Lean practices: assessing the relationship among manufacturing and service firms

The paper seeks to identify relationships among firms in the manufacturing and service organisations with respect to the selection of lean practices. Bibliometric analysis was applied to data from 91 lean case studies and statistical analysis conducted to assess trends in the selection of lean practices. Articles were limited to English-Language journals, conference papers and non-profit as well as government reports. Critical insights included the holistic nature of applying lean practices, the importance of lean accounting, continuous flow and work simplification to service operations and the lack of significant differences in lean practice application between job shops and service operations. Firms categorised as mass production were 27% as likely as service operations to select continuous flow, 20% as likely for work simplification and 26% as likely to select design for Six Sigma. The study could not show any significant differences in lean practice selection among job shops and service operations.