Development of index for measuring leanness: study of an Indian auto component industry

Abstract

Purpose -The extant literature fails to provide an efficient method to measure leanness of any manufacturing firm. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of leanness and to provide an efficient measurement method for measuring leanness.Design/methodology/approach -Measurement method is based on the judgment and evaluation given by leanness measurement team (LMT) on various leanness parameters such as supplier's issues, investment priorities, Lean practices, and various waste addressed by lean and customers' issues. Further fuzzy set theory is introduced to remove the bias of human judgment and finally defuzzification is done and results are presented in the form of leanness index.Findings -Leanness indices have been developed and presented separately on 100 points scale for all parameters of leanness i.e.

Lean, green and resilient practices influence on supply chain performance: interpretive structural modeling approach

“…It increases materials availability reducing the stock-out ratio and improvements in service level are expected (Jeffery et al 2008) Operational cost It is related to the expenses of running a business; it includes production costs, transportation costs and inventory holding costs, among others. It is an important aid to making judgments and decisions, because its purpose is to evaluate, control and improve operational processes (Jeffery et al 2008) Business wastage It is used in its broader sense including typical lean wastages, e.g., effects in products, excessive inventory, excessive lead-time, excessive scrap, excessive transportation (Singh et al 2010) and also solid and liquid wastes, percentage of materials remanufactured, recycled and re-used, hazardous and toxic material output…”

Learning on Lean Production: A Review of Opinion and Research within Environmental Constraints

“…King (2007) engaged with the transaction cost analysis to hypothesize how collaboration between corporations & environmental stakeholder groups can be structured; addressed the development of green setting through lean principles in an Indian garment export industry to explore their link; Singh et al (2010) provided an efficient lean measurement method on various leanness parameters and fuzzy set theory to remove the bias of human judgment & defuzzification; Nulkar (2014) explored the incidence of environmental performance within various stages of the product life cycle and recommended that there is potential for improvement in Indian SMEs; Jacobs et al (2010) analyzed the shareholder value effects of environmental performance and market reaction to corporate environmental initiatives, awards & certifications; Herrmann et al (2008) presented an analysis of the coherences and interdependencies between lean production & ecologically oriented variables, specifically energy consumption; ElMaraghy and Deif (2014) proposed a dynamic system approach to investigate the challenges of implementing production leveling & associated costs through a lean cell model and the choice between the 'best lean' & 'no lean' policies; Torielli (2010) provided view on combining lean methods with environmental sustainability for foundries in remaining competitive; Yang et al (2011) explored the conflict between lean practices, environmental management and business performance outcomes from 309 multinational companies (MNC) through AMOS; Pampanelli et al (2011) proposed a model integrating 'envilean' through Kaizen approach in an MNC capable of reducing 30% material usage, waste generation and annually cost savings of 132 GBP in one operational cell of GKN driveline, America ( Figure 6); and Wiengarten and Pagell (2012) investigated the importance of quality Management for environmental initiatives through survey. Dhingra et al (2012) supposed that growing energy demand has led to increased global energy production with consequential increase in global warming emissions of CO 2 increased by 5.3% in 2010 to a record 30.4 giga tonnes; Netland and Aspelund (2014) reviewed the key dimensions to explain multi-plant improvement programme results in adopting, acting or avoiding of practices in subsidiaries; yielded the similarities between lean & green theoretical models to develop a comprehensive integrated model; Duarte and Cruz-Machado (2013) examined how diverse business models and frameworks can add value to modelling a lean and green approach; Huang et al (2009) examined the insights experienced in developing prototype solutions and the schemes for deploying smart objects in manufacturing to achieve real-time traceability & visibility while minimizing the total cost; Ghosh (2012) examined the current state of lean adoption in Indian manufacturing plants and its impact on operational performance; …”

Assessment of Lean Maturity Level in Manufacturing Cells

“…Wan and Chen (2009), for instance, proposed data envelopment analysis (DEA)-leanness as a single index of leanness level. Fuzzy logic concept has been applied by some other researchers to assess leanness of organization (Singh et al (2010), Vinodh and Vimal (2012), Chintha (2011), Zanjirchi et al (2010), Anvari et al (2012)). More recently, Behrouzi and Wong (2013) proposed an integrated stochastic-fuzzy modeling approach to evaluate leanness of supply chain.…”