Enablers of Lean for Manufacturing Excellence: An Interpretive Structural Modelling and Analysis

In the current competitive business world, the importance of lean systems has significantly improved. The purpose of the research paper is to identify key enablers of lean and understand their relationship dynamics using the interpretive structural modelling (ISM) approach with a goal to accelerate the pace of manufacturing excellence in industries. Literature review and focused interaction with domain experts facilitated in identifying 24 significant enablers. The analysis from the ISM has highlighted the strong need to focus on two clusters of four enablers each in the driving and dependent enablers quadrants in manufacturing. People-excellence-related cluster had leadership standard work, quality of people, functional expertise and lean training as the key driving enablers. While, the customer-driven cluster had supermarket pull system, demand management, process quality and value flow as the key dependent enablers. The research paper has provided useful insights and recommendations to industry leaders for accelerating their manufacturing excellence journey.