Lean and green – a systematic review of the state of the art literature

The move towards greener operations and products has forced companies to seek alternatives to balance efficiency gains and environmental friendliness in their operations and products. The exploration of the sequential or simultaneous deployment of lean and green initiatives is the results of this balancing action. However, the lean-green topic is relatively new, and it lacks of a clear and structured research definition. Thus, this paper’s main contribution is the offering of a systematic review of the existing literature on lean and green, aimed at providing guidance on the topic, uncovering gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and finding new paths for research. The paper identifies and structures, through a concept map, six main research streams that comprise both conceptual and empirical research conducted within the context of various organisational functions and industrial sectors. Important issues for future research are then suggested in the form of research questions. The paper’s aim is to also contribute by stimulating scholars to further study this area in depth, which will lead to a better understanding of the compatibility and impact on organisational performance of lean and green initiatives. It also holds important implications for industrialists, who can develop a deeper and richer knowledge on lean and green to help them formulate more effective strategies for their deployment

Synergizing Lean and Green Management for Sustainable Performance of Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

Despite the undeniable importance role of public universities in educating the Malaysian citizens, the universities these days are struggling to generate wealth for their own development. Generating wealth is becoming one of the important strategy for public universities as the allocation from the federal government for their operating expenditures has been drastically reduced. In fact, this strategy has been clearly outlined in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025. Despite this significant reduction of source of income, the universities have to find a way to overcome this challenge by becoming more efficient and effective in their services to the stakeholders by becoming leaner. Lean universities will remove the existing waste or non-value added activities in many aspects in the universities' operations, which would yield higher returns and savings. In addition to lean, universities have also the responsibility to protect the environment. As a matter of fact, lean and green practices, share the same objective - that is to reduce waste. However, studies on lean and green universities is rather scarce. Even though there are evidences that these two concepts can be integrated, the synergy between the two concepts has yet to be discovered. This paper will elaborate on how lean and green can be integrated and the potential benefits towards sustainable higher education institutions performances

Lean companies in the track of sustainability

This paper will present a literature review on companies’ practices of sustainability and this relationship with the Lean concept, if there is any. When this relationship is established, normally, it is coined as Lean-Green. In today´s highly competitive markets, with accelerating global development, the increasing resource use and environmental impacts, the business as usual is not a choice for a sustainable future. A true Lean company is a sustainable company by the Lean culture embed, that is “doing more with less”

Investigating the green impact of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma: A systematic literature review

© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The academic literature and research lines exploring the effect of quality improvement methods on environmental performance still remain in early stages. The purpose of this paper is therefore to investigate, through a systematic review of the existing academic literature, the environmental (green) impact of using quality and operations improvement methods such as Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. This includes the impact on energy saving and the usage of natural resources. Design/methodology/approach: This study follows a systematic literature review approach through which it analyses research papers published in top 16 operations and quality management journals. No specific time frame was established, but a set of keywords were used to short-list the articles. A sample of 70 articles was finally short-listed and analysed to provide a discussion on environmental concerns related to Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma. Findings: The comprehensive review of short-listed articles indicates that both Lean and Six Sigma can be considered effective methods to support the conservation of resources, combat global warming and saving energy. Various scholars provide evidence of this, and as such, organisations should not only consider these methods to manage quality and improve operational performance but also meet environmental regulations. A set of research questions that demands further investigation has also been proposed based on the findings of this research. Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to a sample of 70 articles collected from top 16 operations and quality management journals. The search of journals is also limited to a set of key words (“Lean”, “Green”, “Six Sigma”, “environment”, “sustainable” and “sustainability”) used to short-list the sample size. Practical implications: The study shows that organisations can consider the adoption of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma to meet environmental regulations, save costs and also meet quality management standards. This will contribute in helping organisations to formulate more effective and inclusive strategies which do not only consider the quality and operational dimensions but also the environmental dimension. Originality/value: Literature exploring the environmental/green impact of quality management methods commonly used in industry is limited. There is also a lack of studies aiming to investigate the green impact of Lean and Six Sigma in top operations and quality management journals. The study focusing on investigating the green impact of Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma methods altogether is also a research first of its kind

Implementation of green, lean and six sigma operations for sustainable manufacturing. A review

[EN] With ever increasing environmental concerns and global warming, green manufacturing has gained momentum to make the manufacturing processes sustainable and efficient. This review aims to analyse the models to integrate three different management systems that are green, six sigma and lean for the sustainability of various manufacturing processes. Research gaps for such integration are identified through a literature review of various studies. The importance of the concepts of eco-friendly and sustainability in business operations and practices is growing rapidly as a result of public pressure, government regulations and social responsibilities. The first step is the identification of sustainability assessment for the current industrial processes and then to make them eco-friendly and more efficient through different green, six sigma and lean tools available. The methodology presented in this review will not only help in sustainability but also is helpful in the integration of various models for the improvement of the processes. Green Lean Six Sigma (GLS) is an approach known to minimize emissions and carbon footprints while improving process efficiency. GLS includes green, six sigma and lean methodologies for high performance, sustainability, social development, economic progress and environmental protection. The successful integration of this GLS approach is dependent on different theoretical indicators and the model is developed based on DMAIC. Various tools, enablers and integration methods are employed for the GLS approach.Nagadi, K. (2022). Implementation of green, lean and six sigma operations for sustainable manufacturing. A review. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 10(2):159-171. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2022.16958OJS15917110

Green and Lean: a Gemba–Kaizen model for sustainability enhancement

Despite the encouraging results obtained from the application of Green Lean, organizations have found the integration of Green and Lean, and their implementation as an integrated approach, challenging, especially when resources are limited. This paper aims to overcome some of these challenges by presenting a model for integrating Lean and Green based on the Gemba-Kaizen approach. The objective is to help organizations reduce their environmental waste in a practical and easy manner with limited resources. The proposed model was developed on the basis of a through literature review on Gemba and Kaizen, conducted on peer–reviewed journal articles and pragmatic books with managerial impact on the subject, and the more than 40 years of accumulated experience of the authors as academics, researchers, industrialists and consultants after having worked on a number of projects for multinational organisations that wanted to implement Lean Six Sigma and/or environmental management systems in various industrial sectors. The model was validated through two cases study in the aerospace and automotive industries. The results showed that the proposed model helped the case organizations to reduce the consumption of resources and improve their environmental performance. The proposed model can be the basis for further research on Lean and Green, contributing to help organizations to improve their sustainability performance. This research presents a first attempt to develop a model which integrates Lean and Green based on a combined Gemba-Kaizen approach

Green and lean sustainable development path in China: Guanxi, practices and performance

Globalisation has created both drivers and pressure for Chinese organisations to enhance their business performance as well as environmental performance. Green and lean practice is emerging as a critical approach for Chinese organisations to achieve sustainable development and improve organisational performance. By conducting empirical studies from 172 respondents on green and lean practice in different Chinese organisations, this research shows how green and lean practice affects organisational performance and how this association is affected by guanxi. The findings explain that guanxi between organisational partners improves the positive effect of green and lean practice on organisational performance. The results of this paper offer helpful insights into how managers should enhance their guanxi initiatives, in order to improve environmental and business performance over their supply chains. The paper also suggests the limitations of this research, as well as directions for future research

Innovativeness and lean practices for triple bottom line:Testing of fit-as-mediation versus fit-as-moderation models

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the fit between innovativeness and lean practices (LPs) can affect triple bottom line (TBL) performance. Two types of fit are tested: fit-as-mediation in which innovativeness creates TBL performance through the mediation of LPs and fit-as-moderation whereby the effects of innovativeness on TBL performance are moderated by LPs. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modelling and moderated regression are used to test the fit-as-mediation and fit-as-moderation models using survey data collected from 241 manufacturers in China. Findings The results show that innovativeness is positively associated with LPs that emphasize operational excellence. Innovativeness indirectly affects all three TBL dimensions through the mediation of LPs, and LPs do not moderate the effects of innovativeness. The applicability of fit-as-mediation model suggests directing attention towards integrating innovation and LPs within same organizational units to achieve improved TBL performance. Practical implications The findings suggest manufacturers should involve employees within the same organizational unit embrace an integrated culture of innovativeness and LPs and avoid separate attention to innovativeness and LPs. Originality/value This is the first study of which the authors are aware developing and empirically testing both fit-as-mediation and fit-as-moderation models within the same study to understand how innovativeness and LPs work together to influence TBL performance. This study extends the boundaries of current understanding by examining how, when and why the innovativeness – LPs–TBL relationship arises between constructs central to our theories

A framework for the integration of green and lean six sigma for superior sustainability performance

Evidence suggests that Lean, Six Sigma and Green approaches make a positive contribution to the economic, social and environmental (i.e. sustainability) performance of organizations. However, evidence also suggests that organizations have found their integration and implementation challenging. The purpose of this research is therefore to present a framework that methodically guides companies through a five stages and sixteen steps process to effectively integrate and implement the Green, Lean and Six Sigma approaches to improve their sustainability performance. To achieve this, a critical review of the existing literature in the subject area was conducted to build a research gap, and subsequently develop the methodological framework proposed. The paper presents the results from the application of the proposed framework in four organizations with different sizes and operating in a diverse range of industries. The results showed that the integration of Lean Six Sigma and Green helped the organizations to averagely reduce their resources consumption from 20% to 40% and minimize the cost of energy and mass streams by 7-12%. The application of the framework should be gradual, the companies should assess their weaknesses and strengths, set priorities, and identify goals for successful implementation. This paper is one of the very first researches that presents a framework to integrate Green and Lean Six Sigma at a factory level, and hence offers the potential to be expanded to multiple factories or even supply chains

The effect of emerging green market on green entrepreneurship and sustainable development in knowledge-based companies

Environmental concerns, as well as consumers’ awareness of buying green or environmentally-friendly products, has a positive impact on the emergence of the green market. The emerging green market brings many opportunities in different fields. Today, the issue of green entrepreneurship and sustainable development aim at producing environmentally-friendly products. This is indeed welcomed in the emerging green market. The publicly available research studies that investigate how green entrepreneurship, sustainable development, and emerging green markets are interconnected with each other are limited. More specifically, the impact of the green market on green entrepreneurship and sustainable development has not yet been studied completely. Therefore, a comprehensive research model has been developed in this paper based on the literature. The developed model is then tested using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19. IBM Corp.: Armonk, NY, USA and Smart-PLS Version 2 based on the data collected via a survey from a sample of knowledge-based companies in the Science & Technology Park of Tehran University. The results of the research indicate a positive and significant effect of the emergence of the green market on green entrepreneurship and sustainable development in knowledge-based companies. Moreover, the impact of the green entrepreneurship structure on sustainable development has been studied and the result presents that green entrepreneurship has a positive and significant effect on sustainable development