A REVIEW ON LEAN MANUFACTURING PRACTICES IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

A REVIEW ON LEAN MANUFACTURING PRACTICES IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

Ahmad Nasser Mohd. Rose, Baba Md. Deros and Mohd. Nizam Abdul Rahman

Abstract: The literature studies showed lean manufacturing started at Toyota car manufacturing plant, Japan, which is known as Toyota Production System (TPS). The main pillars in TPS are Just in time and automation which main objective is to identify and eliminate waste in an organization.  Lean manufacturing can be applied successfully in all industries providing a full understanding on lean ingredients i.e. concept, principles and practices. There are numerous practices being highlighted by academicians and practitioners which are compulsory to be implemented in order to gain full benefits of lean.  As small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are resources constraints, facing difficulties to adopt all lean principles. To compete in global competitive marketplace, the SMEs have to strive for world class performance through implementation of lean manufacturing. The main objective of this paper is to carry out a critical review on the lean manufacturing practices. Previous studies showed total lean manufacturing practices could help manufacturing organization to gain full benefits i.e. reduction in inventory, lead time, set up time, and etc., provided they’re adopting all practices. As the resources constraint to SMEs, the selected practices should be feasible to the company problem and low investment.

Keywords: Lean manufacturing, TPS, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)

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