Opportunities for implementation of concepts and tools lean production aiming to improve competitiveness of enterprises of shoe APL Jaú / SP

Abstract

Lean production has been applied by organizations around the world as part of strategy to reduce waste in their value stream intending to improve performance. Despite the use of lean production concepts and tools have continually been introduced in different companies, the literature shows the most of application is identified in large companies than in Small-and  Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The reason can be the lack of financial and human resources available to the lean initiatives in these enterprises. However, a wide range of concepts and techniques of lean production can be applied without considerable financial investments. This paper aims to study the opportunities and difficulties of lean production applicability in SMEs. Case research was developed in three SMEs of industrial cluster of Jaú/SP and the results suggest that these companies face similar difficulties. Nevertheless, the study confirms that there are several opportunities to implement lean production concepts and techniques which can lead to improve performance in these companies.