Status of Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Principles in The Context of Indian Industry: A Literature Review
Status of Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Principles in The Context of Indian Industry: A Literature Review
Status of Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Principles in The Context of Indian Industry: A Literature Review
Abstract
Today, principles and practices of Lean manufacturing are widely used by industries to eliminate waste and make
the process more efficient. Lean has been recognized as one of the key approaches in enhancing the productivity and
hence the competitiveness of an organization. This paper presents a review of lean principles and practices in the
Indian manufacturing industries. The paper contributes by identifying enablers & barriers in implementing the lean
principles and practices, methodologies used in leanness measurement of an organization in the Indian
manufacturing industry. Finally, the diffusion of lean in the Indian manufacturing industries has been given.
Keywords: Lean manufacturing, leanness, lean barriers, lean practices.
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Status of implementation of Lean manufacturing principles in the context of Indian industry: A Literature Review
review on the lean practices, lean principles and lean 2. Principles and Practices of Lean
implementation, application of lean, then leanness is Manufacturing
elucidated. Finally the barriers to implement lean Lean production is a multi-dimensional approach that
followed lean manufacturing in India are discussed. encompasses a wide variety of management
practices, including just-in-time, quality systems,
work teams, cellular manufacturing, supplier
management, etc. in an integrated system (Shah et al.,
2003).Yadav et al. (2010) identified ten fundamental
lean principles (Table 1) on the basis of exhaustive
literature review and authors’ industrial experience,
which further used for investigation of lean
implementation.
Recently the thorough research emphasizes a broad There is not a fixed standard recipe for lean
set of practices which frequently included under the implementations; however Hines (2004) given the
lean production (Shah et al., 2008), shown in Table 2. Womack and Jones’s framework for the lean leap
The key aspect of lean implementation is the (Table 3); defines a “one best way” which, containing
marriage between lean practices and principles with a good deal of sensible advise.
the strong commitment in pursuit of perfection
through perpetual learning (Yadav et al., 2010).
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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India
Recently the thorough research emphasizes a broad There is not a fixed standard recipe for lean
set of practices which frequently included under the implementations; however Hines (2004) given the
lean production (Shah et al., 2008), shown in Table 2. Womack and Jones’s framework for the lean leap
The key aspect of lean implementation is the (Table 3); defines a “one best way” which, containing
marriage between lean practices and principles with a good deal of sensible advise.
the strong commitment in pursuit of perfection
through perpetual learning (Yadav et al., 2010).
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Status of implementation of Lean manufacturing principles in the context of Indian industry: A Literature Review
3. Application of Lean Approach Wan and Chen (2008) developed a leanness measure
evolved from the concept of data envelopment analysis
Lean manufacturing is not new in Automobile industry (DEA) that indicates how lean the system is and how
where actually it born. After sudden success of Toyota much waste exists. Singh et al. (2010) developed a
in 1980’s over the big three (Ford, General Motors and leanness index by introducing fuzzy logic set theory to
Chrysler) and other Automobile industries, the other the measurement method based on the judgment and
industries started implementation to reap the benefits evaluation given by leanness measurement team (LMT)
seen in Toyota. on various leanness parameters such as supplier’s
Piercy and Rich (2009) discussed the evidences of issues, investment priorities, lean practices, and various
successful lean implementation in service environment; waste addressed by lean and customers’ issues. Vimal
in call service centre to achieve reducing costs and and Vinodh (2012) attempted fuzzy logic-based
improving quality. Meier and Forrester (2002) found inference method and developed a conceptual model
that lean production practices can be successfully consisting of three levels namely enabler, criterion, and
applied to tableware sector characterized by craft attributes to compute leanness level using IF-THEN
manufacturing. Abdulmalek and Rajgopal (2007) argue rules. Gurumurthy et al. (2009) applied the
the frequent application of lean approach to discrete benchmarking (BM) tool for assessing the lean
manufacturing than in the continuous/process sector. manufacturing; BM utilizes a systematic process for
Lean manufacturing has been applied within the process improving the performance of product/service, process
industries, most notably chemicals and pharmaceuticals or an organization as a whole by continuously
sectors, to great effect (Melton, 2005). Sullivan et al. identifying, understanding, and adapting best practices
(2002) discussed an equipment replacement decision that are found either inside or outside the organization.
problem within the context of lean manufacturing for Doolen et al. (2005) developed a lean assessment tool to
inventory saving, floor space reduction, and high assess both the number and the level of implementation
quality. of a broad range of lean practices in an organization.
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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India
Bhasin (2012) identified the prominent barriers in explains the factors contributing to the low numbers of
relation to the organizations size by analyzing total 68 successful lean conversions. The prominent barriers
UK manufacturing organizations operating lean which identified by Bhasin (2012) are presented in the Table 4.
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Status of implementation of Lean manufacturing principles in the context of Indian industry: A Literature Review
decision-making (MCDM) for lean assessment to assess The paper contributes by identifying enablers & barriers
lean performance holistically.The literature pointed in implementing the lean principles and practices,
toward popularity of lean in India; but when it comes to methodologies used in leanness measurement of an
success, its only start of journey. Other than automobile organization in the Indian manufacturing industry.
and electronics industry, others are having medium to
low diffusion of lean in India.
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