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Le Lean And Lean

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Introduction Lean Principles have been essential to numerous organisations all over the world for achieving outstanding results in terms of efficiency, quality and manufacturing times. Large organisations are especially acknowledged to implement lean principles successfully. However, in recent years small and medium sized enterprises have been in emphasis due to their flexibility and capabilities that provides the necessary robustness in the global economic crisis (Matt , 2007). Therefore, this paper will critically appraise and assess two separate case studies by authors Matt and Rauch (2013) and Kumar et al. (2006) respectively. The two case studies, provided by these respective authors, revolve around SMEs in two different countries. This paper will identify lean elements along with their motivations behind their lean implementations and identify the main differences and similarities between the two case studies in terms of general lean literature. Finally, a list of recommendations will be given to each case study and how their individual companies can improve the success of their lean adoption. The Case Studies’ Lean Adoption The first case study is a SME, situated in the north of Italy. The firm started in 1995 and employs around 25 persons. With a small employee size it was very hard to commit too much time to develop a lean production with a two year period in single steps. Since there was limited resource allocation, it was decided that the firm will use a step

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