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1 – 10 of over 10000Albi Thomas and M. Suresh
This paper aims to “identify,” “analyse” and “categorise” the readiness factors of lean sustainability in health-care organisation using total interpretive structural modelling…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to “identify,” “analyse” and “categorise” the readiness factors of lean sustainability in health-care organisation using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM).
Design/methodology/approach
To obtain the data, a closed-ended questionnaire was used in addition to a scheduled interview. To identify how the factors interact, the TISM approach was used, and the matriced’ impacts croise’s multiplication applique’e a UN classement (MICMAC) analysis was used to rank and categorise the lean sustainability readiness factors.
Findings
This study identified ten lean sustainability readiness factors for health-care organisation. The identified factors are resources utilization practice (F1), management commitment and leadership (F2), operational flexibility (F3), workforce engagement and time commitment (F4), sustainability motivational factors (F5), awareness of lean and sustainable practice (F6), hospital design (F7), energy efficiency practices in hospitals (F8), responsible autonomy (F9) and new system adoptability training (F10). The key/driving factors are identified in this study are operational flexibility, sustainability motivational factors, management commitment and leadership, new system adoptability training.
Research limitations/implications
The study focussed primarily on lean sustainability factors for the health-care sector.
Practical implications
This research will aid key stakeholders and academics in the better understanding the readiness factors that influence lean sustainability in health-care organisation. This study emphasises the factors that must be considered when applying lean sustainable practices in health care as a real-world application in a health-care organisation. These readiness factors for lean sustainability can be used by an organization to comprehend more about the concept and the components that contribute to health-care lean sustainability.
Originality/value
This study proposes the TISM technique for health care, which is a novel attempt in the subject of lean sustainability in this sector.
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Vidya Umakant Khanapure and Sameer S. Shastri
The importance of lean and sustainability integration in sustainable construction (SC) has been extensively studied. However, a practical and thorough implementation methodology…
Abstract
Purpose
The importance of lean and sustainability integration in sustainable construction (SC) has been extensively studied. However, a practical and thorough implementation methodology addressing the project life cycle phases is still inadequate. The present study has developed a novel phase-wise sustainable–lean implementation methodology for high-rise residential projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study has identified the 50 direct conceptual interactions between 11 lean principles and 11 sustainability criteria encompassing 44 different attributes covering 174 sustainability actions. A panel of nine experts validated these interactions, and 50 integration vectors were proposed addressing different phases of the project life cycle of high-rise residential buildings. The experts also analysed the identified integration vectors for their current and likely future implementation in high-rise residential projects.
Findings
The interactions between lean and sustainability principles led to the development of a phase-wise implementation methodology. The experts' survey responses on the current level of implementation revealed that 40, 32 and 28% of integration vectors were implemented rarely, sometimes, and frequently, respectively. For likely future implementation, 28 and 72% integration vectors were reported as very likely and extremely likely to implement, respectively. This survey response highlighted the usefulness of identified integration vectors for enhancing the sustainability of high-rise residential projects.
Originality/value
The proposed sustainable–lean implementation methodology acts as a comprehensive guideline for implementing a lean approach to achieve the objectives of SC in high-rise residential projects. This may facilitate the transition from conventional to sustainable building practices using a lean approach.
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Noor Muhammad, Arvind Upadhyay, Anil Kumar and Hasan Gilani
This article shows operational excellence achieved during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic using the Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability practices in small medium…
Abstract
Purpose
This article shows operational excellence achieved during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic using the Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability practices in small medium enterprise (SME) manufacturing firms and its impact on the performance dimensions of efficiency, growth and profit for firms located in the industrial zones of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative methodology was used and data were collected from a sample of top-level managers from 28 SME manufacturing firms located in the five industrial zones in Pakistan. A total of 62 questionnaires were included in the study.
Findings
The findings show that awareness levels of Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability are emerging, and firms are trying to implement these concepts. However, the results show that while Lean and Six Sigma enhance firms’ performance in terms of efficiency, profit and growth, sustainability has no impact on these three performance dimensions.
Research limitations/implications
The quantitative data of a sample of 28 manufacturing firms inevitably present limitations on the generalizability of this work. Future research could employ greater quantitative data to explore the topic further. Only one particular country is studied so that future research could be carried out in other countries or regions.
Practical implications
This study may have value for policymakers and other stakeholders who need to know more about how Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability affect a firm’s performance in industrial zones in the context of a developing country.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to knowledge in the field by integrating Lean, Six Sigma and Sustainability with firms’ performance during the COVID-19 pandemic by assessing efficiency, growth and profit dimensions where otherwise no empirical research has been undertaken in the Pakistani context.
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The present study aims to empirically investigate whether supply chain agility and lean management practices are antecedents of supply chain social sustainability.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to empirically investigate whether supply chain agility and lean management practices are antecedents of supply chain social sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 311 supply chain practitioners from the Indian manufacturing sector. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to test the validity and reliability of the measures used, and a structural model was analyzed to test the hypotheses of the current study.
Findings
The results indicate that agility and lean practices are significant antecedents of social sustainability orientation as well as social sustainability performance. The results also suggest that agility has a significant indirect effect on operational performance via social sustainability orientation, basic social sustainability practices as well as agility is indirectly affecting social sustainability performance via social sustainability orientation and basic social sustainability practices.
Practical implications
The results of the present study have implications for managers that want to make their supply chain more socially sustainable.
Originality/value
The study is unique in the sense that it empirically links agility and lean practices with social sustainability orientation, social substantiality performance and operational performance in supply chains.
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The adoption of lean operational practices and independently the uptake of business practices related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility continues to grow. Past…
Abstract
Purpose
The adoption of lean operational practices and independently the uptake of business practices related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility continues to grow. Past research has hinted at relationships between these two areas – suggesting that “lean is green” (e.g. Florida, 1996). The lean mantra of waste reduction and “doing more with less” is immediately apparent as delivering environmental benefits and has formed the basis of past research (e.g. Hughes, 2012). Almost all research linking lean operations or lean supply chains to sustainability issues have focused exclusively on environmental impact. The purpose of this paper is to explore the broader sustainability benefits of lean operations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a longitudinal multi-year (up to four years observation), multi-case analysis (n=5).
Findings
The paper reports that lean operations meet a wide range of sustainability outcomes beyond environmental benefits (including supply monitoring, transparency, workforce treatment, and community engagement). The paper specifies the internal and external policies, procedures, tools, and strategies for implementation of lean and sustainable operations management (OM). This is encapsulated in the development of a stage-based theoretical model of lean-sustainability. Further, it is proposed that lean implementation and sustainability performance are in fact interlinked.
Originality/value
Past research on the role of lean operations in improving sustainably has focused almost exclusively on environmental benefits accruing from toolkit/workplace level waste reduction. This paper demonstrates that lean provides more than a toolkit (a philosophy and strategic direction) and that this meets a wide range of sustainable outcomes. This finding makes major contributions to conceptualising how lean operations influence sustainability outcomes. The paper develops the first integrative stage-based model of lean and sustainable OM.
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Aswathy Sreenivasan and M. Suresh
This study aims to “identify”, “analyse” and “categorise” the lean-sustainability enablers for start-ups during the COVID-19 epidemic using total interpretive structural modelling…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to “identify”, “analyse” and “categorise” the lean-sustainability enablers for start-ups during the COVID-19 epidemic using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM).
Design/methodology/approach
A closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect data in addition to the scheduled interview. The TISM methodology is used to determine how the variables interact, and the matrice d’Impacts croises-multiplication applique´ a classement (MICMAC) method is used to rank and categorise the lean-sustainability enablers.
Findings
This study identified ten lean-sustainability enablers for start-ups during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study says that the key factors are leadership and managerial commitment, implementation of employee skills and abilities, strategic need, personnel engagement and financial ability.
Research limitations/implications
The study focused primarily on lean-sustainability characteristics for start-ups.
Practical implications
This research will aid key stakeholders and academics in better understanding the factors that contribute to lean-sustainability in start-ups.
Originality/value
This study proposes the TISM technique for start-ups, which is a novel attempt in the subject of lean-sustainability in this industry.
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Annachiara Longoni and Raffaella Cagliano
Lean manufacturing has been demonstrated to increase operations and economic performance, but its alignment with environmental and social sustainability is unclear. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Lean manufacturing has been demonstrated to increase operations and economic performance, but its alignment with environmental and social sustainability is unclear. The purpose of this paper is to understand how cross-functional executive involvement and worker involvement, in the formulation and implementation of the operations strategy, support the strategic alignment of lean manufacturing and sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive case study methodology was employed. Such theoretical elaboration is appropriate when extending existing theory (i.e. operations strategy theory and sustainability development theory). Evidence was drawn from ten cross-industry case studies. Within and cross-case analyses were performed.
Findings
The results demonstrate that cross-functional executive involvement and worker involvement positively affect the strategic alignment of the lean manufacturing statement and bundles (just-in-time, total quality management, total preventive maintenance, and human resources management) with environmental and social goals and practices. Specifically, the study reveals the impact of cross-functional executive involvement on the formulation of lean manufacturing aligned with environmental and social sustainability. Worker involvement positively affects the actual implementation of lean manufacturing aligned with environmental and social sustainability.
Practical implications
This research provides guidance to practitioners regarding how different organizational models lead to different levels of lean manufacturing and sustainability strategic alignment and performance.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the operations strategy literature and the sustainability development literature, providing evidence regarding the mechanisms supporting the strategic alignment of lean manufacturing and social and environmental sustainability.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationship model among transformational leadership, sustainable leadership (SL), lean manufacturing practices and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the structural relationship model among transformational leadership, sustainable leadership (SL), lean manufacturing practices and sustainability performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from the middle and senior managers working in small and medium enterprises of Thai manufacturing industry. Regarding the quantitative approach, the data were collected by means of survey from 598 respondents from 374 companies. Qualitative data were collected from 40 participants by participant observation, non-participant observation and in-depth interview.
Findings
The model reported that lean manufacturing has a partial mediate effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and sustainability performance, and between SL and sustainability performance. The structural model is different in automotive and nonautomotive companies, and the structural model is different among the companies which implemented lean program for less than five years and above five years. The data from in-depth interview informed that lean practices are appropriate for automotive industry though with less implementation in other industries. Firms pay most attention on customer involvement with some attention on employee and supplier involvement. Managers give advices and exchange ideas with their followers rather than inspiring and giving opportunities to make decision.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may also enable Thai managers to realize that lean practices are appropriate for any industry. The first thing to do before launching lean program to all process is that the company should buy-in the understanding of managers about lean concept and implementation. Willingness with well understanding and realizing importance of lean program will lead to superior results, especially operational, economic and sustainable performance.
Originality/value
The reliability and validity measurements confirmed that both SL and environmental and social performance are appropriate for manufacturing industries. This study provides evidence of the positive relationship between SL and lean manufacturing, lean manufacturing and sustainability performance, as well as the partial mediate effect of lean manufacturing on the relationship between SL and sustainability performance, which are the additional contributions to research in academic field. The results confirmed the positive relationship between transformational leadership and lean manufacturing. The results reported that there is difference of lean practices between automotive and nonautomotive companies, and between companies which implemented lean program less than five years and above five years. The structural relationship result reported that transformational leadership has effects on lean manufacturing whereas SL has no effect on lean manufacturing, which asserted the previous study in which one leadership model is more appropriate for success within lean implementations.
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Oyedolapo Ogunbiyi, Jack Steven Goulding and Adebayo Oladapo
The contribution of lean construction techniques in sustainable construction cannot be over emphasised, as sustainable development is now enshrined in government policy. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The contribution of lean construction techniques in sustainable construction cannot be over emphasised, as sustainable development is now enshrined in government policy. In addition, lean construction is now faced with the challenges of sustainable development, continuous improvement, waste elimination, a stronger user focus, increased value for money along with high quality management of projects and supply chains, and improved communications. This paper presents an exploratory study from extant literature and the results of the use of questionnaire survey among construction participants to explore the contribution of implementing lean construction techniques in sustainable construction.
Design/methodology/approach
Surveys of UK-based construction professional were conducted. The data collected were analysed with SPSS 19.0 version software using the percentile method, Cronbach ' s α reliability test, Kruskal Wallis test, Kendall ' s coefficient of concordance and one sample t-test.
Findings
Results from this study indicate that there are several benefits associated with implementation of lean construction and sustainable construction. The overall perspective of professionals within the construction industry, according to questionnaire survey, shows that benefits such as improved corporate image and sustainable competitive advantage, improved process flow and productivity, improvement in environmental quality and increased compliance with customer ' s expectations are realised following integration of principles of lean construction and sustainable construction within construction industry. Just-in-time, visualisation tool, value analysis, daily huddle meetings and value stream mapping are the most common lean tools/techniques for enabling sustainability. This study also identified several areas of linkage between lean and sustainability such as waste reduction, environmental management, value maximisation, and health and safety improvement among others.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in its consideration of lean construction principles to better understand its impact on sustainable construction. This research contributes to the awareness of the benefits that can be derived from the implementation of lean construction in sustainable construction within the construction industry.
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Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that operate with modest financial investments and commodities face numerous challenges to remain in business. One major philosophy used…
Abstract
Purpose
Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that operate with modest financial investments and commodities face numerous challenges to remain in business. One major philosophy used by SMEs these days is the implementation of lean manufacturing to get solutions for various issues they encounter. But is lean getting sustained over time? The purpose of this research is to design a Sustainable Lean Performance Index (SLPI) to assess the sustainability of lean systems and to pinpoint the variables that might be present as potential lean system inhibitors which hinder the sustainability of leanness.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-level sustainable lean performance model is constructed and presented based on the literature research, field investigation and survey conducted by administering a questionnaire. Fuzzy logic approach is used to analyse the multi-level model.
Findings
SLPI for the SMEs is found using fuzzy logic approach. Additionally, the ranking score system is applied to categorise attributes into weak and strong categories. The performance of the current lean system is determined to be “fair” based on the Euclidean distance approach and the SLPI for SMEs.
Research limitations/implications
This work is concentrated only in South India because of the country’s vast geographical area and rich and wide diversity in industrial culture of the nation. Hence, more work can be done incorporating the other parts of the country and can analyse the lean behaviour in a comparative manner.
Practical implications
The generalised sustainable lean model analysed using fuzzy logic identifies the inhibitors and level of performance of SMEs in South India. This can be implemented to find out the level of performance in the SMEs after a deeper study and analysis around the SMEs of the country.
Originality
The sustainable assessment of lean parameters in the SMEs of India is found to be very less in literature, and it lacks profundity. The model established in this study assesses the sustainability of the lean methodology adopted in SMEs by considering the lean and sustainability attributes along with enablers like technology, ethics, customer satisfaction and innovation with the aid of fuzzy logic.
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