A New Holistic Conceptual Framework for Leanness Assessment

Lean principles, aiming at eliminating waste and increasing efficiency at a company, take their roots from the initiatives of Taiichi Ohno. After the implementation of the principles at the Toyota Motor Company for the first time, businesses started to discover the benefits of lean implementation in terms of efficiency increase. As the adaptation of lean into the manufacturing sector is continuing, the necessity of assessing the level of leanness at the firm-level maintains its importance. Taking systems approach as a basis, the lean performance of an organization should be assessed as a whole. Therefore, we propose a holistic leanness assessment framework, which encapsulates various dimensions of the leanness assessment and we identify the importance and causal relationships between the sub-criteria. In order to identify the importance and causal relationships between the sub-criteria, we used fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL). Our findings show that the most influencing factor in the cause group is 'technology and product design' which indicates the companies' necessity to focus on Industry 4.0 during their operations. The results also illustrate that the most influenced factor in the effect group is 'productivity', in which companies can investigate strategic competitive advantages. The design of a holistic framework and the implementation of fuzzy DEMATEL offers a way to identify the importance and the causal relationships between the sub-criteria. With the help of a case study conducted in the plastics industry of Turkey, we offer managerial implications that could help managers to implement the proposed structural leanness assessment framework.