Review Article

A Review on Lean Manufacturing

Devesh Pratap Singh1, Digvijay Singh Nirwan2, Yogesh Mishra3

Abstract
Nowadays, various methods of reducing waste and increasing productivity is being practised in
the almost every companies and organizations. There are numerous methods to do so. This
review article deals with the basic concepts of lean manufacturing, moreover its philosophy,
various techniques and tools are also explained birefly. Also the benefits and barriers in lean
implementation are taken into consideration and also discussed. The lean manufacturing also
serves as a fundamental concept manufacturing which provide a quality product and that too at
a cheaper cost. Moreover, in this fast developing world, there is always necessity for changing
according to customer need over a little span of time. To order to sustain their place in the
market, almost every organizations have started following the concept of lean manufacturing. A
numerous sets of articles along with the literature of various attempts were taken into
consideration to make this article more understandable and precise. Lean practise utilizes a wide
range of tools and techniques; they are chosen according to situation i.e. they are situation
specific. Using lean alone cannot contribute to success of organization; it requires transforming
organization’s culture too. Lean manufacturing give better flexibility and a good market share to
the companies. Moreover, lean manufacturing also produces an operational and cultural
environment that is highly conducive to minimize the waste.

Keywords: lean manufacturing, Wastes, Continuous improvement, Manufacturing industry

Introduction
The concept of lean manufacturing was first introduced in Japan by the Toyota production system. According to
(Singh, Garg, Sharma, & Grewal, 2010c) lean manufacturing not only helps in enhancing the production processes
but also helps in boosting up the employees job satisfaction. Lean manufacturing is different from traditional
manufacturing in various aspects as traditional manufacturing concept focuses on the inventory of the system,
whereas lean manufacturing opposes this concept. The ‘Lean’ concept considers inventory as a waste in the
organization. If organizations want to follow lean practices then it is very important for them to understand the
differences between traditional manufacturing and lean manufacturing (Andrew, 2006). The market is becoming
more volatile day by day, so understanding market dynamics is a vital factor if one wants to design manufacturing
systems better (Gadalla, 2010). Lean manufacturing believes the simple fact that customers will pay for the value
of services they receive, but will not pay for mistakes (Rawabdeh, 2005).

Introducing lean manufacturing in any type of organization has a straight forward impact on manufacturing
processes. Nowadays, people have a different perspective on manufacturing processes.
1,2,3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Poornima College of Engineering, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, 302022.

Correspondence: Mr. Devesh Pratap, Poornima College of Engineering, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, 302022.

E-mail Id: 2015pcemedevesh@poornima.org

Orcid Id: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5012-7868

How to cite this article: Singh DP, Nirwan DS, Mishra Y. A Review on Lean Manufacturing. J Adv Res Appl Mech Compu Fluid
Dyna 2017; 4(1&2): 1-10.

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© ADR Journals 2017. All Rights Reserved.

Singh DP et al.
They clearly understand that the value of a product is
defined from the customer’s point of view, not from
an internal manufacturing point of view. The main
focus of the lean manufacturing is to eliminate the
wastes from the organization. In typical language, a
waste is defined as anything that does not add value
to the product in one way or another. Lean tool
techniques when combined with SWOT (strength,
weakness, opportunity, threats) analysis help in
eliminating wastes within the organization (Upadhye,
Deshmukh, & Garg, 2010). Lean manufacturing when
implemented successfully results not only in an
increase in production output per person but also in
reduction of the finished goods inventory and work in
process (Seth & Gupta, 2005).
The ultimate goal of a lean manufacturing system is to
eliminate all wastes from the organization. A lean
system is represented as two pillars: the first is
‘jidoka’ and the second is ‘just-in-time’. The main goal
of a lean manufacturing system is to produce products
of excellent quality and that too at the lowest possible
cost and also in the least time by eliminating wastes
(Dennis, 2007).
Steps of lean manufacturing implementation
Step 1. Identification of wastes in the system:
It is important for organizations to know that
they have many hidden and unhidden wastes
in their systems.
Step 2. Wastes present in the organization can be of
different type:
There is a need to recognize the types of
waste and their causes. Lean manufacturing
believes in treating the causes and curing the
problems permanently. There are various
tools and techniques that are quite helpful in
reducing or eliminating these types of waste.
Step 3. The next step is to find the solution for the
root causes:
One must stick to basic lean concepts and
identify the root causes. Looking at causes
might not help properly, so there is a need to
identify the effects of the solution on the
entire system.
Step 4. The final step in the lean implementation
process is to find the solutions first:
Once solutions are tested then they should be
implemented. Training and following up are
important in each and every step explained
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above. One needs to be patient because the
implementation process might take a long
time. (Figure 1)
Industries in many developing countries are working
on old and obsolete techniques of manufacturing.
Mahapatra and Mohanty (2007) in their study found
that Indian companies were using workers only
physically but not intellectually. There had been no
suggestion system in the organizations. Singh, Garg,
and Sharma (2010a) conducted a survey in the Indian
automobile, machine tools and manufacturing
industries. They created five groups as a parameter of
evaluation. These groups were called organizational,
supplier, customer, market focus and top
management. They found that, for companies to
implement lean, they have to focus on management
and market issues. Sharma, Gupta, Kumar, and Singh
(2011) found that supplier issues are crucial for the
successful implementation of lean. Many big
companies like Tata motors, HCL and Wipro have
successfully implemented lean manufacturing
principles. Various small scale industries like Thara
Engineering and Gold Seal Engineering Products Ltd
have not only improved but also developed their
processes by the implementation of the lean
manufacturing. Moreover other large companies like
Bharat Forge, Bajaj, L&T and Boyce, are now started
giving tough competitions throughout world. They
have also significantly cut down their costs by using
lean manufacturing concepts.
Methodology
This research article is completely based on a
systematic literature review. The source of the
literature is the Web of knowledge, identified as
providing access to the leading citation databases
covering thousands of journals globally, as well as
conference proceedings. Initially, some books also
proved helpful in the research process. A set of key
findings has been identified from this review. This
article would greatly help in establishing a better
understanding of lean manufacturing practices and
the challenges that companies face during the
implementation of lean manufacturing. In the initial
search, there appeared a list of over thousand
research papers associated with the topic of lean. This
list was then shortlisted by using different keywords
that were related only to the main research topic.
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Figure 1.Basic lean concepts and methods. [Source: Dennis,2007)]

According to different combinations of keywords, this thoroughly and key findings and issues are
step reduced the resulting list to about 50. The target summarized.
articles considered for this review were those
published after the year 2000, but apart from these Literature Review
some important articles published before 2000 were
also taken into consideration. Papers selected from The literature on lean manufacturing is divided into
various journals and conferences have been scanned three sections, namely lean philosophy, lean surveys
and lean case studies (Figure 2, Table 1).
Table 1.Classification of the literature
Focus Area Chronological lists of publications
Lean philosophy Womack, Jones, and Roos (1990)
Womack and Jones (1996)
Bhasin and Burcher (2006)
Hopp and Spearman (2004)
Bhuiyan and Baghel (2005)
Wong, Wong, and Ali (2009)
Dhamija, Srivastava, Khanduja, and Agarwal (2011)
Rose, Deros, Rahman, and Nordin (2011)
Lean surveys Yan-jiang, Dan, and Lang (2006)
Malik, Lu, Tian, and Sun (2007)
Mahapatra and Mohanty (2007)
Kuo, Shen, and Chen (2008)
Ferdousi and Ahmed (2009)
Wong et al. (2009)
Lyonnet, Pillet, and Pralus (2010)
Nordin, Deros, and Wahab (2010)
Eroglu and Hofer (2011)

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Case studies Karlsson and Ahlstrom (1996)

Gunasekaran and Lyu (1997)
Rother and Shook (1999)
Petroni (2002)
Shah and Ward (2003)
Rawabdeh (2005)
Abdulmalek and Rajgopal (2007)
Chandrasekaran, Kannan, and Pandiaraj (2008)
Ramesh, Prasad, and Srinivas (2008)
Rajeev (2008)
Alvarez, Calvo, Pena, and Domingo (2009)
Pattanaik and Sharma (2009)
Singh and Singh (2009)
Singh et al. (2010c)
Simmons, Holt, Dennis, and Walden (2010)
Upadhye et al. (2010)
Wijngaard, Pool, and van der Zee (2011)
Gupta, Garg, and Gupta (2011)
Goriwondo, Mhlanga, and Marecha (2011)
Paranitharan, Begam, Abuthakeer, and Subha (2011)
Rajenthirakumar, Mohanram, and Harikaarthik (2011)

Figure 2.Methodology flowchart

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Lean Philosophy
The lean philosphy consists of definition of lean, its
principles and main concepts. Lean is defined as a
process that includes five steps: the first step is
defining customer value, then defining value stream,
making it ‘flow’, establish pull, and the last step is
striving for excellence. Lean manufacturing can also
be characterized by a collective set of key factors or
key areas. These key factors are believed to be very
important for its implementation. In the 1980s,
changing plant to lean production from mass
production was considered to be very difficult as the
workers were not taking the responsibility for the
quality of the product. They responded only when
they knew that management actually valued their
skills. The standardization of automobile parts and
assembly techniques was done by Henry Ford. It takes
a revolution, and as a result low skilled workers and
specialized machines made the cars cheap for the
people. (Figure 3)
Moreover, lean manufacturing should be considered
as a continuous improvement process for better
results. Bhuiyan and Baghel (2005) overviewed the
continuous improvement process from the past to the
Figure 3.Lean manufacturing publications
Lean Surveys
Malik et al. (2007), compare continuous improvement
activities in two leading Asian countries. Results found
clearly stated that both countries showed good
continuous improvement methodologies but with
different proportions. Mahapatra and Mohanty
(2007), survey the adoption of concepts of lean
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present scenario. Continuous Improvement (CI) uses
different methodologies to get better results in an
organization. These methodologies include lean
manufacturing, six-sigma, lean six-sigma and the
balance score card. Hopp and Spearman (2004) found
that continuous improvement efforts are means to
achieve high levels of pull production (production is
based on actual daily demand) through eliminating
variability in the system and thereby reducing defects
in the organization.
Clarity of the term waste must be understood. There
are two types of waste, the first type is obvious waste
and the second type is less obvious waste. Obvious
wastes result from overproduction, waiting,
transportation, inappropriate processing, excessive
inventory, excess motion and defects. Less obvious
wastes result from variability. Dhamija et al. (2011), in
his publication stated lean organizations are those
which utilize less material to create their work, less
human efforts to perform the work, less time to
design and develop less energy and space. Lean
organizations focus on customer demand and thereby
producing high quality products and services in most
the effective and economical manner.
manufacturing in some small and medium sized
organizations of India. They found some factors to be
performance enhancing. These factors include
internal management, supplies involvement,
customer relationship, aspect and means of supplier
chain management. Ferdousi and Ahmed (2009),
advance their research in Bangladesh garment
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industry for performance improvement through lean Case Studies

manufacturing techniques.
Lean manufacturing is the name given to a team-
Wong et al. (2009) through their research found that based systematic approach for discovering and
waste education and continuous improvement tools eliminating various types of waste (Upadhye et al.,
of lean manufacturing are most versatile tools and 2010). This section composed of various case studies
these tools are easily understood by all the of lean manufacturing. There are various tools which
manufacturers. The top most benefit achieved from it are effectively used for elimination of wastes in the
was found to be cost reduction. They also found that organization. These tools include just-in-time, value
5S and kaizen had been other lean tools for achieving stream mapping (VSM), kaizen, material requirement
many other benefits in the organization. They planning, kanban, 5s, etc. (Table 2)
compared large scale and small scale industry and
found that lean manufacturing practices were better Just-In-Time (JIT)
done by large scale industries. Lyonnet et al. (2010),
developed a set of methodologies and calculated the It is a tool of lean manufacturing that stands on the
maturity level in different companies regarding their pillars of successful planning and the execution of
understanding lean manufacturing concept and its events necessary to produce a final product. The
main applications. They found some tools like pull ultimate objective is to provide every process with
system, value stream mapping and single piece flow one part at a time, exactly when there is a need for
which were least used by the organizations. Nordin et that part, which is the principle of JIT. Reducing lot
al. (2010), did their research in Malaysian automotive sizes, reducing buffer sizes, and reducing order lead
industries. They found 5S and kaizen had been two times are indicated as the important components of
lean tools which were driving force in getting results JIT by these authors. Size of the plant, age of plant and
from lean manufacturing implementation. status inside the unions are three important factors
that have been discussed by Shah and Ward (2003).
Table 2.Function of the various lean tools
Lean Tools Function
JIT Products are pulled through the production process by demand.
Kaizen Continuous change towards improvement
VSM Waste reduction from Value Stream Mapping (lead time reduction)
Material Requirement Planning Detailed schedule of inputs from final outputs
Kanban Movement of parts based on cards
5S Sorting, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain
Waste elimination Elimination of what does not add value to the end product

The implementation of JIT in a small scale industry in
Taiwan had been carried out by Gunasekaran and Lyu
(1997). They started their journey by training the
workers, and then the 5S tool (Seiri (Sorting), Seito
(Set in Order), Seize (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize)
and Shitsuke (Sustain)) was implemented to improve
security in the workplace, the quality of products and
the production of the company. Worker training was
given in the preventive maintenance of their
equipment and machines. The traditionally adopted
‘push’ (based on forecast demand) system was
replaced with a ‘pull’ (based on actual demand)
system for obtaining a smooth and synchronized
system, so that products were to be produced with
the right timing and in the right quantity. Barriers
faced by the Small and Medium Enterprises to
implementing JIT had been analysed by Gupta et al.
(2011). The largest barrier to implementing JIT was
the lack of bargaining power of the SME with the
outside world.
Kaizen
Kaizen is a Japanese term which is used for continuous
improvement; the continuing involvement of
everyone - whether managers or employees. Finding,
targeting and removing waste in machinery, labor or
production methods refers to kaizen in manufacturing
companies. The JIT approach can be further molded in
an approach that is called the continuous
improvement or kaizen approach. According to
Rawabdeh (2005), housekeeping, standardization and
waste elimination are the three pillars on which the
kaizen approach is based. Kai stands for change and
Zen stands for the better, so kaizen means ‘to change
continuously for the better involving every single
person in the company’ (Singh & Singh, 2009).

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Chandrasekaran et al. (2008) have implemented the
kaizen approach to find a solution to the problem of
‘part mismatching’ in the assembly line of an
automobile company. The kaizen approach has been
utilized to eliminate problems step by step by the
collection of data, the analysis of root causes, the
discovery and selection of one best solution from
various possible solutions, implementation and proper
documentation. The various benefits experienced by
them after implementing kaizen were the complete
elimination of wastes such as lack of quality, rejects,
reworking of products and a considerable amount of
expenditure was saved.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
VSM is a world-famous graphical tool which helps to
enlighten and analyse the work-flow and to find the
valueadded and non-value-added activities
contributing to the final product. Lean concepts and
techniques are used collectively in VSM. Rother and
Shook (1999) have discussed VSM in which analyses of
the current state of the value stream of a product are
carried out. After this redesign, an improved future
state of the value stream of the product is developed
which is mainly focused on the reduction of wastes,
the decrease in lead times, and improvement in the
material-flow. Only one map is required to show the
flow of both material and information, which are
found to be important characteristics of VSM when
comparison is made with other such types of
technique. Pattanaik and Sharma (2009) stated that
processes should be analysed in order to reduce non-
value-added activities, which will contribute in
reducing waiting time, queuing time, moving time,
and other similar wastes.
Goriwondo et al. (2011) have implemented VSM and
brought benefit to a bread making manufacturing
company successfully. Defects have been reduced by
20%, unnecessary inventory by 18% and unnecessary
motions by 37%. Ramesh et al. (2008) have drawn a
current state value stream map, and found that some
processes are unnecessary and can be eliminated.
Singh et al. (2010c) demonstrated the outcomes in a
production company after the successful
implementation of VSM benefited the firm. In process
inventory reduction, work was found to be decreased
by 89.47%, the finished goods inventory was reduced
by 17.65%, the product lead time was deceased by
83.14% and the output per operator was found to be
increased by 42.86%. Rajenthira Kumar et al. (2011)
implemented lean on the assembly line of a paint
shop in a manufacturing company. During the study,
various processes were found that were not adding
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value to the activities of the paint shop. Current
mapping showed that 72.85% non-value-adding
activities were present. The drying process was found
to cause a bottleneck that had been contributing a
cycle time increment. Further, it was found that an
improvement could be made if warm water was used
for the drying process.
Material Requirement Planning (MRP)
MRP is a powerful tool that converts the requirements
for end products into a detailed schedule of raw
materials. Inaccuracies in material planning can create
many problems, including a decrease in productivity,
the production of non-required inventories and
frustration. MRP helps to estimate correctly the
requirements for inventories and raw materials and to
decrease the chances of making unattainable
manufacturing plans (Rajeev, 2008). Petroni (2002)
found that there are many problems involved in the
proper execution of MRP systems. Wijngaard et al.
(2011) found that lean manufacturing has a great
effect in the field of operation management.
Kanban
Kanban is a simple parts-movement system in which
material movement between workstations in a
production line is based on cards. A supplier should
only deliver parts to the production line as and when
they are required, so that there is no storage of parts
in the production area, which is the basic need of the
kanban system. VSM along with the kanban system
was used by Alvarez et al. (2009) to implement lean
manufacturing on an assembly line. Acurrent state
map was prepared and analysed in order to note
down the cycle time of various activities involved in
the production of the component. It had been clearly
highlighted that a push system was usually adopted
on manufacturing lines, which was a big problem for
the assembly line process. A kanban system was
generated to replace the push system with a pull
system. Abdulmalek and Rajgopal (2007) developed a
simulation model to show conditions before and after
implementing a kanban system. Large amount of the
work in process inventories, lower value added time
were major weaknesses which had been visualized
during analysis. The kanban system played a vital role
in making a better product flow.
5S
5S is a methodology for sorting, organizing, cleaning,
standardizing and sustaining a productive work
environment. Increase in safety levels, cleaning of
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workspace, enhanced productivity and preventive
maintenance are some of the results of a 5S program.
5S has been implemented by Gunasekaran and Lyu
(1997) in a small Taiwan company that produces a
variety of automobile lamps. Simmons et al. (2010)
have found large lead times, low quality and low
efficiency to be big problems in scale industries. 5S is
the basic starting tool used to make companies neat
and standardized. Bottlenecks can be found by the
line balancing tool.
Waste elimination
A target of lean manufacturing is the total elimination
of waste. From a customer’s point of view, anything
that does not add any value to the final product is
termed a waste. These wastes can be identified and
reduced/eliminated by using lean tools and methods.
Upadhye et al. (2010) have successfully implemented
the lean philosophy in a north Indian company. In its
earlier stages, the lean manufacturing approach was
considered appropriate only in medium size
industries. Flow process charts were used to analyse
product flows. This study provides information on
different forms of wastages that are supposed to
show their presence in manufacturing systems. Lean
tools like kaizen, JIT, VSM, 5S, preventive maintenance
schedules and Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED)
have been found successful in finding and eliminating
wastes in medium-sized industries.
Barriers to Lean Implementation
The concept of lean manufacturing might look easy
but its implementation is not an easy task. The
introduction of lean manufacturing into an
organization tends to change its working culture. Such
changes are considered to be barriers to the
implementation process of lean manufacturing.
Changes occurring in the organization tend to change
the workers in the organization. Much hard work has
to be done to recognise these changes in the
organization (Barker, 1998; Stanleigh, 2008).
Responding and adapting become difficult when a
worker sees a change in the environment of the
organization.This barrier can be overcome by
adopting a culture of proper communication and
training for everyone in the organization.
Communication and training will raise the level of
understanding and thereby there will be a motivation
culture in the organization (Puvanasvaran, Megat,
Hong, & Muhamad, 2009). According to Crute, Ward,
Brown, and Graves (2003) and James (2006), there are
three main barriers to implementing lean
manufacturing. These barriers are lack of commitment
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from senior and middle management, and poor
understanding of lean manufacturing concepts.
Employees’ attitudes are the main obstacle for
companies who are in a state of transition
implementing lean manufacturing. Achanga, Shehab,
Roy, and Nelder (2006) and Salaheldin (2005) also
considered when top management support is not
adequate it becomes a barrier to the implementation
of lean.
Achanga et al. (2006) have identified a lack of financial
resources as a barrier to implementing lean in small
scale industries. Inman and Mehra (1990) also
supported this thesis and stated that lack of financial
resources causes deficiency in influence training and
prevents organizations from setting lean practices.
Abdul-Nour, Lambert, and Drolet (1998) and
Salaheldin (2005) found a lack of skilled resources to
be a barrier to the lean implementation process.
Chong (2007) stated that lack of time is also a barrier
factor in the implementation process. Production
schedule (Most of the customer do not commit to
longterm production schedules) inability is another
barrier factor that makes it hard to carry out lean
practices (Golhar, Stamm, & Smith, 1990; Golhar &
Stamm, 1991). Large product variety also creates
difficulty for the organization to sustain a lean
implementation process (Cusumano, 1994).
Competitive Benefits of Lean Manufacturing
The implementation of lean manufacturing tries to
make value flow at the pull of customer demand (JIT)
and eliminates waste in processes. Waste is
categorized into the seven component wastes:
Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over
processing, Overproduction, and Defects. All of these
wastes have a direct impact on performance, quality
and costs, and these are all nonvalue- adding
operations for which customers do not want to pay.
Many studies and research show that we only add
value around 5% of the time during operations; the
remaining 95% is waste. Lean manufacturing
implementation tries to remove that 95% wasted time
and effort.
Many authors have contended that lean aids
competiveness (Billesbach, 1994; Nystuen, 2002;
Oliver, 1996; Parker, 2003; Siekman, 2000; Taylor &
Brunt, 2001; Vasilash, 2001). According to Sohal and
Eggleston (1994), two-thirds of companies believed
strategic advantages had been generated with bigger
improvements coming from customer relationships,
quality constraints and market competitive
positioning. Lathin (2001) stated that traditional mass
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producers could expect a reduction of 90% in
inventory, 90% in cost of quality, 90% in lead time and
a 50% increase in labor productivity. Claudius
Consulting (2004) insisted that lean manufacturing
can help organizations to cut costs by between 15 and
70%, reduce waste by 40%, push productivity up by
between 15 and 40%, and decrease space and
inventory requirements by 60%. Nystuen (2002)
stated that product travel time can be reduced by
90%, inventory by 82% and product lead time by 11%
by applying lean manufacturing concepts in the
organization. Bicheno (1999), Hines (1999), Liker
(2004) and Womack and Jones (2003) in their
published research found that lean manufacturing
concepts are quite popular and followed in the
automobile sector as compared to other sectors.
If lean manufacturing is implemented in a proper way
it can lead to various positive improvements in the
organization. Besides these benefits, lean
manufacturing also has many hidden benefits that
play a vital role in industrial success stories. These
benefits have no direct role in the success stories of
lean manufacturing techniques but have the following
very significant indirect roles that cannot be
neglected.
• Improvements in quality and safety
Lean manufacturing techniques improve the quality of
production. They also improve working area safety for
everyone. They even eliminate minor chances of
mistakes in the processes and methodology adopted
for working.
• Time reduction for traceability
By applying 5S techniques and store management,
each and every item, such as tools, raw materials,
etc., is easily traceable in the industry. There is visual
control of each and every thing in the factory.
• Culture change
A change in work culture is started in the industry
with lean. Communication increases with the
workforce and they have a feeling of responsibility in
the industry.
• Reduction of fatigue and stress
With work motion study, we can reduce workers’
effort and stress.
Conclusion
There is a vast literature available on lean
manufacturing, which gives a wide view of previous
practices and research across the world. But, as lean
manufacturing is a broadly accepted philosophy in
manufacturing industries, more research is required.
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Success stories demonstrate that it requires team
spirit involving each and every employee in an
organization to implement lean in the system.
However, awareness among employees about
different strategies of lean philosophy, various
principles behind these strategies and the use of these
strategies in different circumstances play an
important role. Lean tools and techniques
represented through case studies show benefits that
are categorized as typical and hidden benefits. The
reduction of fatigue and stress, culture change and
reduced time for traceability are some of the hidden
benefits, whereas waste elimination, financial
benefits, reduction in reworking, lower inventory
levels and lead time reduction are typical benefits.
Lean surveys have been performed to discover the
level of understanding of lean tools and techniques in
organizations. In spite of the fact that lean offers
many benefits, there are still some barriers making it
possible to oppose its implementation. Poor
psychology, lack of responsibility, financial problems,
lack of education and training, and demand volatility
are some of the major drawbacks which fall as
barriers to implementing lean. It has been established
beyond doubt that to remain in business it has now
become a necessity for all industries to adopt the
tools of lean principles. Now every industry has to
shed conservative attitudes and reform their working
practices with lean tools. The attitudes of the work-
force in industry also require much cultural change in
order to save their livelihoods.
References
1. Abdulmalek, A., & Rajgopal, J. (2007). Analyzing
the benefits of lean manufacturing and value
stream mapping via simulation: A process sector
case study. International Journal of Production
Economics, 107, 223-236.
2. Abdul-Nour, G., Lambert, S., & Drolet, J. (1998).
Adaptation of JIT philosophy and technique to
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