Development of Lean Manufacturing Implementation Framework in Machinery and Equipment SMEs

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are lag in lean manufacturing (LM) imple-mentation. The purpose of this study is to develop an effective LM implementation frame-work, which serves as a practical guideline specifically in machinery and equipment SMEs. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with selected multiple case study respondents. The proposed framework consists of four sequential implementation stages which include 23 essential components to suit the SMEs characteristics. It adopts the PDCA (Plan-To-Check-Act) cycle approach and aligns with company working approaches. This simple and compre-hensive framework can assist SMEs lean practitioner in their LM implementation journey systematically and improve the organization’s performance.