Continuous improvement methodologies in manufacturing firms: A systematic review of the literature 2016-2021

Abstract

This research aims to determine the methodologies of continuous improvement most used in manufacturing companies for the identification and solution of problems in the production process that may arise. Scientific articles were used using the SCOPUS, EBSCO and SCIENCE DIRECT databases. The filtering processes were considered to carry out this study with articles that respond to the question posed, with language in English and Spanish and are between 2016 and 2021. Similarly, some keywords were taken for the search such as improvement, methodology, manufacturing, continuous improvement. We selected 51 articles for this systematic review. The result obtained indicated that the Lean Manufacturing methodology is the most used by manufacturing companies in the last 6 years. Since this methodology reduces waste, costs and unproductive times, it satisfies the client's need and increases the productivity of a company making it more competent. Similarly, the 5S tool was identified as the most used to improve organization, order and cleanliness in the company. It is worth mentioning that one of the limitationspresented was the free access to documents that prevented a more accurate search.