Abstract:Purpose: This research analyzes the maturity of environmental management as well as the degree of to which the Circular Economy has been implemented in Basque SMEs.Design/methodology/approach: A total of 17 case studies were carried out in industrial SMEs companies in the Basque Country.
Findings:The main results show that companies are limited to complying with the law and in many cases are worried about the image of the company, although they are not committed to environmental issues. There is still a lot to do in SMEs, as they are the companies that face the biggest challenges due to a lack of resources. Originality/value: Circular Economy aims to change a linear economy into promoting sustainability of the economy while also engaging in sustainable environmental protection. This research has focused on small and medium enterprises as they represent a 99% of companies in Europe and they are the ones that have the most difficulty reaching a stage of environmental excellence due to their limited resources.Keywords: circular economy, basque industry, industrial ecology -1047-Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management -http://dx
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: to evaluate the importance of the factors reported in the literature as enablers of Continuous Improvement (CI) programmes and to determine the perception of managers of different companies in the Basque Country and Navarre (Spain) regarding the relevance of these factors to their improvement programmes.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 15 elements have been considered to be key issues for the sustainability of CI programmes. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 36 companies in order to assess how the companies value the factors and how the factors are applied and measured.FindingsThe findings regarding the application and evaluation of such factors have revealed that companies are focused on the agents associated with the achievement of results. Other factors, such as management commitment or the promotion of team working, are highly scored and applied, but few companies evaluate them or take actions to improve their application.Originality/valueThis paper analyzes the application of some factors considered to be enablers or key factors for the sustainability of continuous improvement systems. Furthermore, it examines the mechanisms or indicators which are used by some companies to measure the application of those factors.
The 5S methodology is a very appropriate way to initiate and achieve the process of continuous improvement. This paper studies management practices in successful Japanese companies in order to determine what 5S principles are behind them. After visiting and conducting interviews at five different plants, a multi-case study analysis was developed to identify the key aspects of the success of the implementation of 5S in Japan. Although each of the companies studied is different, there are commonalities that provide for interesting learning. As a result, best managerial practices based on 5S principles are explained, and the most important principles associated with the success of the 5S method are described and discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.