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This research aims to identify lean tools and techniques that are needed to be implemented to improve the performance in the fabrication industry. The objective is to find the wastes in manufacturing processes using value stream mapping (VSM) and prioritize the lean tools suitable to enable the attainment of leanness and streamline the processes.

VSM tool is applied in the industry to construct the current state map, identify improvement proposals and implement in future state. Fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), a multi-criteria decision-making technique (MCDM), is used to prioritize the identified improvement proposals. This study observed that mistake-proof processing and layout organization are the two techniques with the top priority that needs further improvement to enhance the leanness of the organization.

Upon successful implementation, the cycle time is reduced by 14.97%, and total inventory is reduced by 45.67% which leads to the improvement of value addition from 5.88 to 9.21%. Although lean has been adopted for many years, implementation of lean in the fabrication industry has been limited.

This study addresses the challenges in terms of implementing lean in fabrication industries and practical implications of lean tools and techniques and the prioritization of lean concepts against various lean criteria to enable leanness.

The deployment of improvement prioritization tool integrated with VSM in the context of a fabrication industry is the original contribution of the authors.

The purpose of the paper is to depict a study on analysis of barriers to lean adoption in fabrication industry using interpretive structural modelling (ISM).

From the literature review, 22 barriers to lean adoption in fabrication industry have been recognized . Self-structure interaction matrix has been developed based on expert opinion. Computational steps of ISM are being done to develop the structural model. cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis is being done to group the barriers into four types.

Based on the study, it has been found that “lack of knowledge about lean (philosophy, principles, tools)”, “lack of top management support and commitment” and “poor leadership” are found to be the principal barriers. MICMAC analysis indicated that number of driving, dependent, linkage and autonomous barriers are 9, 8, 4 and 1, respectively.

The study has been executed based on the inputs from industrial practitioners and hence the inferences are found to have practical relevance.

The study is an attempt to analyze the barriers for lean concepts adoption in fabrication kind of industry.

The purpose of this paper is to report a review of various perspectives of lean in heavy engineering and fabrication industries and to propose a framework.

Lean manufacturing (LM) earlier known as Toyota Production System (TPS) was mainly used by automobile industries where the operations occur in sequence and the adoption of LM was easier. When it comes to heavy engineering industries, the concept of lean can be adopted in a versatile operating environment to have more advantages by waste elimination thereby having higher profit. Thus, an effort is made to consolidate various lean perspectives, namely, barriers, principles, tools and performance measures and a framework was proposed on how various lean perspectives can be adopted in a systematic way.

A comprehensive analysis of lean from various perspectives from viewpoint of the fabrication industry are done and the review is presented. Also, the framework linking barriers, principles, tools and performance measures is being contributed as an outcome of the review.

The review of lean from various perspectives for the fabrication industry and the development of a framework is the original contribution of the authors.

The fundamentals of Lean are applicable and can be used in any industry, even non-profit and government organizations, however, there might be certain limitations due to the nature and the specifics of the industry. This study aims to explore what barriers of Lean implementation textile manufacturers might encounter. The authors consider the problem is worth to be explored for the potential to improve the effectiveness of Lean implementation in textile sector companies.

This research was conducted by using qualitative content analysis with open coding of the selected literature followed by empirical research in a Latvian textile manufacturing company.

The presented literature review shows Lean implementation barriers and critical success factors in various industries. The findings from the case study can be divided into two groups. The first confirmed the barriers already identified in the previous research. The second identified industry specific implementation barriers that were not recognized in the related literature.

The original research was limited in scope to one Latvian textile manufacturer, therefore future studies on the subject to confirm the outcome of the research are required.

There is a limited number of studies on the application of Lean in the textile and apparel industry. The literature on Lean implementation in the Latvian manufacturing sector is also limited. The results of this research may have a practical application for textile manufactures considering implementing Lean in their processes.

The present research aims to understand how the literature on lean leadership is currently structured. For this, the thematic subdivisions within the subject (thematic clusters) are analyzed as well as the networks between authors and the authors' countries and the chronological co-occurrence of terms over the years.

The research strategy chosen was a bibliometric analysis conducted with documents collected from the Scopus scientific database. After screening, 192 documents were analyzed using the Vosviewer software.

The main result is related to identifying four thematic clusters. The first cluster is connected to the manufacturing and supply chain industry, and this showed an increasing concern with sustainability, agile manufacturing and digitalization. The second is related to small and medium-sized companies in which Lean concepts, often associated with Six Sigma ideas, present as differentials for competitive advantage. The third one is associated with the civil construction segment, in which there is a great need for cultural and organizational change. The fourth cluster focuses on health organizations. In all clusters, leadership plays a key role.

Besides the contributions to the literature on the theme, this study provides interesting insights for managers regarding the path the managers' sectors are taking in the Lean leadership context.

There are no studies that critically examine Lean leadership literature. This research identifies clusters on the theme, showing how Lean leadership is being addressed by international research.

The manufacturing sector has been observing various benefits by the implementation of lean manufacturing practices. However, the manufacturing sector has neglected the significance of health and safety management system implementation. The purpose of this research is to propose and validate an occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) framework based on critical success factors and their relationships in the lean manufacturing organizations.

A critical literature review was conducted to identify the success factors of OHSMS. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from process industries to consolidate the critical success factors. After consolidating the critical success factors, relationships among critical success factors were established with the help of interpretive structural modelling using a team of 12 experts from industry and academia. These established relationships helped in proposing the hierarchical implementation framework. Finally, the validation of the proposed implementation framework was carried out using structural equation modelling (SEM).

This study has identified nine broader critical success factors for implementation of OHSMS in lean manufacturing organizations, especially the process industry. Subsequently, this study has proposed an OHSMS framework with nine broader critical success factors to implement in lean manufacturing organizations. Finally, the proposed framework has been validated using SEM with an appropriate sample size.

This study is helpful to the organizations to implement OHSMS without losing the essence of lean manufacturing strategy. This study has proposed a framework for implementation of OHSMS in the lean manufacturing organizations, especially process industry sector. This study also provided confidence to the organization through the validation of proposed framework in the process industry.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind in this field of OHSMS in lean manufacturing organizations, especially the process industry. This study has involved both academicians and industry experts to bring more robust outcomes. This study proposed a unique framework to implement OHSMS in lean manufacturing organizations. This study has considered a comprehensive literature to develop a framework for OHSMS in lean manufacturing organizations. An implementation framework was proposed by considering both the academicians’ and industry professionals’ opinions. The proposed framework was statistically validated. This will be helpful in effective implementation of OHSMS strategy in lean manufacturing organizations, especially process industry sector.

In this paper, the implementation of lean manufacturing and six sigma practices among Malaysian manufacturing SMEs toward achieving sustainable performance was investigated. Furthermore, intention to implement IR 4.0 technologies among manufacturing SMEs was also examined.

The primary data were collected from 120 manufacturing SMEs across Malaysia using organization as the unit of analysis. The data were collected using the six-point Likert scale questionnaire.

Based on research findings, about 86% Malaysian manufacturing SMEs implement 6s. Nevertheless, lean and 6s has an influence on sustainable performance among Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. Only about 32.5% Malaysian manufacturing SMEs have the intention to implement IR 4.0 technologies. This study results imply that IR 4.0 technologies implementation among Malaysian manufacturing SMEs are still at infant stage though lean and 6s concept is known by the manufacturing SMEs.

This study has implications for future researchers to explore application of IR 4.0 technologies among manufacturing SMEs. Therefore, there is need to create awareness about the application of IR 4.0 technologies suitable for manufacturing SMEs in order to remain sustainable for local and foreign competitors. From the perspective of system theory, there is an interconnection network across each department in a whole system. More so, sustainable performance can continuously change and improve the system in any organization.

From the view of SMEs policy makers, this study should be use to encourage SMEs to adopt technologically inclined practices. Accordingly, this research recommends government bodies to help support the implementation of sustainable practices due to their sizes and inadequate resources involved. Therefore, the role of government in providing suitable policies that could be beneficial to manufacturing SMEs toward achieving sustainable practices cannot be overlooked. Through proper government support, Malaysian manufacturing SMEs will be able to survive both locally and internationally and also gain competitive advantage.

The main contribution of this paper includes integrated effect of lean manufacturing practices and six sigma implementation among manufacturing SMEs and prioritizing implementation of IR 4.0 technologies to be executed by manufacturing SMEs.

Friction stir welding (FSW) and underwater friction stir welding (UWFSW) of aluminium alloy 2024-T351 was carried out, with a chosen set of parameters, namely, rotational speed of 450 rpm, 560 rpm and 710 rpm, welding speed of 25 mm/min, 40 mm/min and 63 mm/min and tool tilt angle of 0º, 1° and 2º. This study aims to understand the correlation between temperatures and weld parameters, finite element simulation was carried out using Abaqus®.

Comparative analysis of the mechanical properties of the samples welded with FSW and UWFSW was carried out and correlated with that of the microstructures. Microhardness survey was also conducted across the weldments to support the findings.

Samples welded with higher rotational speed and low traverse speed favoured good quality, defect-free welds with enhanced material flow. Underwater welded samples resulted in improved mechanical properties than that of the samples welded with conventional FSW. Higher cooling rates resulted in finer grains in all UWFSW samples than that of conventional FSW samples, which, in turn, also reflected in the microhardness survey done across the weldments. Among the chosen window of the parameter, samples welded with 710 rpm, 25 mm/min and 2° had shown improvement in mechanical properties.

This work was carried out in a milling machine, which limits the rotational speed which could be used. Optimistically, this limitation also paves way for using the commonly available milling to be used for FSW.

This original research study shall open opportunities to enable FSW and UWFSW to be done on similar/dissimilar joints of varying composition. Additionally, this research study throws enough light on the age – hardenable aluminium alloy being welded in a commonly available milling machine.

This study aims to predict the mechanical properties such as equivalent tensile strength and micro-hardness of friction-stir-welded dissimilar aluminium alloy plates AA 6063-O and AA 2014-T6, using artificial neural network (ANN).

The ANN model used for the experiment was developed through back propagation algorithm. The input parameter of the model consisted of tool rotational speed and weld-traverse speed whereas the output of the model consisted of mechanical properties (tensile strength and hardness) of the joint formed by friction-stir welding (FSW) process. The ANN was trained for 60% of the experimental data. In addition, the impact of the process parameters (tool rotational speed and weld-traverse speed) on the mechanical properties of the joint was determined by Taguchi Grey relational analysis.

Subsequently, testing and validation of the ANN were done using experimental data, which were not used for training the network. From the experiment, it was inferred that the outcomes of the ANN are in good agreement with the experimental data. The result of the analyses showed that the tool rotational speed has more impact than the weld-traverse speed.

The developed neural network can be used to predict the mechanical properties of the weld. Results indicate that the network prediction is similar to the experiment results. Overall regression value computed for training, validation and testing is greater than 0.9900 for both tensile strength and microhardness. In addition, the percentage error between experimental and predicted values was found to be minimal for the mechanical properties of the weldments. Therefore, it can be concluded that ANN is a potential tool for predicting the mechanical properties of the weld formed by FSW process. Similarly, the results of Taguchi Grey relational analysis can be used to optimize the process parameters of the weld process and it can be applied extensively to ascertain the most prominent factor. The results of which indicates that rotational speed of 1,270 rpm and traverse speed of 30 mm/min are to be the optimized process parameters. The result also shows that tool rotational speed has more impact on the mechanical properties of the weld than that of traverse speed.

Multiple organisations which have attempted to implement lean production/manufacturing/thinking have failed to achieve significant benefits. Practitioners and researchers have identified the barriers that hinder successful implementation. This study first consolidates such lean implementation barriers that are common across all industry sectors. Further, a systemic understanding of lean barriers is attempted by determining causal relationships between barriers and their relative causal strength.

Barriers to lean implementation were first identified from extant literature and categorised into broad barrier groups. These barrier groups were classified into four categories as specified by Liker's 4P model of lean–philosophy, people and partnership, processes and problem-solving. Additionally, interrelations between barriers, both within and among these four categories were determined.

The barriers classified under philosophy were the most critical as it affects the barriers in other groups. Similarly, barriers such as lack of leadership and top management commitment, lack of resources, shortage of lean consultants and trainers, lack of systemic understanding of lean and the need for its implementation, lack of lean expertise and training were found to be the most critical causal barriers.

Highly critical barriers in terms of causality should be addressed with high priority, as effective measures against them may eliminate or reduce the impact of other barriers.

This study addresses the confusion regarding the high number of lean barriers in extant literature by providing a systemic understanding of the same. By exploring the interrelations among barriers, the most important causal barriers and barrier types (4Ps) are identified, the knowledge of which could improve lean implementation success. This is a novel attempt in the domain of lean.