Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of Lean methodology through an exhaustive literature review, and its implications and application in the service industry right from its initiation in 1990s till date. Design/methodology/approach The paper summarises the evolution of Lean in services and has systematically classified the reviewed literature in four dimensions, namely time, publisher, region and content. Further under “time” dimension, the literature is classified into Pre-Lean era, Lean awareness era, Lean Exploration era and Lean implementation era. Under the “content” dimension, the categories include theoretical foundation, frameworks/models and application/case studies. Findings The analysis inferred; Lean is gaining roads in services, though the research is still at nascent stage. Lean is applicable in services though transfer of Lean manufacturing principles to services has certain limitations because of the characteristics of services. The need is to focus on process difference between services and manufacturing. Respect for people and employment engagement is critical to Lean in service. The authors identified the necessity to standardise the Lean service definition, principles, and tools and to develop guidelines for structured implementation in service industry. Research limitations/implications Though multiple databases have been taken-up but that does not assume that the literature presented in this paper is by any means comprehensive. Development of a standard model/framework for Lean services is critical for future research. Rigorous industry-specific studies, specifically in developing nations are another area for future research. Future studies could analyse the impact of join applications and possible links between Lean service and other approaches like TQM, Six Sigma, etc., with an aim of process improvement. Practical implications This paper would serve as a resource for Lean practitioners as well as researchers as a fundamental platform, contributing to Lean body of knowledge. Social implications Service industry has special significance to the society in large. Many services including governments, public interest services, non-profit organisations, healthcare, banking, consulting, etc., has a significant share across markets. Lean being a proven methodology for successful process improvements has to be looked at from a services perspective. This paper helps in such interest. Originality/value Publications reviewing the adoption of Lean in services is scarce in literature. This paper serves as an excellent resource for research on the subject and will facilitate academicians and practitioners to objectively understand Lean in service sector.

Purpose -Total quality management (TQM) is considered a very important factor for the long-term success of an organization. However, there exist a lot of international quality awards, apart from different versions of national quality awards (NQAs), developed by the governments of many countries based on these well-established awards. In addition to these awards, there are a plethora of frameworks proposed by various researchers and consultants. Hence, many organizations are not in a position to understand clearly the concept of TQM, in terms of knowing what has to be implemented and what area to focus on. To overcome these issues, this paper attempts to present a list of TQM implementation elements for manufacturing excellence. These elements can be undertaken by any manufacturing organization striving for excellence. Design/methodology/approach -A literature review was carried out to provide a brief overview about the 28 models, awards and frameworks given by national, international agencies and individuals. Then a comparative analysis was carried out to identify the list of TQM elements and a framework for TQM implementation elements has been proposed through discussion with experts and domain knowledge. Findings -The outcome of this research is a framework of TQM implementation elements for sustaining manufacturing excellence obtained from the comparative analysis of various TQM models and national/international quality awards. Research limitations/implications -The proposed list of TQM elements and its associated framework are highly conceptual and need to be validated through an empirical approach or by a clinical approach utilizing a case study. Originality/value -The paper identifies the TQM implementation elements which will direct an organization towards manufacturing excellence, as well as ensuring that the elements withstand the test of time, pace of technology, market and customer changes.

Manufacturing excellence requires a manufacturer to be the best in its field in each competitive priority and to demonstrate industry best practice. This paper explores the validity and reliability of existing manufacturing excellence/world-class manufacturing frameworks when applied to Indian companies by means of a survey conducted across a wide range of manufacturing companies based in India. The nature of the questionnaire is outlined together with the results from the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire. This research has identified that while a majority of the frameworks display a high level of reliability, very few of them display unidimensionality with respect to the construct, i.e. the manufacturing excellence it measures. A frequency analysis shows that the majority of the attributes have a high mean score. As all the frameworks display different elements with some overlap among them, it was found that there is a need for a new framework.

Self and social identity are key elements in the understanding of a person's strivings for health and well-being. This review (i) examines the concepts of self, social identity, and psychological well-being; (ii) integrates empirical evidence that relates various self-aspects or social identities to psychological well-being; (iii) analyzes within a stress and coping framework the well-being consequences of socially devalued self or threatened identities, perceived discriminations, challenges of acculturation and identity management; and (iv) delineates the role of self, social identity and related psycho-social variables as moderators and mediators in pathways leading to psychological well-being. Besides listing some methodological issues and empirical deficits, major concerns for future research are also identified. An explicit self and social identity perspective of this research synthesis brings personal and social aspects together, and this interface offers exciting opportunities for research advancement.

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Recent developments in manufacturing processes and automation have led to the new industrial revolution termed “Industry 4.0”. Industry 4.0 can be considered as a broad domain which includes: data management, manufacturing competitiveness, production processes and efficiency. The term Industry 4.0 includes a variety of key enabling technologies i.e., cyber physical systems, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and digital twins which can be considered as the major contributors to automated and digital manufacturing environments. Sustainability can be considered as the core of business strategy which is highlighted in the United Nations (UN) Sustainability 2030 agenda and includes smart manufacturing, energy efficient buildings and low-impact industrialization. Industry 4.0 technologies help to achieve sustainability in business practices. However, very limited studies reported about the extensive reviews on these two research areas. This study uses a systematic literature review approach to find out the current research progress and future research potential of Industry 4.0 technologies to achieve manufacturing sustainability. The role and impact of different Industry 4.0 technologies for manufacturing sustainability is discussed in detail. The findings of this study provide new research scopes and future research directions in different research areas of Industry 4.0 which will be valuable for industry and academia in order to achieve manufacturing sustainability with Industry 4.0 technologies.

During an investigation of the disease profi le of Withania somnifera, it was observed that leaf spot is the most prevalent disease. Repeated isolations from infected leaf tissues and pathogenicity tests showed the association of fungal pathogen identifi ed as Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler. Scanning electron microscopy showed various histological changes in the leaf tissues of infected plants. A decrease in total content of reducing sugars (20%) and chlorophyll (26.5%) was observed in diseased leaves whereas an increase was noticed in proline (25%), free amino acids (3%) and proteins (74.3%). High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis of secondary metabolites viz. withanolides, withaferin-A and total alkaloids of the diseased leaves vis-à-vis control revealed reduction in withaferin-A and withanolides contents by 15.4% and 76.3% respectively, in contrast to an increase in total alkaloids by 49.3%, information hitherto unreported in W. somnifera.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of lean methodology to reduce the turnaround time (TAT) of a clinical laboratory in a super speciality hospital. Delays in report delivery lead to delayed diagnosis increased waiting time and decreased customer satisfaction. The reduction in TAT will lead to increased patient satisfaction, quality of care, employee satisfaction and ultimately the hospital's revenue. Design/methodology/approach The generic causes resulting in increasing TAT of clinical laboratories were identified using lean tools and techniques such as value stream mapping (VSM), Gemba, Pareto Analysis and Root Cause Analysis. VSM was used as a tool to analyze the current state of the process and further VSM was used to design the future state with suggestions for process improvements. Findings This study identified 12 major non-value added factors for the hematology laboratory and 5 major non-value added factors for the biochemistry lab which were acting as bottlenecks resulting in limiting throughput. A four-month research study by the authors together with hospital quality department and laboratory staff members led to reduction of the average TAT from 180 to 95minutes in the hematology lab and from 268 to 208 minutes in the biochemistry lab. Practical implications Very few improvement initiatives in Indian healthcare are based on industrial engineering tools and techniques, which might be due to a lack of interaction between healthcare and engineering. The study provides a positive outcome in terms of improving the efficiency of services in hospitals and identifies a scope for lean in the Indian healthcare sector. Social implications Applying lean in the Indian healthcare sector gives its own potential solution to the problem caused, due to a wide gap between lean accessibility and lean implementation. Lean helped in changing the mindset of an organization toward providing the highest quality of services with faster delivery at an optimal cost. Originality/value This paper is an effort to reduce the gap between healthcare and industrial engineering and enhancing the use of lean practices in Indian healthcare. The study is motivated toward implementing lean methodology successfully in services.