Roadmap towards a Lean and Sustainable Production for Medium Sized Manufacturers: A Case Study

Abstract: Trends such as globalization, increased customer demands and the increased sustainability challenge are forcing medium sized manufacturers to rethink their production processes and start developing lean and sustainable production systems.Many of the developed tools and methods for the lean and sustainable production presented in the literature are not well suited for medium sized manufacturers with a lack of empirical case studies, and therefore investigating suitable approaches for improving the production and sustainability performances is needed in their case. This thesis proposes to use a mixture of tools from both the Lean and sustainable development literature for creating a lean and sustainable production roadmap for medium sized manufacturers. It demonstrates a case study conducted at a medium sized roller blind manufacturer who is preparing to introduce lean and enhancing their sustainability at the production to cope with the condensed market and their customer requirements. The study analyzes the manufacturing processes from both the lean and sustainability perspectives, where different tools were adopted and used throughout the work, which are: Value Stream Mapping, Sustainable Life Cycle Assessment, and Sustainability Compliance index, with the data collected through interviews, dialogues, observations, time studies and internal documents. Understanding the company specific problems and value acted as a foundation for further analysis and improvement potentials identification to reach a future lean and sustainable state in the production, which resulted in enhancing the firm´s lean and sustainability performances. This thesis complement the lean initiatives with a sustainability assessment effort to grasp the whole picture and generate ultimate improvement potentials in order to cope with today´s evolving trends and the increased sustainability requirements. A main contribution is the developed guidelines for creating a lean and sustainable production roadmap for medium sized manufacturers, which result in leveraged benefits satisfying both the lean and sustainable needs.