties finding a consensus and an interpretation. Thus, the proposed combined approach aims to examine in depth the potential to improve FCMs' outcomes by integrating FCM with the DEMATEL approach. The combined methodology achieves at avoiding some of the drawbacks, such as the lack of a standardized FCM theoretical model. Thus, it provides advanced comparative analysis and results in better interpretation of the decision-making process. It is highlighted that the traditional FCM approach does not allow distinguishing the whole number of defined scenarios, in contrast to the hybrid one presented here, which increases the ability of users to make correct decisions. Combining the two approaches provides new capabilities to FCMs in grouping experts' knowledge, while the DEMATEL approach contributes to refining the strength of concepts' connections

Quantitative modelling approaches for lean manufacturing under uncertainty

[EN] Lean manufacturing (LM) applies different tools that help to eliminate waste as well as the opera-tions that do not add value to the product or processes to increase the value of each performedactivity. Here the main motivation is to study how quantitative modelling approaches can supportLM tools even under system and environment uncertainties. The main contributions of the articleare: (i) providing a systematic literature review of 99 works related to the modelling of uncertaintyin LM environments; (ii) proposing a methodology to classify the reviewed works; (iii) classifyingLM works under uncertainty; and (iv) identify quantitative models and their solution to deal withuncertainty in LM environments by identifying the main variables involved. Hence this article pro-vides a conceptual framework for future LM quantitative modelling under uncertainty as a guide foracademics, researchers and industrial practitioners. The main findings identify that LM under uncer-tainty has been empirically investigated mainly in the US, India and the UK in the automotive andaerospace manufacturing sectors using analytical and simulation models to minimise time and cost.Value stream mapping (VSM) and just in time (JIT) are the most used LM techniques to reduce wastein a context of system uncertainty.The research leading to these results received funding fromthe project 'Industrial Production and Logistics Optimizationin Industry 4.0' (i4OPT) (Ref. PROMETEO/2021/065) granted by the Valencian Regional Government; and grant PDC2022-133957-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR.Rojas, T.; Mula, J.; Sanchis, R. (2023). Quantitative modelling approaches for lean manufacturing under uncertainty. International Journal of Production Research. 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2023.229313812

An analysis of quantitative techniques for lean production assessment

The implementation of lean production occurs through a continuous improvement process that requires constant monitoring. For this, assessment methods are used, and they are usually composed of quantitative techniques responsible for providing indicators that allow assessing the implementation stage of lean production. Given the diversity of techniques that have emerged in the literature, this article aims to analyze the quantitative techniques that have been applied, contributing to new research with a critical and up-to-date overview of the subject. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review that selected 79 articles on the topic. From the analysis of the selected articles, ten techniques were identified, which were analyzed according to assessment requirements extracted from the same sample of articles. The results of the analysis showed that no technique was able to meet all requirements. However, the analysis allowed comparing the techniques in terms of fundamentals, the information they provide, and limitations. Thus, researchers and practitioners will benefit from a theoretical basis for choosing techniques, as well as they can obtain a sufficient foundation to outline future work

Enhancing Future Skills and Entrepreneurship

This open access book presents the proceedings of the 3rd Indo-German Conference on Sustainability in Engineering held at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India, on September 16–17, 2019. Intended to foster the synergies between research and education, the conference is one of the joint activities of the BITS Pilani and TU Braunschweig conducted under the auspices of Indo-German Center for Sustainable Manufacturing, established in 2009. The book is divided into three sections: engineering, education and entrepreneurship, covering a range of topics, such as renewable energy forecasting, design & simulation, Industry 4.0, and soft & intelligent sensors for energy efficiency. It also includes case studies on lean and green manufacturing, and life cycle analysis of ceramic products, as well as papers on teaching/learning methods based on the use of learning factories to improve students’problem-solving and personal skills. Moreover, the book discusses high-tech ideas to help the large number of unemployed engineering graduates looking for jobs become tech entrepreneurs. Given its broad scope, it will appeal to academics and industry professionals alike

Development of Lean Maturity Model for Operational Level Planning

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a visual, data-driven operational lean maturity model (LMM). The model intends to assess the level of lean maturity and the lean effectiveness in different axes of production cells (PCs). Lean is a transformation journey, in which, change management and organizational culture are critical elements of successful implementation. Diverse maturity and assessment models have been developed to evaluate and lead the organizational transformation toward leanness. The main goal of lean is to create more value for the customers by removing wastes. Despite the important role of PCs in creating value, the transformation principles in the operational level have not been considered as deserved. Moreover, the research on lean assessments has used either inputs (tools and processes) or outputs (performance) to evaluate leanness. However, to evaluate the effectiveness of lean practices, both groups of indicators should be measured separately but analyzed together. Considering the mentioned gaps, the findings of a thorough literature review on lean principles, tools, metrics and assessment models were synthesized to develop LMM for PCs through four stages: defining maturity levels; defining lean axes; suggesting main control items and performance measures; and suggesting enablers. A case study is carried out for gathering data of analysis and explanatory study of results. The qualitative and quantitative data on lean capability and performance results of two PCs was collected through direct observation and audit. To quantify the qualitative indicators of leanness, a scoring system is used based on the major and minor non-conformance items. Minimum of fuzzy membership value is selected to calculate the overall performance of each lean axis. Then, the results of leanness are compared with the performance of PCs to find the gaps between requirements of leanness and results of their practices, and to fill that gap by focusing on the areas of strength and those needing improvement. Results of the case study show that the developed model can be successfully used to measure both leanness and lean effectiveness through assessment of lean-performance. The model can be applied by practitioners as a framework to design and develop a company-specific LMM

A systematic literature review of lean manufacturing implementation in manufacturing-based sectors of the developing and developed countries

PURPOSE : This study aims to comparatively discuss the effect of lean manufacturing (LM) implementation in the manufacturing sectors of developing and developed countries. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : An in-depth literature review focused on previous research published between 2015 and March 2020. The papers published by the databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, ProQuest and Web of Science were used in the study. A total of 63 studies that focused on LM application in manufacturing industries in developing and developed countries were used in the research. FINDINGS : It was observed that LM improves operational performance for manufacturing organizations in developing and developed countries. Small and medium-sized enterprises in both developed and developing countries have difficulties transforming their organizations into lean organizations compared to large enterprises. Furthermore, the review also found that there seems to have been no paper had reported the negative impact of implementing LM in manufacturing industries in developing and developed countries from 2015 to March 2020. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS : The study used research papers written between January 2015 and March 2020 and only considered manufacturing organizations from developed and developing nations. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS : The study provides more insight into LM implementation in developing and developed countries. It gives the LM practices and the implications of applying these practices in manufacturing organizations for developing and developed countries. ORIGINALITY/VALUE : A preliminary review of papers indicated that this seems to be the first paper that comparatively studies how LM implementation has affected manufacturing organizations in developed and developing countries. The study also assessed the LM practices commonly used by the manufacturing industries in developing and developed countries.https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/2040-4166hj2023Industrial and Systems Engineerin

Modelling multicriteria value interactions with Reasoning Maps

Idiographic causal maps are extensively employed in Operational Research to support problem structuring and complex decision making processes. They model means-end or causal discourses as a network of concepts connected by links denoting influence, thus enabling the representation of chains of arguments made by decision-makers. There have been proposals to employ such structures to support the structuring of multicriteria evaluation models, within an additive value measurement framework. However, a drawback of this multi-methodological modelling is the loss of richness of interactions along the means-end chains when evaluating options. This has led to the development of methods that make use of the structure of the map itself to evaluate options, such as the Reasoning Maps method, which employs ordinal scales and ordinal operators for such evaluation. However, despite their potential, Reasoning Maps cannot model explicitly value interactions nor perform a quantitative ranking of options, limiting their applicability and usefulness. In this article we propose extending the Reasoning Maps approach through a multilinear evaluation model structure, built with the MACBETH multicriteria method. The model explicitly captures the value interactions between concepts along the map and employs the MACBETH protocol of questioning to assess the strength of influence for each means-end link. The feasibility of the proposed approach to evaluate options and to deal with multicriteria interactions is tested in a real-world application to support the construction of a population health index

Practical implications and future research agenda of lean manufacturing: a systematic literature review

Academic literature on Lean Manufacturing (LM) is widely available. However, due to its fragmentation, the contribution of LM from practical and academic perspectives is controversial. This paper establishes the practical implications of LM studies carried out worldwide and identifies novel research streams. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of peer-reviewed journal articles was conducted. A total of 401 articles published in 61 journals during 2010-2019 were collected from four major management science publishers. An “affinity diagram” was applied to organize the data into natural and logical themes. Conceptual frameworks concerning LM practical implications and future research agenda were formulated. Meaningful themes of LM practical implications and future research suggestions were revealed and classified into two categories. In category one pertaining to the internal nature of LM, themes related to the pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation phases of LM were identified. In category two pertaining to the external nature of LM, themes related to the country in which the companies operate, the diverse managerial systems available, and the methodological research approach were identified. The main themes supported in the literature by most references were determined. Finally, respective statements concerning the practical implications of LM and the future research agenda are analytically presented.N/