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The advent of recession at the beginning of twenty-first century forced many organizations worldwide to reduce cost and to be more responsive to customer demands. Lean Manufacturing (LM) has been widely perceived by industry as an answer to these requirements because LM reduces waste without additional requirements of resources. This led to a spurt in LM research across the globe mostly through empirical and exploratory studies which resulted in a plethora of LM definitions with divergent scopes, objectives, performance indicators, tools/techniques/methodologies, and concepts/elements. The purpose of this paper is to review LM literature and report these divergent definitions, scopes, objectives, and tools/techniques/methodologies.

This paper highlights various definitions by various researchers and practitioners. A total of 209 research papers have been reviewed for the research contribution, research methodology adopted, tools/techniques/methodologies used, type of industry, author profile, country of research, and year of publication.

There are plethora of LM definitions with divergent objectives and scope. Theory verification through empirical and exploratory studies has been the focus of research in LM. Automotive industry has been the focus of LM research but LM has also been adopted by other types of industries also. One of the critical implementation factors of LM is simultaneous adoption of leanness in supply chain. LM has become an integrated system composed of highly integrated elements and a wide variety of management practices. There is lack of standard LM implementation process/framework.

The paper reviews 209 research papers for their research contribution, research methodology, author profile, type of industry, and tools/techniques/methodology used. Various characteristics of LM definitions are also reviewed.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a step‐by‐step implementation framework for lean product development (LPD), from the marketing research on product development process, product design to the launch of final production.

The research approach taken in this paper is built around the primary industry cases, practical approaches and partial solutions available within the existing literature.

The most recent improvement of LPD, from the authors' perspective, focuses on tools and implementation for LPD. In this paper, a detailed step‐by‐step implementation is given after the framework is introduced. Led by value and waste analysis in product development, different tools and techniques which can be used to eliminate wastes were discussed briefly, and then the implementation from Doing the Right Thing to Doing the Right Thing for company transition to lean were proposed elaborately.

Due to time and economic environment limitations, the authors have not covered and implemented this approach in all existing different environments to ensure that it is robust.

The approach described here seeks to overcome other frameworks' weaknesses in terms of the realistic aspect and feasibility, and combines more existing best practice from industry, consultancy and academia into a step‐by‐step framework for the achievement of effective LPD.

The contribution of lean construction techniques in sustainable construction cannot be over emphasised, as sustainable development is now enshrined in government policy. In addition, lean construction is now faced with the challenges of sustainable development, continuous improvement, waste elimination, a stronger user focus, increased value for money along with high quality management of projects and supply chains, and improved communications. This paper presents an exploratory study from extant literature and the results of the use of questionnaire survey among construction participants to explore the contribution of implementing lean construction techniques in sustainable construction.

Surveys of UK-based construction professional were conducted. The data collected were analysed with SPSS 19.0 version software using the percentile method, Cronbach ' s α reliability test, Kruskal Wallis test, Kendall ' s coefficient of concordance and one sample t-test.

Results from this study indicate that there are several benefits associated with implementation of lean construction and sustainable construction. The overall perspective of professionals within the construction industry, according to questionnaire survey, shows that benefits such as improved corporate image and sustainable competitive advantage, improved process flow and productivity, improvement in environmental quality and increased compliance with customer ' s expectations are realised following integration of principles of lean construction and sustainable construction within construction industry. Just-in-time, visualisation tool, value analysis, daily huddle meetings and value stream mapping are the most common lean tools/techniques for enabling sustainability. This study also identified several areas of linkage between lean and sustainability such as waste reduction, environmental management, value maximisation, and health and safety improvement among others.

The originality of this paper lies in its consideration of lean construction principles to better understand its impact on sustainable construction. This research contributes to the awareness of the benefits that can be derived from the implementation of lean construction in sustainable construction within the construction industry.

Lean healthcare is highlighted in the literature as an approach to quality improvement and operational efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to study how Lean healthcare has been implemented by analyzing empirical outcomes.

The authors used a literature review as the primary research method, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses process. Peer-reviewed journals were analyzed – searching for Lean healthcare implementation, tools used, wastes addressed, outcomes and sustainability.

Evidence suggests that Lean can improve healthcare operational effectiveness. However, empirical studies show implementation is still highly localized with small successes. Most transformations are focused on implementing one or two Lean tools that primarily target patient waiting times and there is minimal evidence about sustainability. Establishing clear definitions for healthcare-related Lean terminology may improve practice, especially episodic care and service quality.

This work provides a Lean healthcare case review. The research makes a significant contribution to Lean healthcare by increasing understanding (scale, scope and sustainability). From a theory building perspective, the authors suggest that barriers to adoption include a common healthcare-specific Lean terminology, and a need to expand implementation beyond small successes. This understanding will help identify key areas for further research in Lean healthcare management.

The aim of this paper is to explore the implementation of an integrated lean and ISO 14001 approach in meat industry for environmental performance and examine a proposed conceptual framework by capturing insights from lean and ISO 14001 experts in New Zealand (NZ).

Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with a group of consultants (lean and ISO 14001) to evaluate the suitability of an integrated lean and ISO 14001 approach in the meat industry for environmental performance. A conceptual framework from literature has guided this study leading to its further development based on the empirical evidence collected.

Findings have illustrated a synergistic positive impact of lean and ISO 14001 implementation as an integrated approach for sustaining environmental performance in the meat industry. A joint implementation program provides more clarity in aligning ISO 14001 operational procedures with lean tools and techniques for an enhanced environmental performance outcome.

The application of an integrated lean and ISO 14001 framework is proposed in this paper, which can help industry practitioners and academia in developing a joint implementation strategy and conducting future research.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to assess the effective implementation of lean and ISO 14001 as an integrated approach in the NZ meat industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and introduce comprehensive insights into the field of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) by reviewing the existing literature and identifying the research gap. The state of LSS research is assessed by critically examining the field, along with a number of dimensions, including time horizon, year, journal and publisher, university, country, author, geographic analysis, research design, research affairs, research methods, tools/techniques used, focus industries, major research area, benefits gained by LSS, critical success factors and barriers of LSS implementation.

This paper is based on a systematic literature review of 190 articles containing the word LSS in their title, which are published in a well-known database, such as Elsevier ScienceDirect, Taylor and Francis, Emerald Full Text, Springer Link, Wiley InterScience and Inderscience from January 2000 to September 2016.

This analysis reveals 15 significant dimensions to identify the state of LSS research. Authors find a noticeable rise in the attention of LSS research in the available literature. Major findings show that, the empirical research holds greater credibility. Statistics prove that the case study method scores the highest among all the research methods used in the discipline. The largest number of studies have investigated research issues related to implementation and process of LSS. The LSS uses a wide range of tools/techniques/methodologies: the choice of tools is situation-specific. Manufacturing and health-care sectors have been the focus of LSS research, but LSS has also been adopted by other types of industries. The organizations following LSS have improved bottom-line results, improved company profitability and growth and enhanced customer satisfaction. In general the research is more interpretive in nature; there is still a lack of standard in the LSS implementation framework.

This study is limited to reviewing those articles which contain the word LSS appeared in the title.

This study will help understand the current state of research on LSS, various trends in the field, its applicability and future prospects of investigation in the field.

The aim of this analysis is to review the Indian manufacturing organizations practicing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) tools/techniques with an objective of monitoring the performance of an organization and to develop recommendation for strategies to benchmark organizational operational efficiency.

This study offers insights of the LSS performance measurement aspects of the Indian manufacturing organizations based on Data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The five inputs and two outputs are considered on the basis of literature review and discussed with the practitioners.

In this analysis, the relative efficiency score of 18 Indian manufacturing organizations has been determined in order to assist evaluation of the impact of monetary investment on the outputs. The present analysis not only investigates the optimum level of input variables but also lays down a significant observation that an organization having higher profit and inventory turnover ratio is not necessarily an efficient organization.

The results assist to determine the best practice units, potential source of inefficiency and deliver beneficial data for the consistent enhancement of the operational efficiency. The DEA results assist managers and decision makers to derive appropriate strategies to enhance their performance with reference to the efficient organization and to regard it as their role model.

This analysis renders a DEA based framework of LSS practicing Indian manufacturing organizations. The framework is unique in terms of its input-outputs variable selection and measurement procedure.

Non-value adding activities or wastes in the lean term have been the major challenge of the construction industry. Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate how such wastes can be reduced so as to improve the performance of the construction industry. However, the aspect of bricks production process (BPP) has not been extensively covered. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of lean manufacturing concepts in BPP with a view to identifying the various wastes in the practice, the causes of these wastes and how such wastes can be reduced.

Mixed methods research design was adopted by the researchers where literature review was first conducted to establish the fundamental theories and practice standards of lean manufacturing process. Thereafter, a phenomenological study was carried out in a Shelter Clay and Brick Factory located in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria. The data obtained in the phenomenological study were analyzed through content analysis. These data served as the basis for the validation survey that subsequently followed the phenomenological study.

The findings in the study show that poor or inadequate supervision is the main factor responsible for wastes such as excessive drying of bricks, overheating of bricks and re-glazing of bricks in Nigerian BPP.

The study focused on the various wastes in Nigerian BPP. It also focused on the various lean tools/techniques that can be adopted to reduce the wastes. Aspects such as the percentage of the wastes and their cost implication on the factory were not covered during the study and could be further investigated by prospective researchers.

The study provides knowledge on how lean thinking can be adopted to reduce wastes in BPP. Such knowledge may be beneficial to the present and prospective bricks producers. This implies that the proposed framework in the study allows producers of bricks to identify gaps in their implementation efforts, focus attention on areas that may require improvements, and access the benefits of lean approach in their factory products. The proposed framework may also be beneficial to the academics.

This paper first gain originality in the study context to propose for a lean framework that can be adopted to reduce wastes in BPP. Furthermore, the paper has not been previously published and all the information obtained from other sources are duly referenced.

Literature contributions to Lean manufacturing (LM) are fragmented and show some significant limitations. The purpose of this paper is to identify the existing research gaps in LM as well as to group them into respective themes.

A systematic literature review (SLR) of peer reviewed journal articles in LM was carried out by the authors, based on four major publishers, namely, Emerald Online, Science Direct, Springer Link and Taylor & Francis. In total, 120 articles published in 30 journals during 2005–2016 were collected which revealed LM research gaps. A simple affinity diagram was applied in order to group the research gaps into logical themes.

A large number of research gaps are identified in the LM literature and meaningful themes of these gaps are also revealed.

The SLR carried out by the authors is based on only four academic journal publishers and some of other publishers might have been missed out in this search. Excluding articles focusing on an individual Lean principle or tool/technique is also a limitation of the present SLR.

Researchers and practitioners can use the LM research gaps presented in this study for further development of LM methodology.

Presenting LM research gaps analytically and grouping them into meaningful themes, significantly differentiates the present SLR study from those published so far.

Health care organisations implement lean six sigma (LSS) methodology to achieve improved performance in terms of cost, quality and productivity. However, the way it gets implemented differs between organisations. Hence, this paper deal with a review of case studies describing the implementation of LSS in health care organisations to understand the nuances of implementation and identify future research directions.

The journal articles indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus database were filtered out. In total, 154 articles were evaluated using specific structural dimensions to categorise the literature into various groups, and content analysis was performed to synthesise the same.

This review revealed that the number of articles publishing the application of LSS in health care has been increasing in the last five years. Academic hospitals play a pivotal role to bridge the gap between LSS theory and practice. Despite this fact, certain themes remain unexplored. Not many studies are available that document the application of LSS in non-clinical areas such as pharmacy, internal logistics, maintenance and medical records. Only 20% of articles mentioned the post-intervention data up to three years, thus questioning the sustainability aspect of the achieved improvements.

Various research gaps were identified, which can be used by the researchers to build the body of knowledge in the domain of LSS in health care.

This review provides a diversified view regarding the utility of LSS in the health care scenario. The findings will provide valuable insights for the health care practitioners regarding tools, techniques, drivers and performance measures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to review only the case studies that describe the implementation of LSS in the health care sector.