Conceptual Analysis Of Lean Manufacturing (Lm) Principles For Small And Medium Enterprise (Sme)

The introduction and implementation of Lean Manufacturing (LM) Principles over the last twenty years has had a notable impact on many manufacturing enterprises. However, many researchers have highlighted the fact that LM methods and instruments are not equally applicable to large and small companies. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia have been ignored for a long time and special investigations about this topic are rarely being focused. This project analyzed the benefits of LM principles in SMEs and also SMEs limitation in implementing LM. The research is a combination of conceptual analysis and survey questionnaire to analyse the LM principles which currently implemented by SMEs in Penang, Malaysia. A conceptual analysis was performed by using the method of Näsi's four elements while the survey questionnaire was created with google form with the questions were set based on the results of conceptual analysis. Analysis was also conducted to find the difficulties in the implementation stage and to identify the limiting factors. The results of this preliminary study show that the proposed best five LM principles for SMEs are: visual control (mean 4.43), gemba walk (mean 4.43), relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvements (mean 4.20), continuous process flow (mean 4.03) and grows leaders (mean 3.53). Therefore, based on the five principles, SMEs in Malaysia can focus their efforts and resources in order to achieve a successful implementation of LM