No abstract

Purpose Lean enterprise (LE) is one of the emerging fields because of its impact across industry sectors. There were many LE framework articles published in the past without reviewing or considering the already published literature which lead to lots of inconsistencies in the existing frameworks of LE. This study aims to critically review the existing frameworks to identify inconsistencies and propose a new LE framework to overcome limitations of the existing LE frameworks. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the existing LE frameworks. All these identified frameworks were classified based on the following criteria: novelty of the framework; based on participation of academicians/practitioners/consultants; whether the proposed frameworks were verified; type of verification methodology used; and the degree of standardization of LE elements. A comprehensive LE framework was proposed after a thorough review of the existing LE frameworks which has been validated through reliability analysis and validity analysis. Findings The analysis revealed major inconsistencies such as lack of adaptation of existing frameworks in literature which lead to incoherent elements in LE frameworks. The study also found shortage of significant participation of academicians and practitioners in LE frameworks development compared to consultants. The present work established a road map to find a “cohesive theory of LE”, which resulted in the development of a set of coherent elements. Finally, a comprehensive LE framework was proposed with the help of extensive literature review. The initially proposed 106 elements were condensed to 50 after the validation to increase the focus and relevance. Research limitations/implications The proposed LE framework needs to be validated via an empirical approach or clinical approach such as a case study which will be the future work. Originality/value The present study performed extensive literature review to identify LE-related articles, corresponding elements and established coherency among them. A new comprehensive framework was proposed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of total quality management (TQM) models, frameworks, and tools and techniques in higher education (HE) over the last thirty years from 1991 till 2020, based on a literature reviewDesign/methodology/approach30 articles from 52 journals were used to perform this detailed literature review. For the detailed analysis, the focus was only on articles related to TQM in higher education and specifically related to models, frameworks and tools and techniques. The study has investigated the growth of research articles, research streams, research methodologies, models and frameworks in the higher education sector and tools and techniques related to those.FindingsThis review addresses the progress and gaps in the application of TQM in HE, including the shift in global research in this area from the USA and Europe to Asia in recent years. The articles have been classified into four research methodologies and two research streams which have been reviewed in detail. The findings include reasons for multiple models/frameworks in HE proposed by researchers over the years and the importance of tools and techniques used in TQM implementation.Originality/valueThis study, which tries to bring a perspective to the main trends in TQM application to higher education wrt models, frameworks, tools and techniques over the last thirty years, is expected to add to the body of knowledge in this area and help future researchers to focus on the relevant areas identified in this paper.

Purpose Lean manufacturing (LM) plays a major role in eliminating wastes (activities/resources) in a manufacturing organization. Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the critical tools in LM which will help in identifying wastes in materials and information flow in a specific product family. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the significance of VSM in the auto-ancillary industry in enhancing the productivity and the quality. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach is followed to demonstrate the significance of VSM in identifying various wastes in the auto-ancillary industry. The study has been performed by implementing seven critical steps. A product family is identified based on the customer demand and a cross functional team with specialized experts was formed. The overall processes with sequence are mapped using process flowchart. A cross functional team has been formed to develop the current state of VSM and perform a critical analysis to identify shortcomings. An investigation was performed to overcome the existing shortcomings by identifying opportunities. The relevant kaizens to improve the current state have been proposed. The cross functional team of experts have performed a feasibility study on implementation of proposed kaizens. Finally, a future state of VSM after implementation of feasible kaizens has been reported. Findings The results show that future state of VSM brings out the positive impact with respect to process ratio, TAKT time, process inventory level, total lead time and bottleneck time. The proposed improvement also helped to achieve higher customer satisfaction in terms of increased quality, reduced cost and on time delivery. Research limitations/implications Present study is focussed on a single product family cell in one of the auto-component organization. Originality/value Helps practitioners in the auto-component industry to implement the VSM effectively in their organization.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of simulation laboratory on continuing education engineering students’ academic performance. Design/methodology/approach The investigation consists of establishing the student learning levels then mapping the student learning levels (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation) through program outcomes with appropriate evaluation components. 270 continuing education students enrolled during six years were selected to be observed as part of this study. These students were divided into two subgroups, one with 135 students who were offered simulation lab (G2) and the other 135 students were not offered simulation lab (G1) in this investigation. Subsequently, a comparative analysis was carried out on these two groups to assess the student performance in multiple evaluation components with respect to student learning level and program outcome achievement. Findings It was identified that student performance in the application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation learning levels has improved for the group with simulation lab, and no change or minimal change was observed for the group without simulation lab. It was revealed that the simulation lab practice problems needs to be aligned with the theoretical concepts in the course to get a better performance from the students. Originality/value The study was conducted in one of the leading institutes with 270 students’ performance observed over a period of six years. It is the comprehensive work done on a complete program with data collated over a period of six years in multiple courses and multiple assessments.