Barriers to lean implementation in engineer-to-order manufacturing with subsequent assembly on-site: state of the art and future directions

Abstract

Engineer-to-Order (ETO) companies with subsequent assembly on-site develop and manufacture highly customised goods that must be finally installed at the customer’s site under time and budget constraints. Traditional losses are caused by external factors (e.g. frequent changes by the customer) as well as within the supply chain (e.g. assembly errors on-site). Generally, Lean methods can be applied to mitigate these losses, but considering the ETO industry, various implementation barriers exist. Through a systematic literature review, we propose a framework that lists and categorises Lean implementation barriers in: organisation, management, knowledge, culture, finances, customer, and non-context specific ones. Further research should focus on validating the framework with empirical data and investigating if and how new technologies could help overcome these barriers.

Keywords:

• Lean manufacturing
• implementation
• barriers
• engineer-to-order (ETO)
• losses
• framework

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felix Schulze

Felix Schulze Is a PhD candidate in the PhD program ‘Advanced Systems Engineering’ at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Free University of Bolzano (Italy). He received his Master of Engineering degree at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin (Germany). For ten years he worked as a professional in the automotive, construction and Engineer-to-Order industries in various countries and positions. His research activities mainly concern the application of Industry 4.0 technologies to Engineer-to-Order and construction environments.

Patrick Dallasega

Patrick Dallasega is an Assistant Professor of Factory Planning and Project Management at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the Free University of Bolzano (Italy). He studied at the Free University of Bolzano (Italy), at the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy) and got his PhD at the University of Stuttgart (Germany). He was Visiting Scholar at the Excellence Centre in Logistics and Supply Chain Management Chiang Mai University (Thailand) and at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts (USA). His main research interests are in, supply chain management, Industry 4.0, lean construction, lean manufacturing and production planning and control in MTO and ETO enterprises.