Proposal of a framework of factors and performance indicators for sustainability of initiatives in Lean Thinking

• Grant number: 18/19435-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): February 16, 2019
• Effective date (End): February 15, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering - Production Management
• Principal Investigator: Kleber Francisco Espôsto
• Grantee: Kleber Francisco Espôsto
• Host Investigator: Rapinder Singh Sawhney
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Tennessee (UT), United States

Abstract

Increasing the quality and efficiency of processes by reducing waste is one of the ways Lean Thinking, or Lean, to improve production systems. The implementations of its mentality, denominated Lean Thinking, gained great scope in the most different sectors of the organizations. However, it is common to see the implementations its principles through the techniques and tools not to be sustained over time, resulting in not achieving the desired results, causing the return to initial situations pre-improvement. The performance measurement of production systems and the management of indicators has been an important research topic, but traditional proposals may lead to a loss of focus on the improvement of processes and decision making not directed towards the reality of the system, that is, there is a need to update and develop the alignment between performance measurement, its indicators and the Lean Thinking contexts. Thus, it is understood that this adequacy and evolution can have a direct impact on the sustainability of the improvement initiatives of organizations that launch lean, an objective that has not yet been consolidated in the researched literature. From this, the present research project aims to identify important factors to the sustainability of improvements in lean environments and the development of a proposal for structuring indicators and system to measure the performance to promote means of control, management and decision for the sustainability of lean improvement initiatives. The stages of this project consider in-depth bibliographic reviews on the themes, a case study of sustainability success in lean implementations and the consolidation of indicators and important factors in a structuring, in order to foster the sustainability initiatives of improvement, providing organizations with their results and benefits on an ongoing basis. (AU)