Lean practices and their effect on performance: a literature review
Abstract
This paper introduces a literature review of 83 studies dealing with the degree of adoption of lean manufacturing practices around the world, and the links between those practices and organisation performance. The results of this study revealed that lean practices application still occurs in a fragmented way, disregarding the systemic linkage that is essential to lean manufacturing. Forty-one articles have suggested a positive effect of lean practices in at least one operational, financial and/or environmental performance metric. Nevertheless, five studies indicated that some lean practices had a negative effect on operational or financial performance. High demand variability, a perceived result of long-term lean manufacturing implementation, a country/company’s organisational culture and the difficulty of traditional costing production systems to measure and compare investments and economic gains from adopting lean manufacturing over time are some of the reasons to explain that negative effect of lean practice on performance.
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Very few organizations have been successful in implementing lean manufacturing.
“researcherssuchas Losonci etal. (2017),Yadav etal. (2020a),Negrão etal. (2016)andBhasinandBurcher(2006) havereportedthatveryfeworganizationshavebeensuccessfulinimplementingLM.”
From A systematic literature review of lean manufacturing implementation in manufacturing-based sectors of the developing and developed countries (2022) · cites this paper as Negrão et al. (2016)
Haphazard adoption of lean manufacturing tools can contribute to the failure of the lean manufacturing philosophy in many organizations.
“Negrão etal. (2016)suggested thatthishaphazardadoptionofLMtoolscanalsocontributetoLMphilosophy'sfailurein manyorganizations.”
From A systematic literature review of lean manufacturing implementation in manufacturing-based sectors of the developing and developed countries (2022) · cites this paper as Negrão et al. (2016)
Cites
Weber, R. (1990) · doi:10.4135/9781412983488 · Cited by 7,750 · see citing works
Lean Thinking—Banish Waste and Create Wealth in your Corporation
Womack, J. P., & Jones, D. T. (1997) · Journal of the Operational Research Society · doi:10.1038/sj.jors.2600967 · Cited by 3,374 · see citing works
Fullerton, R. R., Kennedy, F. A., & Widener, S. K. (2014) · Journal of Operations Management · doi:10.1016/j.jom.2014.09.002 · Cited by 407 · cited 4× · see citing works
“…on the subject points to financial improvements arising from operational performance improvements related to the application of lean practices (Fullerton, Kennedy, and Widener 2014; Fullerton and Wempe 2009; Hong, Yang, and dobrzykowski 2014; Inman et al. 2011; Nawanir, Teong, and Othman…”
BackgroundInfluentialThe impact of just-in-time manufacturing on firm performance in the US
Huson, M., & Nanda, D. (1995) · Journal of Operations Management · doi:10.1016/0272-6963(95)00011-g · Cited by 261 · see citing works
A literature review of lean manufacturing
Gupta, S., & Jain, S. K. (2013) · International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management · doi:10.1080/17509653.2013.825074 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Internal lean practices and performance: The role of technological turbulence
Chavez, R., Yu, W., Jacobs, M., Fynes, B., Wiengarten, F., & Lecuna, A. (2015) · International Journal of Production Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.10.005 · Cited by 200 · see citing works
Marin-Garcia, J. A., & Bonavia, T. (2015) · International Journal of Production Research · doi:10.1080/00207543.2014.975852 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
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Lean and green combine to impact environmental and operational performance
Inman, R. A., & Green, K. W. (2018) · International Journal of Production Research · doi:10.1080/00207543.2018.1447705 · Cited by 259 · see citing works
Antony, J., Psomas, E., Garza-Reyes, J. A., & Hines, P. (2021) · Production Planning & Control · doi:10.1080/09537287.2020.1776410 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Maware, C., Okwu, M. O., & Adetunji, O. (2022) · International Journal of Lean Six Sigma · doi:10.1108/ijlss-12-2020-0223 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
- Authors
- Negrão, L. L. L., Godinho Filho, M., & Marodin, G.
- Affiliations
- University of South Carolina (US)
- ORCID
- Marodin, Giuliano
- Venue
- Production Planning & Control
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-10-17
- Pages
- 1-24
- ISSN
- 0953-7287 (ISSN-L)
- 1366-5871
- OpenAlex
- W2532792150
- Cited by
- 243
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 9
- FWCI
- 30.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Production Planning & Control (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (Bolsa Pesquisador CNPQ)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Quality and Supply Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Management and Optimization Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering › Digital Transformation in Industry
- Keywords
- lean manufacturing, organizational performance, operational performance, financial performance, environmental performance, demand variability, organizational culture, traditional costing, lean implementation
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