empirical research methodology in lean manufacturing

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International Journal of Operations & Production Management

ISSN : 0144-3577

Article publication date: 29 July 2014

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on empirical research in lean manufacturing (LM). It provides a critical assessment of empirical research methodology of 178 research articles published from 1990 to 2009.

Design/methodology/approach

The article reviewed a set of 178 empirical research articles in LM research with respect to empirical research design and its related facets. The 236 empirical research articles which are published in 70 journals during 1990-2009 are collected from four major management science publishers, namely, Emerald Online, Science Direct, Springer Link and Taylor & Francis. In total 178 research articles published in 24 journals are selected for critical review of empirical research methodology in LM. The approach for the critical review of 178 empirical research articles in LM is based on empirical research approach given by Flynn et al. (1990). The critical review discusses the current status of empirical research in LM and future directions.

It is concluded from the analysis of the results that: the number of empirical research articles in LM is increasing at a faster pace than ever before; theory building and theory verification articles are equally advanced; the researchers have also unexplored various aspects of empirical research such as importance of triangulation of data, alternate research designs other than survey and case studies; contextual focus is mostly on the manufacturing industry; more focus required on other aspects of empirical research such as collecting the samples from developing and undeveloped countries, larger sample size, longitudinal data collection methods. Finally, it concludes that there is a need of LM frameworks, which gives the stepwise process to remove all kinds of wastes from any organization.

Originality/value

To the knowledge of the authors, it is the first of its kind attempt to critically review the empirical research articles in LM. The review analysis entirely focussed on descriptive statistics of empirical research in LM. The sample size is one of the unique features of this research as the number of shortlisted articles is 178 in 24 journals published over a time span of 20 years (1990-2009).

• Literature review
• Empirical research
• Lean manufacturing
• Just in time (JIT)

Vamsi Krishna Jasti, N. and Kodali, R. (2014), "A literature review of empirical research methodology in lean manufacturing", International Journal of Operations & Production Management , Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 1080-1122. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-04-2012-0169

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Lean manufacturing: literature review and research issues

Purpose – The advent of recession at the beginning of twenty-first century forced many organizations worldwide to reduce cost and to be more responsive to customer demands. Lean Manufacturing (LM) has been widely perceived by industry as an answer to these requirements because LM reduces waste without additional requirements of resources. This led to a spurt in LM research across the globe mostly through empirical and exploratory studies which resulted in a plethora of LM definitions with divergent scopes, objectives, performance indicators, tools/techniques/methodologies, and concepts/elements. The purpose of this paper is to review LM literature and report these divergent definitions, scopes, objectives, and tools/techniques/methodologies. Design/methodology/approach – This paper highlights various definitions by various researchers and practitioners. A total of 209 research papers have been reviewed for the research contribution, research methodology adopted, tools/techniques/methodologies used, type of industry, author profile, country of research, and year of publication. Findings – There are plethora of LM definitions with divergent objectives and scope. Theory verification through empirical and exploratory studies has been the focus of research in LM. Automotive industry has been the focus of LM research but LM has also been adopted by other types of industries also. One of the critical implementation factors of LM is simultaneous adoption of leanness in supply chain. LM has become an integrated system composed of highly integrated elements and a wide variety of management practices. There is lack of standard LM implementation process/framework. Originality/value – The paper reviews 209 research papers for their research contribution, research methodology, author profile, type of industry, and tools/techniques/methodology used. Various characteristics of LM definitions are also reviewed.

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A Literature Review on Application of Lean Manufacturing Techniques

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• Sushil S. Mishra 13 &
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The motive behind this paper is to recognize the notion of lean manufacturing, its ideology, several tools and techniques, benefits gained after application, and various hurdles toward lean application. As lean techniques reduce waste and increases resource utilization efficiency. There is necessity for lean manufacturing almost in every industry due to competitive environment. Due to fast-changing business and its environment, firms are set to face challenges and complexities. It is a useful technique to diminish the movement of non-value-added time. This paper presents a literature review and tries to recognize the main and handy contributions to this subject. Lean manufacturing uses a different span of methodologies and techniques. Many factors contribute to lean success; not only it is compulsory to implement most of the lean tools, but an organization’s culture needs transformation too. Companies following lean manufacturing have better flexibility and a good market share.

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Department of Mechanical Engineering, Viva Institute of Technology, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 401305, India

Sushil S. Mishra

Department of Mechanical Engineering, NMIMS University, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 51, India

Ravi Terker

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B.B.V.L. Deepak

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M.V.A. Raju Bahubalendruni

Head Professor (HAG),Mechanical Eng, National Institute of Technology Rourkel, Rourkela, India

D.R.K. Parhi

Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghala, Laitumkhrah, Shillong, India

Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal

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Mishra, S.S., Terker, R. (2023). A Literature Review on Application of Lean Manufacturing Techniques. In: Deepak, B., Bahubalendruni, M.R., Parhi, D., Biswal, B.B. (eds) Recent Trends in Product Design and Intelligent Manufacturing Systems. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4606-6_80

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A. Saravana Kumar , R. Venkatesh Babu , K. P. Paranitharan , K. Sathish Kumar; Lean implementation in manufacturing SMEs: A systematic review. AIP Conf. Proc. 5 March 2024; 2935 (1): 020010. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0198915

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Manufacturing sector is the important sector in the economic growth of developing country where role of SMEs play an important. The various challenges in manufacturing organization in improving manufacturing efficiency lacks in terms of productivity, quality and cost in developing countries. Lean manufacturing tools is a systematic implementation methodology in an organization, helps to improve the performance by reducing the waste in the process. In this study, systematic literature reviews was conducted in the manufacturing sector implementing lean in their organization. The study identified current trends in lean manufacturing, research gaps, and future research directions. The purpose of this article is to discuss the motivations, challenges, trends and state of the art of lean manufacturing in small and medium-sized (SMEs) businesses. This study provides guidelines for managers and manufacturing players so that they can embark on a lean journey with strategic objectives for their businesses. Furthermore, this study serves as a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners to learn and investigate when used appropriately.

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