A Review on the Implementation and Effectiveness of Lean Manufacturing Strategies for Industrial and Service Sectors

Ensuring a neat, clean, organized, safe, and productive workplace is essential for every organization. Waste and abnormalities may lead to a high loss of productivity and, consequently, capital, along with a significant compromise to the health and safety of the stakeholders. To overcome such challenges, Lean manufacturing is implemented worldwide. The main aim of this technique is to reduce or eliminate certain types of waste (such as those related to motion, transportation, overproduction, waiting time, etc.) that may contribute to financial loss for the companies. The Lean technique is hybridized with other industrial engineering methods such as DMAIC, Six Sigma, Kanban, etc., depending on the situation. This paper reviews some of the vital work in the last five years on implementing Lean manufacturing for various industrial, commercial, and service setups. It first introduces Lean manufacturing, discusses its implementation procedure and tools and techniques, and presents an analysis of previous attempts made by researchers and engineers using Lean to minimize waste, maximize productivity and efficiency, and enhance quality. The article ends with concluding remarks and highlighting the directions for future research. The novelty of this article lies in the fact that along with a basic introduction and review of the last five years’ literature, it also sheds light on current trends; recent developments; Lean integration with Six-Sigma, Kanban, Kaizen; automation and digital technology interventions to increase the effectiveness of Lean manufacturing; contribution of Lean in sustainable development.