Lean in High-Mix/Low-Volume industry: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore current state-of-the-art on lean in High-Mix/Low-Volume (HMLV) industry. For this purpose, authors propose a systematic literature review of 110 articles published in 66 peer-reviewed international journals that explicitly discuss lean in HMLV context. The purpose is to investigate research that is available, in order to analyse theoretical aspects of lean considerations in HMLV context, identify the level of lean maturity, the scope of lean, the way lean is implemented, and tools and practices that are commonly used. The results of the analysis show that current research is mainly focussed on practice, with little attention to theory development. The maturity of lean implementation is rather low, as articles mostly address obvious waste reduction, while more advanced concepts such as variability management and buffering remain under-researched. Studies are often operationally and internally oriented, with shop-floor improvements being the area of interest, while embedding lean in strategy is not sufficiently addressed. Lean implementation frameworks presented in the literature are usually tool-based, addressing a narrow set of simplified cases that do not take fully into account complexities of HMLV industry. Lastly, a rather narrow set of tools is used, with tools often being adapted without proper consideration of relevance of a certain tool for HMLV industry. As publications reviewing lean in HMLV context are scarce, this study presents valuable insight and serves as an excellent resource for research on the subject, since it not only presents the existing knowledge in a structured way, but also identifies possible directions for future research.

Keywords:

• Lean
• High-Mix/Low-Volume
• systematic literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ivan Tomašević

Ivan Tomašević is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering of the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. He received his MSc and PhD in Industrial and Management Engineering from this institution. He has consulted for public enterprises, manufacturers and service companies in the areas of Continuous Process Improvement, Business Process Management, and Wage Payment Systems. His areas of interest are Operations Management, Lean Manufacturing, and Production Systems Design, with a special focus on High-Mix/Low-Volume industry. He has published papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and international conferences.

Dragana Stojanović

Dragana Stojanović holds PhD in Industrial and Management Engineering, and works as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering of the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. She is the head of the Laboratory for Work Study at the same institution. She has participated in many projects for public and private enterprises, with an expertise in Operations Management, Business Process Management and Continuous Process Improvement. She has published papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and international conferences, covering topics of Business Process Management, Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Process Improvement.

Dragoslav Slović

Dragoslav Slović is a Full Professor and head of the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering of the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. He received his MSc and PhD in Industrial and Management Engineering from this institution. He is the head of Lean Centre at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, and has expertise in Industrial Engineering, Wage Payment Systems, and Continuous Process Improvement, with over 20 years of experience in teaching and consulting. His areas of interest are Lean Manufacturing, Performance and Compensation Management, Operations Management, and Industrial Engineering. He has published papers in peer-reviewed academic journals and international conferences.

Barbara Simeunović

Barbara Simeunović is an Assistant Professor at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. She is the head of Centre for Process Engineering at the same institution. She received her MSc in Industrial Engineering at L'Ecole Centrale Paris, and PhD in Industrial and Management Engineering at University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. She participated in several national and international projects in the fields of Business Process Management, Wage Payment Systems and Lean Manufacturing. Her research interests include Operations Management, Industrial engineering, and Business Process Management, and her papers appeared in academic journals and international conferences covering these topics.

Ivona Jovanović

Ivona Jovanović received her BSc in Operations Management and MSc in Industrial and Management Engineering at University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, where she currently works as a Teaching Associate at the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering. She is author and co-author of several papers presented at national and international conferences. Her main research interests are Operations Management, Lean Manufacturing and Business Process Management, with Higher Education Institutions as a centre of attention.