When and how can lean be applied to deliver superior supply chain performance?

Abstract

Though Lean has been widely acknowledged as having significant positive impact on supply chain performance, it might not be applicable in all production and supply chain contexts to the same extent .This project aims to answer the important question – Under what situations are lean practices most applicable and effective? Towards achieving the above objective various cases of Lean success and failure were examined. This also included plant tours at Lean factories. Based on this, a framework has been proposed to judge the usefulness/applicability of Lean in any supply chain or operations context. Finally the above framework has been applied to the fashion apparels and healthcare supply chain and ways have been identified in which Lean can improve them.