engleski

A Literature Review Of Lean Methods and Tools: Research Trends and Issues

Increasing global competition and business dynamics require a constant search for innovative ways to organize company operations to improve quality and efficiency while reducing costs and waste. Although lean has been recognized as one of the practical methodologies that have evolved over the years, the development of a standard framework for implementing lean concepts is still progressing. There is still no framework that identifies a uniform structure for the application of lean methods and tools. The potential for lean is extensive, but findings indicate that the majority of companies fail when trying to implement it in their organization, and the failure rate is very high. In order to get the most out of the advantages that lean has to offer, it is important to comprehend why the rate of successful lean implementation is so low and how to properly approach the lean transition in the company. One of the most important decisions companies must make when implementing lean production is which lean tools to use for their specific problem. The goal of this conceptual paper is to provide a systematic literature review of lean methods and tools that provides both an overview of existing research and directions for future research. The literature review was conducted following the methodology for literature review in the operations management literature. The analysis included academic papers published in the recognized databases from 1990 to October 2020, ending with 61 articles in the analysis. Discussion and recommendation go in two directions. The first direction is to analyse the existing articles in content, scope, methodology, and scientific contribution. The most important conclusion is that the authors overuse and misuse the case study methodology, as in most cases they use it in an incorrect and flawed way. The scope of the articles in most cases is related to a specific method or tool in a specific production environment with very limited information about the business context and without the possibility to compare with other cases. In this way, the possibility of generalizability and use of the information for future applications and scientific purposes is limited. Methodologically, it lacks to mention and discuss theoretical lenses and provides limited statistical methods to test the validity and reliability of its conclusion. The practicality of the topic, written in a rather loose and methodologically non-rigid manner, does not contribute to the overall knowledge of lean methods and tools and does not bring the scientific rigour required for lean to 31 elevate as a more mature scientific topic. The second line of discussion and recommendation is to offer directions for further research. The main conclusion is to include the use of strategic definition of lean and spread lean thinking to other departments in a particular company. The review offers the identification of several research groups on methods and tools that have the most potential in the literature to develop in the future, both for the scientific development of the field and for practitioners and managers who use it on a daily level.

lean methods, lean tools, literature review, lean production

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