On the adoption of lean manufacturing principles in process industries

Abstract

Traditionally, the lean paradigm has been applied to discrete manufacturing of items that can be easily put together and taken apart. The process industry, on the other hand, transforms raw materials into cohesive units that are basically blended into a final product with parts that cannot be disassembled and then reassembled. The current lean literature provides numerous commendable examples of theory and practices of lean principles in discrete manufacturing. However, its application in process industry is limited. Furthermore, there is no systematic accounting of the lean literature in this sector, which may have contributed to lesser awareness in the industry. This paper provides a state-of-the-art review of lean manufacturing literature with respect to its applications in process industry. It contributes to the classification of literature in a manner which helps to identify strategies suitable for the adoption of lean concepts in process industry. The paper seeks to synthesise the literature with an emphasis on identifying the scope for lean in process industry and associated benefits. The review also presents an analysis of the lean tools and techniques that have been applied or have potential application in the process industry and the challenges to implement lean. We believe that such a comprehensive review will not only facilitate the adoption of lean in process industry but will also provide agenda for further research by exposing voids in the knowledge base.

Lean road transportation – a systematic method for the improvement of road transport operations

“…Especially when compared with the vast amount of research on lean's application to other industries such as manufacturing (Taj, 2008), processes (Panwar et al, 2015;Lyons et al, 2013) and services (Sternberg et al, 2013). This paper therefore complements and enhances the lean road research area by proposing a systematic method for improving road transport operations.…”

Applying Value Stream Mapping to reduce food losses and wastes in supply chains: A systematic review

“…reduction in the number of operators, previously identified as an important component of activity costs (Rivera and Chen, 2007), can lower production costs as well as still improve efficiency. With respect to assertions previously made on challenges faced when applying lean tools in a non-discrete agri-food sector (Panwar et al, 2015), based on our findings, there is a high compatibility between VSM and other lean techniques (particularly JIT and 5S applied in most studies) that can be applied concurrently. These strategies are indeed relevant to boost continuous improvement in the agri-food industry.…”

“…The search syntax used included the following search terms referring to lean and VSM (value stream mapping, lean manufacturing, lean management, lean philosophy, lean thinking, lean principles, lean practices and lean tools), combined with food related terms (food, food supply chain, agrifood chain, food industry, food sector and agriculture). For confirmatory purposes and to identify additional studies, a reference list of a recent review on adoption of lean principles (Panwar et al, 2015) was also utilized. The search for articles was done in October 2015 by two researchers, cross-checking each other at every search step as a control.…”

“…Nevertheless, its penetration into the agricultural sector has been slow and this is attributed to the perishability of a wide range of food products, complexity of the agri-food supply chain and dynamic consumer preferences (Dora et al, 2016). Regardless of the fact that not all lean tools can easily be adapted to a new processing industry, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), defined as "a tool that helps you to see and understand the flow of materials and information of a product as it makes its way through the value stream" (Rother and Shook, 1998), has found its way into the agri-food industry (Panwar et al, 2015). It involves identifying seven lean wastes (i.e.…”

Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants

“…The aforementioned Multi Criteria Decision technique was based on the study presented by [39], who listed a series of lean techniques applied to different "contexts", such as waste elimination and supplier involvement. In general terms, the Fuzzy AHP technique uses a hierarchy where the overall target is located in the top level.…”