Increasing sustainability performance in a SME : Focusing on lean and green

Abstract: The SMEs are considered as the backbone of the country, they are contributing the biggest part of the country’s GDP (Gross domestic product). The SMEs are showing rapid growth and facing tough competition to satisfy the customer needs. The purpose of the report is to identify the solution to increasing sustainability performance and having the focus on the pillars of sustainability social, economic, and environmental in an SME within the production systems. The research is focused on enriching the qualitative study, to have an in-depth understanding, and triangulation of method has been used. The findings collected from the case company about the production system and current sustainability performance are presented. Then, lean and green paradigms are presented along with the overlapping factors. Then the findings are analyzed which includes the cause-effect relationship for lean and green followed by a selection of lean and green tools such as 5S and VSM are analyzed.  The research provides a solution to regain its competitiveness for the SME in the current industrial development by incorporating lean and green principles into their production systems. The initial step for attaining it to kick start with 5S and, Value stream mapping. The conclusion of this research showing the sustainability performance improvement suggestions is presented using lean and green tools into the SME. This research will be much needed for the present scenario especially for the SMEs, as they are the backbone of the country’s economy. This serves as a motivation and moves their focus to attain sustainability to serve evergreen with their customers. Finally, the future work of this research work along with managerial suggestion is presented which ensures to minimize the CO2 with leaner and green tools.