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Today, manufacturing companies are facing a fierce competition and are under great pressure to cut costs for survival in the market. So emphasis is given to enhance quality, minimize waste, customer delight and increasing productivity through reduction in wastage of resources. But, most companies hesitate to implement all measures simultaneously to acquire lean manufacturing because of some practical/ capital constraints. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a phase-wise approach to implement lean manufacturing.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using the qualitative flexible system methodology framework proposed by Sushil (1994) and options field methodology proposed by Warfield (1982, 1990) including rigorous group discussion comprising the employees representing middle and senior management with productivity improvement backgrounds. The response of experts was recorded using a specially designed instrument in the light of the parameters suggested in group discussion. The measures/ actions were arranged in the decreasing order of their cumulative score.

The paper provides a phase-wise approach to implement lean manufacturing. Mixed approach is preferred over the other three approaches to implement lean manufacturing. Thirty measures/actions contributing to mixed approach are identified to implement lean manufacturing in three phases. A three-phase approach is developed: 10, 14 and six measures in the first, second and third phases, respectively, are identified to implement lean manufacturing after considering the practical constraints faced by the companies.

All the measures/actions suggested to implement lean manufacturing are focused on the engineering manufacturing industry. Thus, the research results may lack generalizability and are limited to engineering manufacturing industry. The model developed in this research is based upon experts’ opinions. The experts’ opinion may be biased. The results of the model may vary in the real-world setting.

The present paper provides guidelines to practitioners for implementing lean manufacturing in phases. Hopefully, this study will motivate the firm’s management for implementing lean manufacturing and limiting the effect of practical constraints and scarcity of resources.

This paper fulfills and identifies the need to develop an approach to implement lean manufacturing phase wise because of practical constraints.

Manufacturing organizations are under pressure to improve productivity and reduce costs through the realization of lean manufacturing. This paper approaches lean manufacturing and aims to identify and measure the intimately associated parameters of lean manufacturing and also examines the weight of their contribution to overall lean manufacturing.

A questionnaire survey study was performed in Indian manufacturing industries to collect data. The reliability of the survey instrument was pre‐tested and an acceptable value of Cronbach's α (a reliability coefficient) was found. Three experts determined the relative weight of various parameters using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Pearson's coefficient of correlation analysis was used to measure the strength of the relationships between various parameters of lean manufacturing.

The experts found “elimination of waste” to be the most important parameter of lean manufacturing, followed by “just in time deliveries”. The survey shows that most of the responding firms are in transition towards the realization of lean manufacturing. These firms believe that the factors that drive the realization of lean manufacturing are “just in time deliveries” and achieving “continuous improvement”. This study also revealed that Indian manufacturing industries are still overlooking the elimination of waste, the most important parameter of lean manufacturing.

The major limitation of this paper is the sample size (n=52).

The present study provides guidelines to assess the status of leanness in the manufacturing industries. According to conclusions, feeble areas in the manufacturing system can be identified and a suitable course of action might be planned for the improvement. Hopefully this study will help the firm's management to identify the problems to implement an effective lean manufacturing.

In this work, the theoretical perspective was used not only to update the original instrument, but also to study the subject from a perspective beyond that usually associated with lean manufacturing.

As the manufacturing industry is under pressure to face the global competition, it is necessary to improve productivity and reduce costs through minimization of wastage of resources for their survival. This paper aims to present an analysis of the status of resource flexibility and lean manufacturing through conducting a case study in an Indian textile machinery manufacturing company and also demonstrate the various areas of future scope for improving lean manufacturing.

The case study has been conducted using the flexible system methodology (FSM) framework (Sushil, 1994). For measuring resource (labour and machine) flexibility and lean manufacturing, various factors contributing towards labour flexibility, machine flexibility and lean manufacturing are identified. To determine their relative weights, an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) has been used. A specially designed questionnaire is used to collect the information during case study on different aspects of resource flexibility and lean manufacturing. SAP-LAP analysis has also been carried out to look in to the ways the company is building up resource flexibility and lean manufacturing.

The status of labour flexibility, machine flexibility and lean manufacturing is merely 49.30, 47.10 and 47.40 per cent, respectively. The most important factors of labour flexibility and machine flexibility attained a value of 59.50 and 61.17 per cent, respectively. Similarly, only 39.09 per cent wastes are eliminated through lean manufacturing. There is a huge scope to achieve a higher degree of lean manufacturing through focusing on continuous improvement, just in time (JIT) and resource flexibility factors.

The present study includes only labour and machines to compute the resource flexibility. Other resources may also be included to compute the overall resource flexibility.

The present study provides guidelines to analyze the status of resource flexibility and lean manufacturing. According to conclusions, frail areas in the manufacturing system can be identified and a suitable course of action could be planned for the improvement. Hopefully, this study will help the firm’s management to identify the problems to manage resource flexibility and implement an effective lean manufacturing.

In this work, the theoretical perspective has been used not only to update the original instrument, but also to study the subject from a perspective beyond that usually associated with resource flexibility and lean manufacturing.

Manufacturing industry is under pressure to improve productivity and reducing costs through minimization of wastage of resources. This paper aims to present case study of an automobile component manufacturing company to implement lean manufacturing through resource flexibility and also demonstrate the various areas of future scope for improving lean manufacturing.

The case study has been conducted using the flexible system methodology framework. For measuring resource (labor and machine) flexibility and lean manufacturing, various parameters contributing towards labor flexibility, machine flexibility and lean manufacturing are identified. To determine their relative weights, analytical hierarchy process has been employed. A specially designed questionnaire is used to collect the information during case study on different aspects of resource flexibility and lean manufacturing. SAP-LAP analysis has also been carried out, to look into the ways the company is building up resource flexibility and lean manufacturing.

Although all parameters of labor flexibility contribute towards overall labor flexibility but ability of workers to work on different machines has the maximum impact of 35.16 percent. Ability of machines to perform diverse set of operations has maximum contribution of 40.38 percent towards machine flexibility. Similarly elimination of waste is 35.15 percent responsible for lean manufacturing implementation. There is also a huge scope to achieve higher degree of lean manufacturing by implementing zero defects, changing attitude towards change and installing flexible machines. It is inferred that 76.2 percent of lean manufacturing is endorsed by resource flexibility.

The present study includes only labor and machines as the elements of resource flexibility. Other resources may also be included to compute overall resource flexibility.

The present study provides guidelines to assess the status of resource flexibility and lean manufacturing. According to conclusions, feeble areas in the manufacturing system can be identified and a suitable course of action might be planned for the improvement. Hopefully this study will help the firm's management to identify the problems to manage resource flexibility and implement an effective lean manufacturing.

In this work, the theoretical perspective has been used not only to update the original instrument, but also to study the subject from a perspective beyond that usually associated with resource flexibility and lean manufacturing.

The purpose of this research is to examine relevant parts of the case of an Italian steel construction company's green field plant design process to identify best practice guidelines for the adaptation and use of value stream mapping (VSM) in the design of lean engineer-to-order (ETO) production systems.

The paper reviews the most relevant literature in the field of VSM and discusses its limitations regarding the application in an ETO environment. Based on the analysis of an industrial case, the original VSM methodology is adapted with a special focus on ETO. Information was collected through multiple site visits and semi-structured interviews with the company's key staff of the project, as well as examination of relevant company documentations.

A set of guidelines was developed on the basis of an industrial case research. In this context, major attention was given to two aspects: the introduction of synchronization points in front of merge-activities in the value stream, and the splitting of customer orders into suitable production orders and equal time increments of work.

The findings of this research are limited due to the focused nature of a case study-based research. However, the obtained results encourage assuming its transferability to similar problems.

This paper provides an original industrial case study with valuable insights for the adaptation of the VSM methodology to batch-of-one ETO environment.

Inclusion of bioactive compounds in food products is promising for developing novel functional food products. The feasibility of incorporating flavonoids and low-calorie sugar substitutes in fresh-cut apple through osmotic dehydration (OD) was investigated.

The impregnation of quercetin and fisetin in apple cubes was tested. The effects of different osmotic agents, sucrose and sorbitol:mannose, on the water loss (WL) and sugar gain of the samples were studied at 25 and 40 °C for eight hours.

Temperature was a significant factor in the mass transfer kinetics, that is to say, higher temperatures resulting in higher rates. The molecular weight of the solutes in the osmotic solution also affected the OD kinetics and flavonoids uptake, as well as the physico-chemical quality.

Overall, the results indicate that OD using alternative low-calorie and health-promoting solutes can be an effective treatment to simultaneously enrich fresh-cut apples with senolytic flavonoids, therefore presenting a great potential for a novel functional food product.