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The study's goal was to identify the factors contributing to the practical completion of Kaizen events (KEs). The effect of the work-study man's characteristics, the supervisor's conduct and the autonomy of the Kaizen team are analysed in this study.

Data were collected from 249 respondents working in the manufacturing sector in India, mainly those who had been involved in Kaizen projects. Three-step procedures, namely, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and partial least squares, have been applied to test the research hypotheses through structural equational modelling.

The exploratory factor analysis extracted in-role performance, creative performance and human aspect as latent variables explaining work-study man's performance (eigenvalue = 1). The study's findings indicate that the performance of work-study man (in-role, creative and human) and supervisors' conduct is directly related to the success of KEs. It was shown that supervisors might influence the outcomes of KEs only by moderating the human aspects. Additionally, the degree of autonomy of the Kaizen team was found having a significant positive relationship with the success of KEs.

The current study suggests that in-role and creative performance are prime assets of a work-study man. At the same time, the human aspect is a delicate issue that can affect the supervisor's behaviour. Therefore, the study implies that work-study men have the tactics and abilities to work with other co-workers to make a Kaizen project successful.

Although the significance of Kaizen projects has been widely emphasised, past research has failed to establish what factors contribute to the success of Kaizen efforts. Similarly, the supervisor's critical role has been highlighted several times. However, it is unclear how their conduct influences the relationship between work-study man's performance and the effectiveness of Kaizen projects. This study contributes significantly to organisational culture and human resource management by answering these questions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of customer-focus on small medium enterprise (SME) performance from the perspective of a resource-based view (RBV).

This research study implemented a survey strategy to gather data from 255 respondents on the registered list of Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) in the eastern region of Ghana. Scales used to gather data were operationalized from previous research studies. A structural equation modeling (SEM) path analysis was used to estimate the impact of customer-focus on the performance of SMEs.

The outcomes of this study indicate that customer-focus has a significant positive impact on SME performance, hence backing the current demand for investigating the distinct influence of customer-focus on SME performance. The results show that customer-focus has a positive and significant relationship with financial performance, customer performance, internal business process performance and learning and growth performance, thus supporting the literature on the positive impact of customer-focus on SME performance. Therefore, customer-focus determinants used in this study, including co-creation, networking ties, customer insight and artificial intelligence marketing (AIM), are critical to the optimization of SME performance.

Notwithstanding the importance of this research study mentioned earlier, the study has limitations. Notably, the sample size of this study can be increased to capture SME respondents in other geographical zones that were not included in this study. Future research studies may address how business environment conditions moderate the relationship between customer focus and performance, and also the cause-effect of the relationship between customer focus and business environment conditions on SME performance.

The practical implications consist of two main items. First, this study empowers SME owners and managers to develop a customer focus technique as a central strategic goal in their quest for SME performance optimization. Second, SME owners and managers should progressively exploit the four determinants of customer focus which include co-creation, networking ties, customer insight and (AIM in order to accrue important resources for effective utilization of their customer focus competences as a way to enhance their performance.

This study is targeted at the sound development of SMEs to bring about poverty alleviation and employment. Poverty, unemployment and poor living standards are recognized as vital social challenges in most emerging economies. The establishment of customer focus as an important strategic capability provides opportunities for SME survival, profitability and growth.

Generally, the findings of this research study provide a strong backing to RBV perspective and the proposition that customer-focus and its determinants (i.e. co-creation, networking ties, customer insight and AIM) should be acknowledged as a vital strategic resource for optimizing the performance of SMEs. This research study also provides new knowledge contribution to the present body of knowledge on customer-focus orientation and management literature, particularly in the context of an emerging economy.

This study investigates the effects of top management commitment (TMC) and Kaizen on quality management practices (QMP) and how the latter influence the performance of Jordanian public hospitals in the aftermath of COVID-19.

A survey-based questionnaire was employed to collect data from 222 practitioners and professionals working in public hospitals in Jordan. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was undertaken to analyze data.

Significant and positive effects of TMC and Kaizen (continuous improvement) on QMP are highlighted by the results. The findings also show that QMP has a positive and significant impact on public hospitals' performance. Furthermore, the effects of TMC and Kaizen on performance were also found to be significant.

Practitioners and researchers will gain a greater understanding of how implementing QMP can enhance the performance of public hospitals in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak. The results underline the important role of Kaizen and TMC in the success of QMP and their effect on performance. This research is a cross-sectional study, and there is a need to conduct further empirical investigation based on secondary data or objective measurement of performance.

This research is one of the first studies to investigate the effects of QMP on public hospitals' performance following the COVID-19 outbreak. This study is one of the empirical examinations of QMP and Kaizen in developing countries by investigating Jordanian public hospitals.

The study aims to identify organizational variables of quality 4.0 for an Indian manufacturing company in the case of digital transformation. Furthermore, the organization enhances its quality 4.0 performances to its success based on the degree of relevance of these variables, insight into these variables and sub-factors to prioritize them.

Initially, two rounds of the survey were conducted with 11 decision-makers from the company made to receive organizational variables scores and prioritize the factors and sub-factors. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based research methodology has been proposed to assign the criterion weights and prioritize the identified variables.

The results of this AHP model demonstrate that “Committed Leadership” is recognized as the top positioned variable and most significant organizational variable, followed by Collaboration and Quality culture, which are developed at the next level. These essential organizational variables with their sub-categories' priorities are identified as contributing attributes.

The findings facilitate quality 4.0 in the digitalization era, which take into contemplating the current state of the business. Furthermore, the understanding of variables provides insightful guidance to analyze, solve complex problems and assess the efficacy of quality 4.0 in digital transformation.

The novelty of this study is to pinpoint, and evaluate the responsible organizational variables and prioritize them that lead to high productivity and competitive advantage considering the AHP method.

The view that dynamic capabilities theory can help explain how lean organizations improve has been put forward by scholars. However, there is still a lack of research on the matching relationship between the application of lean practice and the internal elements of enterprise organization from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. The purpose of this study is to validate the moderating effect of dynamic capabilities on the relationship between lean practices and operational performance.

This study used the method of survey and empirical research to collect sample data from 263 enterprises in China. Through literature review, this study put forward the moderating hypotheses around dynamic capabilities, lean practices and operation performance and used the method of regression analysis to validate these hypotheses.

The results showed that dynamic capabilities have a partially moderating effect on the application of lean practices. Specifically, dynamic capabilities have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between just-in-time, total quality management, total preventive maintenance and operational performance, while dynamic capabilities have no significant moderating effect on the relationship between human resource management and operational performance.

The research conclusion complements and enriches the lean practices literature from the perspective of dynamic capabilities. Existing studies mainly focus on the moderating role of external environmental factors, while there is a lack of empirical research on the role of dynamic capabilities in lean practices literature. The research results will help enterprises further understand the matching relationship between lean practices and dynamic capabilities and then improve the success of lean practices application.

The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize capabilities and practices to ensure a resilient supply chain during an unexpected disruption. In addition, this study ranks maturity factors that influence the main capabilities identified.

This paper is conducted in three stages. First, capabilities and practices are extracted through a literature review. Second, capabilities and practices are ranked using the analytical hierarchical process method. Third, a gray technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method is used to rank maturity factors influencing capabilities.

The findings indicate that responsiveness, readiness, flexibility and adaptability are the most important capabilities for supply chain resilience. Also, commitment and communication are the highest maturity factors influencing resilience capabilities.

The findings provide a hierarchical vision of capabilities and practices for industries to increase resilience. Limitations of the paper are related to capabilities, practices and number of experts consulted.

This paper highlights the importance of high-maturity practices in resilience capability adoption. The findings of this study will encourage decisions-makers to increase maturity practices to build resilience against disruption.

The paper reveals that developing powerful capabilities, good practices and a high level of maturity improve supply chain resilience.

Previous research has identified factors that enable lean change to be sustained. What remains unknown is how the interaction effects amongst these factors vary as lean change programmes mature. When are particular factors at their most influential?

Using a data and investigator triangulated qualitative research strategy, this paper tests an a priori model of change sustainability factors. In phase one, the research reveals the influence and significance of the model's change sustainability factors within 13 manufacturers. In phase two, four factors (Leadership, Political, Individual and Managerial) were selected for in-depth case study analyses in three manufacturers.

These point to when in the lean change, certain factors have the most influence on its sustainability. The Leadership factor and political factor are essential at the beginning and remain influential throughout. Employees' individual commitment (Individual factor) is significant in sustaining the change but it is at its most influential in the later stages. The Managerial factor (management approach) is influential in the mature stages of the programme.

Recognising where to put maximum focus during a lean change programme as it matures is crucial for management.

Sustaining lean change has not been studied from the perspective of what factors need to be emphasised at different stages in the programme for successful maturity to occur. Through empirical validation, this study helps address this knowledge gap.

Interesting because – Researchers have found that the majority of lean implementations fail – changes to structures and working practices are made only to see the gains dissipate. Previous research has suggested that multiple factors including leadership, culture and politics influence the change towards a lean organisation. While studies have shown that such factors play a role, what has not been studied is the time, that is, when the factors influence the change process. This study investigated when 11 factors have the most influence on lean implementation. Theoretical value – The study extends the state-of-the-art understanding of implementation of lean in organisations by adding a time element. It is found that in order to have a change that is sustainable, that is, lasting at least 18 months, factors that indicate the importance to the organisation are influential during the entire implementation process. This includes how central the change is to the organisation, the influence of leadership that sets vision and goals, and the implementation methods. Factors that can set things in motion such as the influence of important stakeholders are important at the beginning of the implementation process but then decline in influence over time. While factors that seem to have to do more with how companies operate have less influence at the start but become more influential over time. These include employees' commitment, the managerial style and approach, the organisational policies and structure, and the organisational culture. Practical value – Introducing lean into an organisation and gaining its sustained benefits is often not successful. While factors have previously been identified that influence the success of lean implementation, this study provides additional practical insight. It helps manufacturers be more effective by pinpointing which factors should be focused on during the various stages of the implementation process.

The purpose of this research is to study the impact of perceived adoption of Lean principles on operational performance in Lebanese pharmaceutical industries.

A quantitative method was implemented using a questionnaire that targeted 253 respondents working in eight good manufacturing practices (GMP) certified Lebanese pharmaceutical companies. Reliability analysis was performed using SPSS, and the research hypotheses were tested using regression analysis.

The results demonstrated that Lean principles positively and directly affected operational performance. It also positively affected operational performance factors of quality, cost and time. However, the analysis of each of Lean principles impact on operational performance cost was analyzed perfection, value, and value stream mapping (VSM) significantly increased operational performance. In addition, pull only positively augmented the cost reduction, whereas flow did not show any effects on any of operational performance’s factors.

In addition to enhancing operational performance, the positive effect of the perceived adoption of Lean principles on performance is also explained by managers’ efforts in studying the flow of actions in their processes to reduce wastes. To face uncertainty, training and building a workforce that is able to implement Lean principles, equipping this workforce with needed artifacts, and promoting a high-performance culture are crucial for the successful implementation of Lean principles.

Lean approach has become a major pathway of improvement especially in pharmaceutical companies. Few studies analyzed the impact of each of the Lean principles on the operational performance in companies that operate in era of uncertainty. Furthermore, the perceived adoption of Lean principles is under investigated in the Middle East in general and in Lebanon in particular.

While Digitalisation is gaining momentum among practitioners and the scientific world, there is still a struggle to embark on the digitalisation journey successfully. The struggles are more significant for SMEs compared to large companies. Such transformation could face internal resistance, which evokes the need to put it into a socio-technical perspective such as lean. This paper investigates how SMEs could implement digital tools and technologies in their operations.

We relied on a multiple case study design in three SME manufacturing companies in Italy. Based on the experience of those companies, the struggles in the implementation and the lessons learned, we formulate an implementation model of digital tools driven by lean thinking.

Companies tend to implement first digital tools that help with real-time data collection and stress that introducing digital tools becomes challenging without reducing waste in production. The model stresses top management commitment, middle-line involvement and operator training to resist change. All these factors coincide with socio-technical lean bundles developed by seminal works. In addition, the study highlights that financial incentives are not necessarily the common barrier to digital tools implementation in SMEs but rather the cultural aspect.

Our paper enriches the extant body of knowledge by deriving knowledge around digitalisation implementation through lessons learned and corrective actions. It allows managers to benchmark and compare the current state of the implementation process with that of other companies and the one proposed to make corrective actions when necessary.

Demanding and highly competitive business environment has stimulated small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to restructure their manufacturing practices. Lean manufacturing (LM), a comprehensive alternative, is now being adopted, notably by manufacturing organizations, to increase business effectiveness and performance through a variety of lean approaches. Lean implementation, however, ran into a number of difficulties, which showed that non-technical factors such as human-related practices must also be integrated if lean is to be successful. This study aims to examine a thorough overview of the various human-related lean practices (HRLP) mentioned in recent literature and to determine which of them is more pertinent to a successful LM implementation in SMEs.

A total of 193 publications published in 45 journals between 2013 and 2023 and based on the 4 reputable publishers, namely, Science Direct, Emerald Online, Taylor and Francis and Springer Link, were gathered based on a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles in LM.

The amount of research on human resource management and lean management that has been conducted has increased dramatically during the past few years. The outcome of this study will offer a thorough analysis of soft lean practices found in the LM literature that manufacturing SMEs should take into account while implementing lean.

The scope of this research is restricted to a survey of scholarly works using the terms “Lean manufacturing” or “Lean production” as well as “human” or “people” or “soft-lean practices” in the title. Furthermore, only works published in scholarly publications that have undergone peer review were included. Also, due to the authors’ linguistic restrictions, only English articles were used. The HRLP linked to a smooth lean transition are described in this research. Thus, it can be used to assist the production and human resource departments in raising an organization’s long-term performance.

The study gives researchers a better grasp of the direction the subject is taking and what gaps still exist, which aids them in focusing their research on HRLP in small- and medium-sized businesses.