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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to the economy of any country, but in return, they are limited in their resources. A large part of these companies, when setting out to promote the Lean Manufacturing (LM) have difficulties with the selection and analysis of Lean tools to implement. Eventually, if the improvement actions aren't properly planned, structured or supported by the whole organization then, they end up failing in their implementation. Besides this problem, the literature on LM does not provide enough information about how the selection of Lean tools or practices should be conducted. Therefore, this study presents a decision support system that can help organizations to identify waste and to select the most appropriate tools or Lean practices to implement. It should be noted that, before any implementation of a Lean tool or practice, the organization should take care of knowing its stakeholders, define its system, be informed of the current state of the organization, and identify all the processes that add value to the organization. The correct selection of Lean tools or practices does not ensure the success of the Lean philosophy in any organization, because there are some factors that must be required, namely, the commitment of top management, knowing how to lead and communicate with all employees, being the education and training a crucial point to ensure a good cultural change in the organization.
Description
Keywords
Lean Manufacturing Process Industries Lean Tools: Decision support systems SMEs