Production Planning & Control

The Management of Operations

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Benefits of adopting lean production on green

performance of SMEs: a case study

Amine Belhadi, Fatima Ezahra Touriki & Said El Fezazi

To cite this article: Amine Belhadi, Fatima Ezahra Touriki & Said El Fezazi (2018) Benefits of
adopting lean production on green performance of SMEs: a case study, Production Planning &
Control, 29:11, 873-894, DOI: 10.1080/09537287.2018.1490971

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1490971

Published online: 10 Aug 2018.

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PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL
2018, VOL. 29, NO. 11, 873–894
https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1490971

Benefits of adopting lean production on green performance of SMEs:

a case study
Amine Belhadi , Fatima Ezahra Touriki and Said El Fezazi
Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are widely recommended to strive, not only for their per- Received 27 August 2017
formance in operational side, but they need to integrate the environmental dimension. To do that, Accepted 2 June 2018
the literature widely indicates a positive impact of lean practices on green performance. However,
very few studies have been carried out in SMEs context. In this view, this paper aims at providing
KEYWORDS
through a practical case study of lean implementation in a real-life small manufacturing company, the Lean production; green
information to confirm this synergy between lean and green performance. To achieve this aim, a pro- performance; lean and
posed framework of lean and green integration has been implemented in a SME producing different green; small- and medium-
types of pumps. The results achieved shows that there is a strong correlation between operational sized enterprises
metrics improvement and green metrics improvement. Moreover, the benefits of lean practices such
as 5S, Kanban, SMED, AM, cellular manufacturing and quality control on green performance are widely
demonstrated. Future work could study other processes and explore other case-specific supporting
tools and techniques.

1. Introduction the globalised market as an important precondition for the

The adoption of lean production in recent decades has
enabled in many cases small- and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) to improve their performance by providing tremen-
dous opportunities for development and expansion through
cost-effectiveness and quality enhancement (Belhadi, Touriki,
and El Fezazi 2017; Thanki, Govindan, and Thakkar 2016).
However, the increase in energy price, pollution, and glo-
bal warming together with the changes in the laws and reg-
ulations governing the environment and the growing
pressure and demands from stakeholders have impelled
SMEs to admit the stringent environmental restrictions and
to develop greater environmental responsibility (Mart
ınez-
Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes 2014). This requires the exploit-
ation of processes with little harmful environmental impacts,
breakthrough energy-efficiency and accident-free workplaces,
which are economically sound. It demands not only making
more sustainable products-energy efficient, environmentally
friendly and socially responsible, but also the use of more
sustainable practices to manufacture those products
(Faulkner and Badurdeen 2014).
Therefore, the objective of improving only the economic
performance is no longer sufficient (Mart
ınez-Jurado and
Moyano-Fuentes 2014). The international economy wants to
see their SMEs, in particular, to be operating their processes
consciously and to take more responsibility for environmen-
tal footprint, and they are therefore raising their corporate
social responsibility. This requires the formulation of more
advanced manufacturing strategies to remain competitive in
development of most national economies (Thanki, Govindan,
and Thakkar 2016). One natural starting point is to examine
the opportunity of the use of lean production for developing
improved environment-oriented strategies for maximal profit
manufacturing for SMEs. This is stimulated by the fact that a
number of studies pointed out that lean implementation can
lead to environmental benefits (Du €es, Tan, and Lim 2013;
Faulkner and Badurdeen 2014; Garza-Reyes et al. 2016;
Thanki, Govindan, and Thakkar 2016). For example, authors
such as Du €es, Tan, and Lim (2013) and Garza-Reyes et al.
(2016) underscored that the alignment of lean objectives
with the green paradigm seems natural since the goals set
for achieving leanness will be a catalyst for successfully
implementing green practices and help in achieving also
environmental goals.
However, the numerous studies that intended to realise
the natural synergies and compatibilities between lean prac-
tices and green performance have been carried out in the
context of large companies without any focus on SMEs. This
makes it hard to generalise the findings for smaller compa-
nies since the factory size is argued to be one of the key fac-
tors for implementation of both lean and green practices
(Gandhi, Thanki, and Thakkar 2018). Several authors proved
that operational strategies along with sustainability context
differ for large-scale industries compared to small-scale
industries (Gandhi, Thanki, and Thakkar 2018; Negr~ao, Filho,
and Marodin 2016; Shah and Ward 2003).
In the literature, a number of authors such as Gandhi,
Thanki, and Thakkar (2018) and Thanki, Govindan, and

CONTACT Amine Belhadi belhadi-9@hotmail.fr Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco.

ß 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
874 A. BELHADI ET AL.
Thakkar (2016) argued that the trade-offs between lean and
green management paradigms might help to manufacture
SMEs to become more efficient and sustainable.
Nevertheless, none of them has provided a proven and prac-
tical way to integrate lean and green and merge their funda-
ments and principles, within the specific context of SMEs.
Facing this shortcoming in the current literature, most SMEs’
owners/managers ask, ‘How can lean practices be used as a
catalyst for achieving the green performance?’. In other
words, how to develop an environmentally friendly mode of
manufacturing to generate profits in the context of SMEs?
In an attempt to provide an answer to this issue, this
paper aims to analyse in depth the impact of lean on green
performance for SMEs. The paper relies on the examination
of a practical implementation of lean in a representative
small company specialised in producing a wide range of
industrial pumps to show how green performance can be
drastically improved as well as an economic performance by
mean of lean implementation programme. The lean pro-
gramme is implemented under the supervision of the
authors and based on a systematic methodology proposed
by the authors.
This paper is outlined as below. After the introduction
section, Section 2 highlights, through a theoretical back-
ground, the current research gaps and fixes the research
objectives. Proposed lean and green implementation system-
atic methodology is presented in the following section.
Section 4 describes the detailed implementation of the pro-
posed framework in a small company. Section 5 provides
some discussions on results. Lastly, some concluding remarks
along with a recommendation for future work are included.
2. Theoretical background and research scope
This section presents a review of the literature in three cate-
gories, viz lean implementation in SMEs, green performance
issue in SMEs and a brief review of the literature on synergis-
tic effects among lean and green performance. Afterward,
the research scope and objectives are formulated.
2.1. Lean production in SMEs
Based on the principles and the working processes of the
Toyota production system (Powell, Riezebos, and
Strandhagen 2013), lean production is one of the most
powerful improvement approaches which aims to provide
manufacturers a new competitive advantage. Shah and Ward
(2007) defined lean production as an integrated socio-tech-
nical system striving continuously to eradicate wastage by
concurrently reducing or minimising supplier, customer and
internal variability.
More practically, lean production can be considered as a
multi-faceted concept that includes a wide range of manage-
ment practices in an integrated system (Shah and Ward
2003; Slomp, Bokhorst, and Germs 2009). The core thrust of
lean production is that these practices can work synergistic-
ally to reduce waste anywhere in the company, optimise
core resources and establish a corporate culture dedicated to
the systematic identification and implementation of lean
strategies fostering customer satisfaction (Chiarini 2013;
Karim and Arif-Uz-Zaman 2013; Shah and Ward 2003).
Lean production has been designed and confirmed by
large companies, which have been able to achieve a signifi-
cant increase in production capacity and performance
(Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi 2017). Furthermore, many
researchers have promoted the use of lean in small and
medium enterprises as well (Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi
2018; Panizzolo et al. 2012) and outlined its applicability in
such companies and the possible competitive advantages
achieved through lean production in SMEs.
2.2. Green performance issue in SMEs
Price rise of energy, climate change and environmental pollu-
tion along with the growing interest in the market for ‘green’
issues have led to the rapid emergence of the environmental
issue as one of the most important research areas in manu-
facturing field (Thanki, Govindan, and Thakkar 2016). In most
industries, companies look at their environmental perform-
ance as a key of competitive edge, alongside costs, delays
and product quality (Azzone and Noci 1998). As far as SMEs
are concerned, many researchers have outlined the urgent
need of SMEs for achieving green performance (Agan, Acar,
and Borodin 2013; Ramayah 2012).
However, various studies claimed that SMEs are so far
behind their large counterparts in terms of achieving green
benefits. For example, Florida (1996) carried out a classifica-
tion of companies and found out that SMEs are the less
environmentally developed. Likewise, Azzone and Noci
(1998) have based on an intensive analysis of 15 companies
to realise that SMEs still adopt reactive environmental strat-
egies. Br
ıo and Junquera (2003) came to the same conclusion
and stated that SMEs are usually used to ignore the environ-
mental issues, and, at most, just comply with the direct regu-
lation that concerns them. Actually, most studies agree with
this point of view. For example, Lee (2009) argued that SMEs
still have a short-sighted on the direction of future innov-
ation and still address green issues in an ad hoc manner. In
addition, Agan, Acar, and Borodin (2013) claimed that
Turkish State and SMEs are soft regarding environmental
issues. Moreover, Boiral, Baron, and Gunnlaugson (2014) have
shown, by mean of interviews among 63 Canadian SMEs,
that the environmental commitment of SMEs is very limited
and still requires more development.
The reasons behind this situation are numerous. Azzone
et al. (1997) stated that small firms in Italy lack sufficient
resources to tackle environmental issues. Actually, SMEs can-
not implement an organisational unit specially aimed at
managing environmental issues. In a similar vein, Agan, Acar,
and Borodin (2013) believed that Turkish SMEs and the
government alike believe that environmental activities will
require a large initial investment and continuous costs that
it will create a competitive disadvantage compared to
other countries.
The crucial role of green performance in SMEs develop-
ment along with the less development of SMEs in

environmental issues have promoted researchers to find new
ways to develop a win-win scenario with environmental and
economic performance so that SMEs can be convinced to
adopt green management in their businesses (Thanki,
Govindan, and Thakkar 2016; Verrier et al. 2014). Among
these ways, a number of authors have confirmed that the
adoption of improvement initiatives such as lean production
within any organisation, including SMEs, can directly improve
the environmental performance since it main vocation is to
reduce wastage all over the organisation (Du€es, Tan, and Lim
2013; King and Lenox 2001). This is why the integration of
lean production and green is recommended, especially for
SMEs, as one of the key paradigms that guarantee the
improvement of both dimensions of a firm’s performance,
that are, business performance and environmental perform-
ance with less investment (Thanki, Govindan, and
Thakkar 2016).
2.3. Review of literature on synergistic effects among
lean and green performance
Green performance or the reduction of environmental impact
through prudent and efficient utilisation of the world’s raw
materials and natural resources in manufacturing is widely
governed by the process and operational decisions derived
from production approaches that would be driven towards
pollution prevention (Rothenberg, Pil, and Maxwell 2009).
Lean production is recognised as a useful way to develop
such operational strategies directly affecting the company’s
green performance owing to its role in improving environ-
mental performance (Du €es, Tan, and Lim 2013).
Several studies in the literature have addressed the syner-
gies between lean and green and how the implementation
of lean affects the achievement of green performance.
Table 1 describes the recent literature, which addresses the
interrelationship between lean and green thinking and
touches upon their combination.
Much evidence exists in the recent literature of a focus on
lean implementation leading to green and environmental
performance. The literature reviewed can be divided into
two categories.
1. The first category is intended to demonstrate green ben-
efits from lean implementation. For example, authors
such as Sobral, Jabbour, and Jabbour (2013), Vais et al.
(2006), Vinodh, Arvind, and Somanaathan (2011) and
have based on case study to demonstrate the environ-
mental benefits gained from lean which is centred on
the efficient use of resources (such as water and other
inputs). In the same way, Chiarini (2014) has investigated
the ability of lean production tools to help reduce the
environmental impacts of five large manufacturers of
motorcycle component. In addition, Piercy and Rich
(2015) reported, based on a multi-case investigation,
that the strategic supply chain and workplace activities
implemented for lean improvement could offer sustain-
ability improvement either explicitly or implicitly.
Furthermore, Du €es, Tan, and Lim (2013) have conducted
PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 875
a literature review regarding the relationship between
green and lean. The authors came to the same conclu-
sion: there is a positive and strong synergy between the
two paradigms.
2. The second category aims to propose models to gain
green benefits from lean implementation. Faulkner and
Badurdeen (2014) presented a comprehensive method-
ology to develop sustainable value stream mapping by
identifying suitable metrics and methods to present
them visually. Moreover, Pampanelli, Found, and
Bernardes (2014) proposed a model, which integrates
lean and green approaches for application at manufac-
turing cell level. More recently, Colicchia, Creazza, and
Dallari (2017), Garza-Reyes et al. (2016), Gupta,
Narayanamurthy, and Acharya (2018), Ng, Low, and
Song (2015), and Verrier, Rose, and Caillaud (2016) prac-
tical models and methodologies to integrate lean and
green practices. All of these models are validated in
large enterprises and have showed relevant results in
terms of green performance enhancement. The only
model that is designed for SMEs is that of Thanki,
Govindan, and Thakkar (2016). The model is not yet con-
firmed but their authors argued that it could act as the
roadmap for lean-green implementation, depending
upon the existing challenges to SMEs.
In sum, a meaningful number of theoretical along with
some empirical studies imply that operational policies and
practical tools are given by lean production can be import-
ant determinants of green performance. To analyse further
the impact of lean production on green performance,
Table 1 provides information from the literature on how
each lean practice can support corporate environmental
management and improve green performance.
In the literature, several methodologies based on popular
lean tools have shown relevant outcomes in green perform-
ance enhancement. 5S has its origin in the Japanese words,
Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketso and Shitsuke (Ng, Low, and Song
2015). Due to its ability to enhance commitment in setting in
order and cleaning up workplaces (Chiarini 2014), 5S ensures
that employees follow standardised procedures and maintain
a clean workplace, which strengthen the proper disposal of
rejects and incorrect use of inputs (Sobral, Jabbour, and
Jabbour 2013). Vais et al. (2006) stated that the highest
environmental performance is results obtained where better
housekeeping (5S and Kaizen) is implemented. Furthermore,
Sobral, Jabbour, and Jabbour (2013) have stated that the
most used lean manufacturing practices in terms of enhanc-
ing resource efficiency at the study facility are JIT, VSM, vis-
ual management of environmental indicators and employee
training. This is supported by several authors such as Du €es,
Tan, and Lim (2013) and Faulkner and Badurdeen (2014) who
indicated that lean practices serve as a catalyst to facilitate
green implementation. For example, they pointed out that
CO2 emissions can easily be added as an additional source of
waste in VSM approach. They went on to say that, JIT can
help to achieve a gain in the areas of inventory reduction
and small batch size production which may lead to greater
 876

Table 1. Review of the recent literature on the interrelationship between lean and green.
No. Reference Research objectives
1 Vais et al. (2006) Uses lean and green production to improve indus-
trial compliance with the effluent regulations
and with EUs IPPC Directive under implementa-
tion in Romania, thereby improving the envir-
onmental conditions in the Bistrita River
running through the town
Type of firm
Small recycled paper based mills
Findings

The results obtained included an 87% reduc-
tion of the discharge of wastewater from 5300
to about 700 m3/day;

Further results obtained were better house-
keeping (5S and Kaizen) and a Total Quality
Management (TQM) organisation was imple-
A. BELHADI ET AL.

mented where product quality, environment

2 Vinodh, Arvind, and Focuses on the exploration of various issues of
Somanaathan (2011) sustainability using lean initiatives
3 Sobral, Jabbour, and Examines how adopting lean manufacturing prac-
Jabbour (2013) tices can generate environmental benefits for a
large multinational automotive manufacturer
4 D€
ues, Tan, and Lim (2013) Explores and evaluates previous work focusing on
the relationship and links between Lean and
Green supply chain management practices
5 Faulkner and Badurdeen (2014) Presents a comprehensive methodology to
develop sustainable value stream mapping by
identifying suitable metrics and methods to
visually present them
6 Pampanelli, Found, and Proposes a new model, the lean and green model,
Bernardes (2014) where the green concern for environmental
sustainability is integrated with lean thinking
7 Chiarini (2014) Investigates whether or not lean production tools
can help reduce the environmental impacts of
manufacturing companies
and occupational health and safety are
merged into one system
Not specified Some of the issues that needs contemporary
focus include:

Commitment to eliminating environmental
waste through lean implementation;

Identify environmental improvement opportu-
nities; active involvement of EHS staff in plan-
ning and implementing lean events with
environmental opportunities;

Eliminate environmental waste by process
improvement tools
Large multinational automotive
The environmental benefits gained from lean
manufacturer centred on the efficient use of resources (such
as water and other inputs)

In terms of enhancing resource efficiency, the
most used lean manufacturing practices at the
study facility are JIT, VSM, visual management
of environmental indicators, and
employee training
Not specified
Green comes as a natural extension to lean;

Lean manufacturers are greener than non-
lean companies;

Implementation of Green practices in turn also
has a positive influence on existing Lean busi-
ness practices
Local manufacturer of satellite televi-
The approach is validated through a pilot case
sion dishes study conducted with a local manufacturer of
television satellite dishes;

The environmental and societal metrics chosen
may not be equally applicable across all indus-
try sectors
Major international engineering
Lean and green proposed model can reduce
corporation resource use from 30 to 50% on average;

Reduces the total cost of mass and energy
flows in a cell by 5–10%
Large manufacturers of motor-
Measured the environmental impacts of the
cycle component production processes of the case companies
before and after the implementation of five
Lean tools, namely VSM, 5S, cellular manufac-
turing, SMED and TPM;

Other than SMED, remaining four tools
signalled improvements in green
(continued)
Table 1. Continued.
No. Reference Research objectives
8 Ng, Low, and Song (2015) Proposes a methodology that aims to integrate
lean and green practices, and enables the
implementation of the integrated lean and
green practices in an easy and prac-
tical manner
9 Piercy and Rich (2015) Explores the broader sustainability benefits of
lean operations
10 Thanki, Govindan, and Investigates the impact of selected lean and green
Thakkar (2016) practices on performance, and evaluates the
influence of lean and green paradigms on the
overall performance of SMEs
11 Verrier, Rose, and Gives an implementation structure to a lean and
Caillaud (2016) green methodology based on the seeking and
eradication of wastes in production processes
12 Garza-Reyes et al. (2016) Presents a case study where both paradigms have
been combined to improve the transport oper-
ations of a world leader logistics organisation
in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico
13 Gupta, Narayanamurthy, and Presents a novel approach for assessing the
Acharya (2018) wastes using a system dynamics model and
validates the model in a radial tyre manufactur-
ing case organisation in India
14 Colicchia, Creazza, and Investigates how intermodal transport can be
Dallari (2017) adopted for managing supply chains according
to a lean and green approach
Type of firm
Large manufacturing – metal stamped
parts production
Manufacturing UK-based cosmetics,
pharma, metal pressing, FMCG and
furniture facilities (one of them is
small sized and the rest are
large companies)
Small- and medium-sized enterprises
Not specified
World leader logistics company
Large and reputed tyre manufactur-
ing firm
FMCG company (Procter and Gamble)
Findings

Evaluated how lean and green together yield
synergy in improving both operational and
environmental performance;

Metric ‘Carbon-Value Efficiency’ has been
developed for collectively assessing lean and
green implementation

Lean operations meet a wide range of sustain-
ability outcomes beyond environmental bene-
fits by developing a stage-based theoretical
model of lean sustainability;

Lean implementation and sustainability per-
formance are interlinked

Total productive maintenance is identified as
the most important lean practice, while ISO
14001 is the most significant green practice;

On-time delivery and a reduction in emissions
are the most critical criteria for leanness and
greenness, respectively

The results particularly highlighted three ‘top’
tools which, as organisational strategic drivers,
may have positive effects on all Lean and
Green mudas in addition to enhancing the
involvement of employees;

These tools, easily accessible to less mature
companies, are Genba Walk, Lean and Green
VSM, Key Performance Indicators, and
Visual Management

The study corroborates the positive synergies
between the lean and green paradigms;

The studied organisation not only improved
its operational efficiency TOVE index, and
some of its individual metrics, but also its
environmental performance, particularly, in
relation to the reduction of gas emissions
such as CO2, NOx, CO and HC

The model shows the overall performance of
the radial tyre manufacturing unit assessed;

In addition, it throws light on the amount of
greenness attainable by the organisation
through the implementation of lean thinking

Results confirm the opportunities to increase
the sustainability and efficiency of the supply
chain, in line with the extant literature that
stresses the opportunities to concurrently
reduce CO2 emissions and optimise transporta-
tion costs
PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL
877
878 A. BELHADI ET AL.
minimisation of material and energy waste. Sobral, Jabbour,
and Jabbour (2013) showed that after implementing JIT, the
case company recognised that it could receive parts from its
supplier without a protective oil layer since the parts would
be in storage for a shorter time. This eliminated the need to
wash parts on the production line, thus reducing water
consumption.
Other lean practices are also discussed in the literature.
Authors such as Piercy and Rich (2015), Vais et al. (2006), and
Vinodh, Arvind, and Somanaathan (2011) noticed that TPM
encourages preventive and proactive maintenance of equip-
ment to enhance its cycle life. This increases the longevity of
the equipment and prevents process failures that cause
leaks, scrap, rework and raw materials wastage. In addition,
SMED and Kanban are considered as organisational strategic
drivers, which have a potentially beneficial influence on
equally all Lean mudas and Green mudas (Thanki, Govindan,
and Thakkar 2016; Verrier, Rose, and Caillaud 2016).
Moreover, Chiarini (2014) has measured the impact of a
number of lean factors on green performance. Among them,
he noticed that cellular manufacturing could lead to a
decrease in electricity consumption. In addition, Gupta,
Narayanamurthy, and Acharya (2018), Piercy and Rich (2015),
and Vinodh, Arvind, and Somanaathan (2011), and have out-
lined the critical role of training to lean culture among
employees in green improvement. Finally, the role of quality
enhancement approaches like six sigma in green perform-
ance is well recognised (Vais et al. 2006; Vinodh, Arvind, and
Somanaathan 2011).
2.4. Challenges and research scope
The literature review affirms clearly that lean practices imple-
mentation can offer significant advantages on, and synergies
with, the green performance of companies (Chiarini 2014;
Garza-Reyes et al. 2016; King and Lenox 2001). Moreover,
some scholarly studies highlighted that lean practices are
partially green without the explicit intention to being green
and hence it is obvious that harmonious integration of lean
and green manufacturing can be seen as a positive step
towards sustainability (Gandhi, Thanki, and Thakkar 2018).
However, it appears from the literature that the focus is
always on large manufacturers without any concern on
SMEs, which raises serious issues. First, there is still no clear
indication of how much the majority of lean tools and princi-
ples have on the environmental performance of smaller man-
ufacturers (Chiarini 2014). Second, the challenge of how to
gain green benefits from lean practices is still arising in the
context of SMEs (Ng, Low, and Song 2015).
Piercy and Rich (2015) argued that today there is a few
empirical studies about the lean application in this context.
They added that the lack of validated knowledge in this area
and the inability to fully describe such systems with quanti-
tative investigation presents a requirement for qualitative
analysis to fully describe the complex and often-chaotic sys-
tem at work.
Realising the importance of SMEs and their competitive-
ness along with the importance of green performance to
SMEs, authors such as Verrier et al. (2014) and Gandhi,
Thanki, and Thakkar (2018) urge for detailed investigation on
integrated lean and green implementation with prime focus
on SMEs to provide them convenient path for successful
adoption. Therefore, it is fundamental to cast a light on
empirical findings regarding how this green performance can
be achieved at small companies’ operational level and how
production managers in SMEs would merge the environmen-
tal aspect with the context of the small organisation’s day-
to-day activities. Through this study, the following research
questions (RQs) are being raised:

RQ1: What are the benefits of lean practices on the green
performance of SMEs?

RQ2: How production managers in SMEs can integrate
the green component in their manufacturing facility’s
everyday operations?
To address these questions it is necessary to develop an
exploratory study in a real-life manufacturing company in
order to add value to the issues that arise from the literature
review to generate new theory. To do that, the use of the
case study as a research tool for exploratory investigation to
generate new understanding and bring forth knowledge
from actual experience rather than from established theories
is well recommended in the literature (Eisenhardt 1989; Yin
1994). Therefore, the authors have based on the implementa-
tion of a lean programme in a small company using a pre-
established framework of implementation in SMEs developed
by Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi (2016). The focus was on
accompanying the case company to accomplish green per-
formance from the lean programme and to offer suggestions
and guidelines regarding similar implementation in
other SMEs.
3. Framework for lean and green implementation
for SMEs
Figure 1 presents the systematic methodology perused to
amalgamate some of the fundamentals, principles and tools
of the lean and green paradigms to improve both the oper-
ational efficiency and environmental performance of the
studied small company in North Africa. This methodology
was adapted from the work of Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi
(2016), which has based on an in-depth study of successful
initiatives of lean implementation in a sample of North
African SMEs to develop a new framework that is supposed
to be more suitable for SMEs (Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi
2016). Since it has been developed based on the experiences
of North African SMEs, this framework possesses all charac-
teristics that increase its chance of success in the studied
company. However, this framework does not consider the
environmental dimension. Therefore, we present an
improved version of the model that is destined to investigate
potential benefits of lean implementation in SMEs for the
environment and businesses in terms of waste reduction,
green and operational performance. The proposed frame-
work consisted of three phases presented. A brief description

Pre implementation phase
Steps:
1. Establishment of lean policy
2. Establishment and training of lean
Team
3. Definition of the initial perimeter
4. Establishment of the master plan
5. Definition of lean and green
indicators
Tools:
• Lean and green policy
• Lean and green objectives
• Multifunctional Team
• Product/ Process Matrix
• Pareto Analysis
• Master plan
Figure 1. Methodology of lean and green implementation in SMEs.
is given in what follows, further and detailed description is
presented by Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi (2016).

Pre-implementation phase: at the beginning, companies
should ensure that all necessary groundworks have been
laid to create lean awareness programmes at different
levels of the hierarchy and among all the employees. This
begins with the establishment of lean policy and the
establishment of the lean team. Afterward, the lean team
shoulders the responsibility of defining the initial perim-
eter of lean implementation, the planning of the project
and the definition of adequate metrics. This phase builds
a background for efficient and sustainable lean imple-
mentation and eradicates the uncertainty hindering its
implementation and benefits.

Implementation phase: the implementation phase aims to
concentrate all efforts on identifying and reducing all
forms of wastage all over the organisation. A pre-requisite
of this is to create a lean culture among all employees.
Afterward, sources of wastes are identified through a
green VSM. The identified improvement opportunities are
transformed to pilot projects, which are then imple-
mented and monitored.

Post-implementation phase: The post-implementation
phase completes the lean implementation transformation.
This includes capitalisation of new ways of work by stand-
ardisation, generalisation of these new ways and the
extension of lean perimeter until it encompasses the
whole organisation.
4. Implementation study
In order to confirm the usefulness of the framework pro-
posed by Belhadi, Touriki, and El Fezazi (2016) and described
PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 879
Implementation phase Post implementation phase
Steps: Steps:
1. Upgrading workforce and 1. Results monitoring
workstations 2. Capitalization and Standardization
2. Model and analyze the current of lean practices
situation 3. Generalization of actions
3. Identification of opportunities 4. Extension of lean perimeter
4. Implementation of Kaizen Events
Tools: Tools:
• 5S/ Housekeeping • Green Scoreboard
• JIT • Work standards
• Green VSM • Knowledge Management
• Kaizen
• Six Sigma
• TPM
• Kanban
• Inventory reduction
• Visual control
• Cellular manufacturing
briefly above, the implementation study was conducted in a
small- and medium-sized company situated in North Africa.
The objective of the implementation was twofold: (1) to sup-
port the company to improve its operational and environ-
mental performance through the lean programme and (2) to
provide for SMEs guidelines of how adopting lean produc-
tion practices can bring environmental benefits; details are
provided in the following sections.
4.1. Brief background
The organisation used as the basis for this case study is a
small company situated in North Africa. Specialised in pro-
ducing a wide range of industrial pumps, the company pro-
duces many types of product, such as centrifugal pumps,
multi-stage submersible pumps, jaw plate and sluice valves.
Table 3 provides the main information of the company.
Namely, the company employs 12 managers and engineers
along with about 154 employees, which comes under the
category of SMEs. The company’s current production capacity
is 20 000 centrifugal pumps per year, 1 500 deep well tur-
bine pumps per year, submersible pumps, high-pressure
industrial pumps and domestic pumps of various designs
and capacities, it also manufactures Sluice and Non-Return
(Reflex) valves from diameter 37 to 200 mm sizes. It should
be noted that the company has obtained ISO9001:2015 certi-
fication for Quality Management System, as the first and only
pump and casting industry in North Africa. Although the
company belongs to a larger industrial group, it acts as an
independent small and medium company in North Africa,
responsible for its own business activities and operations.
The company possesses a number of cells each having
responsibility for an elementary operation. The process
of pump manufacturing includes four steps: casting,
880 A. BELHADI ET AL.

Table 2. Review of the impact of lean practices on green performance (1) (Vais et al. 2006), (2) (Vinodh, Arvind, and Somanaathan 2011), (3) (Sobral, Jabbour,
and Jabbour 2013), (4) (D€
ues, Tan, and Lim 2013), (5) (Faulkner and Badurdeen 2014), (6) (Chiarini 2014), (7) (Pampanelli, Found, and Bernardes 2014), (8) (Ng,
Low, and Song 2015), (9) (Piercy and Rich 2015), (10) (Thanki, Govindan, and Thakkar 2016), (11) (Verrier, Rose, and Caillaud 2016), (12) (Gupta,
Narayanamurthy, and Acharya 2018).
Lean practices Impact on green performance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
5S Ensure that employees follow stand- x x x x x x X x x
ardised procedures and maintain a
clean workplace, which strengthen
the proper disposal of rejects and
incorrect use of inputs
JIT Ensure receiving parts from supplier x x
and production when needed.
This eliminates the excess con-
sumption of energy for storage
TPM Encourage preventive and proactive x x x x x x x
maintenance of equipment to
enhance its cycle life, increased
longevity of equipment and pre-
vent process failures that cause
leaks, scrap, rework and raw mate-
rials wastage
VSM Showcase the potential for address- x x x x x x x x
ing wastes through fewer defects,
less scraps, low energy usage
SMED Promotes small lot sizes through x x x x x
quick change over time which
reduces the energy consumed
during storage and handling of
big lots of products
Kanban Reduces WIP and inventory thus x x x x
reduces the energy used for stor-
age and transport of inventories.
Visual control Systematises the identification and x x x x
elimination of unwanted entities
hence less material usage
and wastes
Cellular manufacturing Promotes the reduction in set-up x x x
times and change over time thus
achieve low energy and resource
consumption along with low level
of defects
Inventory reduction Facilitates identification of failures in x x x x
the organisation’s processes, thus
helping it avoid generating excess
consumption and waste
Kaizen Strengthens and handles the devel- x x x x x
opment and sustainability of an
environmental management sys-
tem aiming at eliminating hidden
wastes and unwanted activities
Six Sigma Ensures lower level of defects thus x x
less rework and waste, improve-
ment in product durability and
reliability hence enhance product
life cycle

machining, assembly and testing (Figure 2) for which

Foundry Cell
there is a number of working procedures to produce a
ready pump. Assembly and Testing & Quality
Painting Control cell

Foundary cell: produces metal castings. Metals are casted Machining Cell
into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the
Figure 2. Flow chart of the process of pumps manufacturing.
metal in a mould and removing the mould material or
casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most
Table 3. The main information of the company.
common metals processed are aluminium and cast iron.
Activity Pumps manufacturing
However, other metals, such as bronze, brass, steel, mag-
Management type Independently managed
nesium and zinc, are also used to produce castings in Number of employees 12 managers and engineers
foundries. In this process, parts of desired shapes and 154 employees
Production volume 12.000 centrifugal pumps
sizes can be formed. 1.500 deep well turbine pumps

Foundary cell: produces metal castings. Metals are casted Activity start year 2014
into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the Certifications ISO 9001:2015
 PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 881

Table 4. The sub stages and deadlines estimated for their completion.
Phases Steps Deadlines
Pre-implementation phase (1) Establishment of lean policy/lean objectives 1d
(2) Establishment and training of lean team 7d
(3) Definition of the initial perimeter 2d
(4) Establishment of master plan of lean deployment 2d
(5) Definition of lean and green indicators 5d
Implementation phase (1) Upgrading workforce and workstations 30 d
(2) Modelling and analysing the current situation 7d
(3) Identification of opportunities 2d
(4) Implementation of Kaizen events 90 d
Post-implementation phase (1) Results monitoring 5d
(2) Capitalisation and standardisation of lean practices 5d
(3) Generalisation of actions In continuous
(4) Extension of lean perimeter In continuous

metal in a mould and removing the mould material or
casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most
common metals processed are aluminium and cast iron.
However, other metals, such as bronze, brass, steel, mag-
nesium and zinc, are also used to produce castings in
foundries. In this process, parts of desired shapes and
sizes can be formed.

Machining cell: is the process to achieve desire shape of
the material by different types of machining work. The
company has different types of machines to do this task
such as lathe machine, milling machine, shaper machine,
grinding machine and drill machine.

Assembly and painting cell: is the last part of the manu-
facturing process. It includes installation of mechanical
(bearing, shaft, mechanical seal, flange coupling) and
hydraulic (impeller, volute) components and then putting
and tightening the bolts. Sometimes maintenance work is
also occurring in assembly cell.

Testing and quality control cell: After assembly, a pump
passes through the testing and QC cell to confirm its
readiness for expedition to the final customer. Otherwise,
the pump is returned to assembly cell in order to make
the necessary adjustments.
Freshly integrated into the highly competitive market of
pumps, the company has become aware that it needs to
provide high-quality products while reducing production
cost and delivery time in order to keep competitive or even
survival. On the other hand, the company is dealing with a
high pressure to improve environmental performance that
emerges from their stockholders and trading partners. Today,
the majority of the company’s customers are large firms who
may begin to apply vendor selection criteria, which set
standards of environmental performance and buy their mate-
rials resources from organisations, which meet these environ-
mental standards.
However, the company is facing a number of serious
issues in its manufacturing plant:

Complaints from customers are increasing drastically by
more than 10% every year; and

Emergency repairs and unplanned shutdowns had risen
to over 20% of the global opening time.
These issues are harming considerably the reputation of
the company and then its profit. In this context, the com-
pany decided to adopt a new management approach and to
engage in a lean transformation to enhance both operational
and environmental performance to that of its competitors
starting with the production process. Therefore, the manage-
ment liaised with the authors to consult and accompany
them for the implementation of improvement plan based on
lean principles.
4.2. Pre-implementation phase
4.2.1. Step 1: Establishment of lean and green policy/lean
and green objectives
The setting of basic policies and objectives of the lean pro-
ject is the bedrock of the lean journey. The stimulus of this
step is twofold: first, managers have to show their commit-
ment through the establishment and the validation of the
targets. Second, all involved stakeholders may be aligned
with the same strategy. With this view, the Chief Operating
Officer (COO) of the company was the responsible of the pol-
icy establishment. In accordance with its overall strategy, the
basic policy was set as to achieve the following objectives:

Increase the production capacity and quality; and

Reduce the production costs through the optimisation in
materials and energy use.
An emergency meeting was called by top management
with operators, engineers and managers of different depart-
ments to ensure a broad dissemination of the policy.

New facility start-up cost is very high;

Extra production costs are evaluated as 20%;

Excessive raw materials consumption and wastage. The
facility is consuming 40% more crude metals and 65% of
water than its competitors;

Cycle times are often three times more than planned;

Energy consumption has been doubled in 3 years;
4.2.2. Step 2: Establishment and training of lean team
A process engineer who directly reported to the COO was
appointed for forming and leading a cross-functional team
called ‘lean team’ whose structure is shown in Figure 3. The
COO, the sponsor of the project, is responsible for support-
ing the project and making available the necessary technical,
human and financial resources. The process engineer,
882 A. BELHADI ET AL.
Sponsor
Chief Operating Officer
Lean Leader
Process Engineer
Process technician
Figure 3. Structure of lean team.
appointed ‘Lean Leader’, must oversee the creation of stream
mappings, ensure his training and his team’s concerning lean
concept, philosophy and tools, and coach the establishment
of Kaizen projects. The other members are the process tech-
nician and qualified operator. As explained earlier, the
authors are integrated to the lean team as consultants.
After its establishment, the lean team must undergo train-
ing not only to explain the concept of lean, its philosophy,
principles and tools but also to acquire an early lean culture,
ease resistance and create an environment conducive to
change. Generally, for larger companies, training is con-
ducted by outside professional trainers. However, in our case
and taking into account the limited resources of the com-
pany, training will be driven by the lean leader and the con-
sultants. The quality of the lean training may not be as perfect
as that led by a professional trainer, but this will be overcome
by the authenticity that comes from the personal experience of
the lean leader, in particular within the organisation.
4.2.3. Step 3: Definition of the initial perimeter
The identification of the initial perimeter is a fundamental
step, especially in the early phase. The benefits shown in
the initial perimeter at an early phase can have a
fundamental impact on the psychological/moral side. It is
obvious that improvement opportunities are virtually
unlimited and must be handled by very limited resources
given the company’s size and nature. Therefore, the
delimitation of the sphere of action is crucial. It should
choose the top priority value stream, focus resources and
maximise gains. Afterward, the horizontal lean replications of
remaining value streams are easier as the initial perimeter is
serving as a guideline for a lean extension. Therefore, criteria
for initial perimeter selection were developed as follows:

The most important value stream in terms of volume of
production and annual turnover; and

The most simple value stream with a minimum
of equipment.
Finally, a Pareto analysis was carried out to identify the
value stream to be targeted first.
Consultants
Lean researchers
Qualified operator
4.2.4. Step 4: Establishment of master plan
The lean team was responsible for establishing a master plan
for lean implementation based on duration illustrated in
Table 4. The total estimated duration of the project was
156 d before the steps of generalisation and extension of the
lean perimeter.
4.2.5. Step 5: Definition of lean and green indicators
Measurement is a vital component of continuous improve-
ment systems. It is necessary to establish appropriate metrics
and indicators for measurement purposes. Accordingly, a set
of measurements and metrics have been proposed as means
to evaluate the lean and green performance in accordance
with the objectives of the programme set earlier. Table 5
presents the metrics proposed.
On the operational side, the eradication of wastage all
over the organisation may has a potentially beneficial influ-
ence on both economic and green performance and is an
organisational strategic driver (Verrier, Rose, and Caillaud
2016). Four metrics are considered to track the eradication of
specific types of waste, that are, time efficiency, quality,
inventory and availability.
On the environmental front, energy consumption and raw
material usage have a direct relationship to green perform-
ance because of the use of non-renewable resources
(Faulkner and Badurdeen 2014). Therefore, in order to
achieve lowering consumption of these non-renewable
resources the specific consumption is an important metric
that must be tracked in the lean programme. This includes
four materials, that are, water, energy and crude metals. The
specific consumption metric will identify the amount of
resources consumed by each process to produce a piece as
well as energy consumed between processes for transporta-
tion and/or specialty storage.
4.3. Implementation phase
4.3.1. Step 1: Upgrading workforce and workstations
After completing all the steps of the pre-implementation
phase, the company is now ready to begin the lean trans-
formation. The lean journey will effectively begin with an
 PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 883

Table 5. Lean and green metrics.

Metrics Unit Inputs Calculation
Productivity and qual- Rate of time efficiency %
Value added time Value added time
¼
ity metrics
Cycle time Cycle time

Rate of quality defect %
Total of defects Total of defects

¼

Total of products Total of products

Rate of inventory %
Total inventory Total inventory

¼

Total sales Total sales
Rate of availability %
Uptime Up time
¼

Total time Total time
Resources and energy Specific consumption of water m3/product
Volume of water consumed Volume of water consumed
¼
consumption metrics
Total of products Total of products

Specific consumption of energy Wh/product
Amount of energy consumed Amount of energy consumed
¼

Total of products Total of products

Specific consumption of kg/product
Amount of crude metals consumed Amount of crude metals consumed
¼
crude metals
Total of products Total of products

upgrading programme aiming at creating a conducive envir-
onment for the culture change (Belhadi, Touriki, and El
Fezazi 2016). The programme consists of two levels. In the
first level, a training programme was conducted on lean
thinking and toolkits for all the employees. This is accompa-
nied by a wide communication and awareness raising. In the
second level, a housekeeping programme is initiated to
reorganise the work floor.
4.3.1.1. Training programme. The company began by
establishing a lean and green training programme which
moved from area to area within the company. As lean train-
ing continues to stand out as one of the main tools for
enhancing individual awareness on a different type of wast-
age, the programme includes different lean concepts and
their linkage with the desired green performance. Everyone
participating in the training programme was still paid his
regular wage to come in and attendee to the training.
4.3.1.2. 5S/housekeeping programme. In the machining
area, the degree of disorganisation was too great. Therefore,
it was decided to begin with this area by making it a pilot
area. Manufacturing in the machining section was halted for
one whole day to initiate the event. This was very important
in order to show everybody the commitment of the whole
organisation to the initiative, which is intended to be taken
seriously. All the workers in the machining area, about 17
people, participated in the event.
The 5S process started with a step of screening. Everybody
has cleared the clutter of his workstation and equipment to dis-
pose of items not required to doing their tasks and any needless
tool. The visual labelling of tools and items using a colour code
was used to distinguish unneeded items from the regular pro-
duction area. The following step was to clearly define locations
for every needed item using visual indicators like lines and sign-
posts who were also used to identify pedestrian crossing and
the different areas. Afterward, every item and tool was put in
and placed close to its place in order to facilitate its use for
workers when needed. In the next step, the floors, equipment
and tools were well cleaned in order to remove stains and dirt.
Thereafter, working standards and best practices were formal-
ised into procedures. These procedures were readily available
for all workers.
In order to sustain achievements of the programme, weekly
Gemba walks by the management were scheduled. The aim of
these Gemba walks was twofold: first, managers ensured that 5S
is permanently maintained within the area and that the proce-
dures and scoreboards are kept up to date. Second, this was a
great opportunity to encourage suggestions from workers for
improving the process and work environment for the people.
One of the most improvements made from these suggestions
was the identification and sorting of wasted and garbage that
has led to a drastic reduction in waste generation. Another
improvement action was a new automatic lubrication system
for machining equipment. This helped to a significant reduction
in the leakage from the equipment to the floor. Accordingly,
after a month of 5S implementation, it can be seen that no leak-
age at all exists in the machining area.
Although the resulting reduction of waste was gradual
and could not be seen at this stage, the upgrading pro-
gramme was very beneficial in terms of creating a greater
awareness of the impact of resources and raw materials
wastage among the employees involved. Actually, a form of
competition has been developed between operators to have
the least amount of waste in the area.
4.3.2. Step 2: Modelling and analysing the cur-
rent situation
After achieving an acceptable level of lean and green culture
within the organisation, the next step is consisting on the
current state modelling and analysing. This implies specifying
the product and customer requirements and identifying
opportunities for Kaizen efforts to eliminate waste in the
value stream (Ng, Low, and Song 2015). Thus, an extended
and adapted version of VSM has been used to incorporate
environmental metrics alongside operational metrics.
The first meeting was conducted at the workshop between
the lean team with the simplest means possible (A3 paper,
884 A. BELHADI ET AL.

Table 6. Process information on operational side.

Foundry Machining Assembly Painting Testing and QC Total
Number of operators 1 1 1 1 1 5
Cycle time (C/T) (min) 21.44 19.05 24.22 16.15 7.71 88.57
Total time/day (min) 960 960 960 960 960 960
Changeover time (C/O) (min) 32 9 10 8 2 61
Number of products/day 41 56 32 78 70 277
Number of good products/ day 39 54 29 73 70 265
Total inventories 178 106 91 211 189 775
Uptime (U/T) (min) 879 785 935 948 960 901.4
Number of defects 2 2 3 5 0 12
Value added time (min) 9.01 9.11 14.02 6.80 4.46 43.4
Rate of time efficiency (%) 42% 48% 58% 42% 58% 49%
Rate of quality defect (%) 4.88% 3.57% 9.38% 6.41% 0.00% 4.33%
Rate of inventory (days) 4.6 2.0 3.1 2.9 2.7 15.3
Rate of availability (%) 91.56% 81.77% 97.40% 98.75% 100.00% 93.90%

Table 7. Process information on environmental side.

Transport Transport to
Transport to Transport Transport testing Testing Transport Specific
to foundry Foundry machining Machining to assembly Assembly to painting Painting and QC and QC to storage Storage Total consumption
Water – 5 – 0.16 – 0.07 – 12 – 0.05 – 0.05 17.33 0.6 m3/product
consumed (m3)
Energy 350 6000 120350 5300 500 1800 150 3500 500 2890 500 21610 745 Wh/product
consumed (Wh)
Crude metals – 810 – 900 – 180 – – – – – – 1890 65.17 kg/Product
consumed (kg)

pencil, eraser) to sketch the current situation mapping. The
process technician and qualified operator began by observing
operators attitudes. They ensured that all operations are accom-
plished in compliance with usual work instructions. Then, the
team followed the physical flow and took the necessary dura-
tions for each operation. The involvement of operators is essen-
tial to the success of this work. Therefore, the team leader
explained to each operator what the team is doing in order to
have his support. Tables 6 and 7 illustrate the results of process
information on operational and environmental sides.
Looking at the information given in Table 6, it can be
observed that the process suffers from a number of serious
burdens. Namely, a high inventory rate of 5.08 d and a high
changeover time of about 32 min in foundry station, a low
uptime resulting in the lowest availability rate of 81.77% in
machining station and a high-quality defect rate in assembly
station of around 9.38%.
On the environmental side, it can be found that there is
an excessive consumption of water in foundry and painting
sections, which results in a high total-specific consumption
of water (calculated using the daily production of 29 pumps).
In terms of energy use, it is observed that the transport of
products and materials between sections consumes about
of 9.8% (2120 Wh) of the total amount of energy used
(21610 Wh). Furthermore, the specific consumption of crude
metals is absolutely high taking into account that the total
weigh of metal in a product is 40 kg whereas the specific
consumption of crude metals is about of 65.17 kg/product.
Figure 4 shows the green VSM developed for the pump
manufacturing line, which encompasses the information pre-
sented above. What is more interesting in the new green
VSM that it presents alongside the operational metrics, the
green metrics which provides an overall picture of the per-
formance on both operational and environmental sides.
4.3.3. Step 3: Identification of opportunities
The green VSM of the current situation has clearly shown
that the manufacturing line suffers from a meaningful num-
ber of wastes including both operational wastes such as
inventories, overproduction, useless transports and quality
defects and environmental wastes such as excessive use of
materials, energy and water. To eradicate these wastes, the
current situation was deeply analysed in order to create the
future situation of the value stream.
To redesign the green VSM of the future situation, the
team has raised some improvement guidelines as depicted
by Rother and Shook (1998) based on the analysis of the cur-
rent state mapping:
1. Synchronisation of manufacturing flow at Takt Time;
2. Establishment of continuous flow;
3. Establishment of pull flow in places where the continu-
ous flow is interrupted;
4. Identification of the pacemaker; and
5. Calculation of the management time frame.
4.3.3.1. Synchronisation of manufacturing flow at Takt
time. The Takt time is defined by Rother and Shook
(1998) as the time that the company should product one
part of the product based on the rate of sales in order
to meet customer demand. In our case, and with an
annual demand of 20,000 pumps and an overall working
time of 16 h per day, the Takt time can be calculated as:
Annual working time 16  365  60
Takt time ¼ ¼ ¼ 17:52 min
Annual demand 20; 000
(1)
This means that the company has to produce at the rate of
one pump per 17.52 min to meet customer's demand.
Looking at Figure 5, it is clear that foundry, machining and
 PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 885

Production
Weekly order Weekly order
control Customer
Supplier

Weekly Weekly Schedule Shipping Schedule Weekly

Onsite
Warehouse Foundry Machining Assembly Painting Testing & Warehouse
QC
x1 x1 x1 x1 x1
2 days 106 178 91 211
C/T = 21,44 min C/T = 19,05 min C/T = 24,22 min C/T = 16,15 min C/T = 7,71 min 189
C/O = 32 min C/O = 9 min C/O = 10 min C/O = 8 min C/O = 2 min
U/T = 91,56% U/T = 81,77% U/T = 97,4% U/T = 98,75% U/T = 100%
1 operator 1 operator 1 operator 1 operator 1 operator
Lead Time
Defect = 4,88% Defect = 3,57% Defect = 9,38% Defect = 6,41% Defect = 0,00% =
2 days 4,6 days 2 days 3,1 days 2,9 days 2,7 days 17,3 days
Cycle Time
=
21,44 min 19,05 min 24,22 min 16,15 min 7,17 min 88,57 min

Volume of water
consumed
5m3 0,16 12 m3 0,05 m3 0,05 m3 = 17,26 m3
Consumed +
m3 0,01 m3 Volume of water
2 m3 0,05 0,1 m3 7 m3 0,01 m3
Required required
m3 0,07 m3 = 9,17 m3
Consumed –
Total energy
consumed
350 Wh 120 Wh 500 Wh 150 Wh 500 Wh 500 Wh = 21610 Wh
6000 Wh 5300 Wh 1800 Wh 3500 Wh 2890 Wh
Transport
=
2120 Wh

Crude metals
810 Kg 900 Kg 180 Kg N/A N/A =
1890 Kg

Figure 4. Green value stream mapping of the current situation.

30
Cycle Time (C/T) (min)

25 Takt Time
Cycle Time (min)

20
15
10
5
0
Foundry Machining Assembly Painting Testing & QC
Figure 5. Current state of process cycle time in comparison with Takt time.

assembly stations have cycle times higher than Takt time. To machining, assembly and painting have relatively similar
deal with this, a set of Kaizen events have been proposed to cycle times which approximates the Takt time. Thus, a con-
be implemented: tinuous flow can be made between theses sections. A Kaizen
event of cellular manufacturing incorporating these stations
1. Changeover time reduction in the foundry station; was proposed.
2. Down time reduction in the machining station; and
3. Quality improvement in the assembly station.
4.3.3.3. Establishment of pull flow in places where the
continuous flow is interrupted
4.3.3.2. Establishment of continuous flow On the other hand, the station of Testing and QC is faster
According to Rother and Shook (1998), continuous flow is than the other stations. Therefore, the continuous flow can-
referring to produce one piece at a time with each item not be possible. Rother and Shook (1998) recommend the
passed immediately from one process step to the next with- linking of this with the cellular manufacturing proposed
out stagnation in between. In order to establish a continuous between the other stations via supermarket-based pull sys-
flow, the team has observed that the stations of foundry, tem. To do that, a pull system based on Kanban is
886 A. BELHADI ET AL.
Figure 6. Green value stream mapping of the future situation.
proposed to be implemented. The purpose is for the
Testing and QC station to go to the supermarket and
withdraw the quantity and the pace of production needed.
In turn, the cellular manufacturing manufactures what is
withdrawn. This helps to control production between the
cellular manufacturing and the Testing and QC station.
Since the customers of centrifugal pumps buy in multiples
of four pumps. This is the easiest choice of the
Kanban size.
On the other hand, the shipping’s withdrawals out of a
supermarket determine the pace and the quantity of produc-
tion of the cellular manufacturing and the Testing and QC
station. Therefore, there is no longer need for the weekly
production schedule.
4.3.3.4. Identification of the pacemaker process. In order
to control production at the whole stream and set the pace
for the production flow, it is needed to select one point in
our door-to-door value stream called the pacemaker process
(Rother and Shook 1998). To this aim, the Testing and QC is
selected as the pacemaker process because of several rea-
sons. First, there is no supermarket at the downstream pro-
cess. Second, it is the most downstream in our door-to-door
value stream.
4.3.3.5. Calculation of the management time frame.
The management time frame or ‘Pitch’ is the time that
determines the frequency of checking and scheduling
the production in order to be able to respond immediately
to abnormalities (Rother and Shook 1998). The calculation
of this time is the 17.52 min Takt time  4 pumps
Kanban size ¼ 70.08 min. This implies that every 70 min,
the production is scheduled checked and adapted to
its pace.
Based on the information gathered from the analysis pre-
sented above, the required improvements opportunities are
marked on the future situation of the green VSM shown in
Figure 6 as Kaizen events.
4.3.4. Step 4: Implementation of Kaizen events
Achieving the future situation requires commitment at all
levels to implement the set of Kaizen events proposed. In
this view, all necessary resources are placed at the disposal
of the lean team responsible of the accomplishment of the
action plan presented in Table 8. Note that these Kaizen
events have been implemented simultaneously by different
Kaizen teams. A brief description of the implementation is
given in the following sections.
4.3.4.1. Implementation of cellular manufacturing. The
first Kaizen event is intended to create a cellular manufactur-
ing between foundry, machining, assembly and painting sta-
tions in order to promote continuous flow and reduce WIP
inventories.
Depending on the floor space restrictions and intercon-
nections with other operations, the Kaizen team draw up
the cellular design simply and manually. The design pre-
sented in Figure 7 includes dimensions and interconnec-
tion between stations. Afterwards, the team begun
construction of the cellular manufacturing. The floor was
given a good cleaning and many areas’ boundaries were
 PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 887

Table 8. Action plan of future situation accomplishment.

No. Station Value stream objective Goal Kaizen event Timeline
1 Foundry þ machining þ assembly þ painting Continuous flow 0 WIP
Cellular manufacturing 22 d
Low inventories 1.5 d
Super market pull system and Kanban
2 Foundry Eliminate C/O 10 min SMED methodology 15 d
3 Machining Increase U/T >90% Autonomous maintenance (first 3 steps) 30 d
4 Assembly Eliminate defects <5% Quality and process control 22 d

4.6 4.2

Machining

Assembly
5.6 5.8
Casted pieces Machined pieces Pumps assembled

Casted pieces Machined pieces Pumps assembled

5.8 6.5
Foundry

Painting
8.1 8.1

13
Metals
Exit conveyor
(Input)

Figure 7. Design of the cellular manufacturing implemented.

painted to provide a great appearance. Equipment, tools,
machinery, or any other item was cleaned, not only for
appearance purposes but for functional purposes as well.
This was accompanied by some maintenance tasks. Then,
rotating lift tables were utilised to enhance flexibility.
The cellular manufacturing includes four operators, which
have been cross-formed to different tasks of all included sta-
tions. In sum, the benefits offered by the implementation of
the cellular manufacturing are numerous:

Operators become more flexible and multi-skilled, this
breaks the monotony of work,

Waiting time and WIP are totally eliminated. This gener-
ates huge reduction in inventories, space utilisation,
energy and resources consumed.
4.3.4.2. Changeover reduction in foundry station. After
implementing cellular manufacturing, a major constraint of
the continuous flow is now long changeovers and tiresome
production start-up in foundry station. Actually, foundry
wasted 32 min in changeover, which implies the appearance
of WIP and waiting time for the other stations.
In order to reduce changeover and set-up time, the
widely used methodology of SMED has been implemented
in the foundry station. SMED is a method of analysing the
manufacturing processes and then reducing the materials,
resources and time required for set-up (Ortiz 2006).
To do that, the Kaizen team has used the well-known
ESEE model for changeover which identifies the four key
areas of lean changeover and is an acronym for eliminate,
separate, externalise and execute (Henry 2013). The words
are self-explanatory:

Eliminate any unnecessary or non-value-adding tasks;

Separate external and internal tasks;

Externalise any tasks that can be done during produc-
tion; and

Execute by performing all changeover tasks repeatedly
with minimal variation.
SMED implementation began with the understanding of
the foundry set-up and the identification of tasks and tools
used for set-up, locations and other aspects. Thereafter,
more in-depth information has been collected from the oper-
ator of the foundry station in order to identify unneeded
tasks and potential problems in the set-up process.
Afterward, the team has took a close look to the set-up to
monitor and record all the operations, tasks and gestures
during the set-up using a video recording. The current state
of set-up operations has been clearly described with
888 A. BELHADI ET AL.

Mold Mold Previous mold

Preparation Changing evacuation

1. Shutdown machine 2.5’

1. Preparation of mold 4’
2. Transfer to furnace 0.5’
(20 m)
3. Preheating to 320°C
17’
2. Open mold slide 2.5’
3. Provision of the hoist
1. Clean the previous
3’ (10 m)
mold 3’
4. Remove previous mold
2. Transfer previous mold
1.5’
to the storage 5’
5. Insert new mold with
(45m)
hoist 1’
6. Close mold slide 2.5’
7. Test new mold 2’

Figure 8. Foundry set-up operations with information regarding durations and distances.

Table 9. The study and the conversion of internal operations to external operations.
Operations Duration (s) Current nature Future nature
Preparation of mould 240 External External
Transfer to furnace 30 External External
Preheating to 320  C 1020 Internal External
Shutdown the furnace 150 Internal Internal
Open mold slide 150 Internal Internal
Provision of the hoist 180 Internal External
Remove previous mold 90 Internal Internal
Insert new mold with hoist 60 Internal Internal
Close mold slide 150 Internal Internal
Test new mold 120 Internal Internal
Clean the previous mold 180 External External
Transfer previous mold to the storage 60 External External
Total of operations 2430
Total of the internal operation (current state) 1920
Total of the internal operation (future state) 620

information regarding durations and distances travelled by
operators as presented in Figure 8.
In the first step, the internal and external set-up opera-
tions were not distinguished yet. In this view, the following
step of SMED methodology indicates that after understand-
ing the set-up operations, it is essential to separate internal
and external operations. To do that, checklists have been
used to include all necessary information about set-up tasks
and operations. This helped to collect correct information
about the set-up operations before trying to differentiate
them as internal or external. Before proceeding to the next
stage, an evaluation of the transportation method should
be performed. The aim is to reduce the time required for
moving the parts, components and accessories before start-
ing the actual set-up phase. The third stage of SMED is
converting the internal set-up to external operations. Table
9 summarises the study and the conversion of internal
operations to external operations. Note that the changeover
time only needs to consider the time taken for internal
operations because the external operations were performed
at the same time while the foundry furnace is running.
Consequently, it can be widely observed that the conver-
sion of preheating to 320  C and provision of the hoist will
help to reduce considerably the changeover time from
1920s (32 min) to 620 s (10.33 min).
In the last stage, the team thought together about solu-
tions to reduce changeover time further. A planning act has
been proposed to further reduce the changeover time. It
consisted of opening the mould slide and shutdown the
furnace in parallel. This has reduced the time of changeover
by 150 s. Figure 9 illustrates the final sequence of the
changeover operations.
It is clear that only by good planning and preparation
and without major investment, the changeover is reduced
from the 1920s (32 min) to 570 s (9.5 min).
4.3.4.3. Downtime reduction in machining station. The
second constraint that the continuous flow implemented
between the four stations has been faced is the low uptime
of the machining station. Indeed, the availability rate of the
machining station is the lowest of all stations. Therefore,
the team has been attempting to implement an autono-
mous maintenance programme in order to involve machine
and maintenance operators together and constitute the
basis for creating an overall company approach to maintain
production facilities. A starting point is the 5S implemented
earlier in the machining station. Indeed, machining operator
has conducted an in-depth inspection alongside 5S tasks to
check any abnormalities such as slight defects, contamin-
ation sources, inaccessible places and sources of quality
defects. All the abnormalities and contaminants found
inside the machine (dust, stains or grease) were collected
for further analysis and countermeasures implementation by
a machine specialist before cleaning in order to establish
the basic equipment conditions. An insight on some of the
countermeasures performed is given in Table 10.
As can be seen, the analysis of root causes enabled to
clarify the contamination sources and a succession of
 PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 889

Duration (s)
Operation
30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 390 420 450 480 510 540 570
Preparation of Mold
Transfer to furnace
Preheating to 320 °C
Shutdown machine
Open mold slide
Provision of the hoist
Remove previous mold
Insert new mold with hoist
Close mold slide
Test new mold
Clean the previous mold
Transfer previous mold to the storage

Figure 9. Planning of the final sequence of the changeover operations.

Table 10. Countermeasures of the establishment of the basic equipment conditions of machining station.
Categories of abnormalities Root causes identified Counter measures
Loose bolts on the cover
Intensive vibration
Measure of vibration

Misalignment of drive system
Alignment of drive system

Bearing changing
Leak of coolant water
High pressure in coolant line
Safe unit installation to control pressure
Heating of electric terminal box
Overvoltage
Installation of transformer to adapt electrical power

Malfunction of electrical safety materials
Rehabilitation of electrical safety materials
Oil leak
A worn coupling in the oil pipe
Changing of the worn coupling

Deterioration of the pipe
Changing of the pipe
Presence of metal debris
Lack of lubrication
Sealing of the oil pipes

improvements was performed. The improvement by the
maintenance team was essential when the contamination
source was not easily handled by the AM team. Note that
during the countermeasures and improvement period, many
improvement methods, knowledge and skills in maintenance
have been developed, shared and standardised among pro-
duction teams.
After the establishment of the basic equipment condi-
tions, cleaning, oiling and check standards have been estab-
lished and combined with 5S standards established earlier.
4.3.4.4. Quality defect reduction in assembly station. The
last improvement opportunity is the reduction of the high
defect rate of the assembly station that hampers the con-
tinuous flow by scrap and rework. Therefore, the lean team
made a decision to try developing a quality enhancement
approach in assembly station. Four persons from different
departments were given four training sessions (2 d in total),
which included defect analysis.
In the first stage, data were collected in order to figure
out the most prominent defects in the assembly station.
Using a three-month data history, a Pareto diagram is con-
structed based on the frequency of defects occurrence as
shown in Figure 10.
It can be easily observed that only two defects cumulated
together 70.09% of defect frequency during the study
period. These defects are ‘Bearing defect’ and ‘Graphite seal-
ing improperly lubricated’. For these defects, a root cause
analysis was carried out in order to propose actions and
improvements to act directly on the root causes of these
defects. Table 11 presents the root causes identified and the
improvements carried out.
As for bearing defects, it was found that the use of
inappropriate type (roller bearing) and quality on the one
hand and the inappropriate state of cleaning of the storage
zone and workplace have been behind the apparition of a
high number of bearing defects. For that, the team proposed
the use of another type of bearing to reduce rotational fric-
tion and support radial and axial loads which is the ball
bearing. Moreover, the suppliers of this type of bearing have
been diversified in order to put them in competition and
ensure the highest quality. On the other hand, the arrange-
ment and cleaning of the bearing storage zone and worksta-
tion have allowed to avoid damage to the rolling tracks
caused by particles entering the bearing. Regarding the
improper lubrication of the graphite sealing, it was observed
that the use of silicone instead of glycerine or lightweight
machine oil is the major cause behind this defect. Moreover,
the contamination of lubricant by foreign objects could also
generate this defect. Thus, the use of appropriate lubricant
along with the proper conditioning of lubricant by covering
the storage tanks were felt to be efficient to resolve
the problem.
4.4. Post implementation phase
4.4.1. Step 1: Result monitoring
After implementing all necessary improvement plans, the
lean team monitored the results achieved by recalculating
the metrics defined earlier in order to show top manage-
ment and all involved staff the usefulness of the project. As
targeted earlier in lean and green policy, the improvement
must be monitored in both operational and environmental
side. Table 12 summarises the comparison of lean and green
890 A. BELHADI ET AL.

100 100.00%
90
80 80.00%
70
60 60.00%
50
40 40.00%
30
20 20.00%
10
0 graphite Carbone
0.00%
Missing O-ring Shaft
bearing sealing Missing Graphite Play Gakets Missing
drain not tightening
defect improperly slinger Seal defect defect bolts
plug placed defect
lubrificated damaged
Freq. 91 73 31 11 8 8 6 3 2 1
Cum % 38.89% 70.09% 83.33% 88.03% 91.45% 94.87% 97.44% 98.72% 99.57% 100.00%

Figure 10. Pareto diagram of defect frequency.

Table 11. Root causes and improvements made for the most prominent defects of the assembly station.
Defects Root causes Improvements
Bearing defect Inappropriate use of roller bearing to support radial
Use of ball bearing
and axial loads
Poor quality of bearing used
Diversification of bearing suppliers

Test of different brands of bearing
Inappropriate storage of bearing
Arrangement of bearing storage zone
in warehouse
Presence of foreign bodies, moisture and contamin-
Cleaning of bearing, shaft and workstation during
ation in the assembly place bearing insertion

Standards of cleaning
Graphite sealing improperly lubricated Use of silicon lubricants
Replacement of the current lubricant by Water,
glycerine or lightweight machine oil
presence of foreign objects in lubricant
Covering tanks of lubricant storage

Cleaning the work station while applying
the lubricant

metrics before and after improvements implementation.
Detailed discussion about these comparisons and further
information about the achieved improvement are provided
in the following.
4.4.1.1. On the operational side. It is clearly shown that all
metrics of productivity and quality have drastically improved.
These improvements were achieved by small actions and
lean culture that has been created in the organisation rather
than heavy investments.
First, the rate of time efficiency has increased from 49 to
around 62%, as a result of a set of the reduction of different
wastes. Indeed, waiting time has been effectively reduced by
creating continuous flow between foundry, machining,
assembly and painting stations. In addition, changeover time
in machining station has been decreased from 32 to 9.5 min
in foundry station.
Second, the rate of quality defect has decreased from
4.33 to 3.61% after improvements implementation. This is
due to two reasons. First, the significant decrease in the
defect rate in assembly station from 6.38 to 3.13% and
second the increase in daily production capacity from 29 to
39 pumps.
Third, the rate of inventory, which indicates the overall
lead-time of the process, has also been decreased from
15.3 to 4.5 d after improvements implementation. Indeed,
the WIP reduction by the implementation of cellular manu-
facturing and the creation of continuous flow alongside
the manufacturing pulled by customer demand have
affected significantly the volume of inventory and reduced
the lead-time of production.
Lastly, the availability rate has increased from 93.90 to
95.98% after the implementation of improvements. This is
mainly due to the remarkable improvement in uptime of the
machining station. This improvement is a result of the cre-
ation of a culture of housekeeping and early detection of
abnormalities by two projects 5S and autonomous
maintenance.
4.4.1.2. On the environmental side. Given the improvement
in operational metrics, the environmental metrics have been
improved tremendously.
First, the specific consumption of water was decreased
from 0.6 to around 0.33 m3/product. This is mainly due to
the active campaign to detect, track down and repair
water leaks. This campaign was promoted by housekeeping
via 5S and autonomous maintenance in machining station.
Moreover, the establishment of the basic equipment condi-
tions of machining tools has led to the adjustments of
parameters namely pressure and flow of liquid used in par-
ticular water widely used in this station. Another cause of
water consumption reduction is the reduction in workspace
 PRODUCTION PLANNING & CONTROL 891

Table 12. Comparison of lean and green metrics before and after improvements implementation.
Metric Before After
Productivity and quality metrics Rate of time efficiency (%) 49% 62%
Rate of quality defect (%) 4.33% 3.61%
Rate of inventory (days) 15.3 4.50
Rate of availability (%) 93.90% 95.98%
Resources and energy consumption metrics Specific consumption of water (m3/product) 0.6 0.33
Specific consumption of energy (Wh/product) 745 409
Specific consumption of metal crude (kg/product) 65.17 46.38

achieved by creating a cellular manufacturing between
four stations. This led to the reduction of water needed
for cleaning and washing the workshop and storage areas.
Second, the specific consumption of energy was also
decreased from 745 to 409 Wh/product for several reasons.
First, the creation of cellular manufacturing and continuous
flow has promoted the reduction in products transports and
small lot sizes. Indeed, the transport of product consumed
after improvements around 9.8% of the total energy used.
Second, the adjustment in tool parameters achieved during
the establishment of basic equipment conditions has a big
effect in the energy efficiency of the facility.
Third, the specific consumption of crude metals has
decreased from 65.17 to 46.38 kg/product and became closer
to the weight of metal in a product which is 40 kg. This was
achieved mainly through the reduction in defect rate.
Note that the increase in daily production capacity from
29 to 39 pumps has a great effect in the specific con-
sumption of all resources and energy. Furthermore, the
creation of saving culture promoted by lean commitment
led also to reduce further wastage in terms of resour-
ces use.
side. VSM has a positive impact in measuring and visualising
sources of waste alongside green performance and identify-
ing unnecessary operations that consume energy. Moreover,
cellular manufacturing, SMED, pull system and autonomous
maintenance help to enhance productivity performance,
which implies a direct reduction in specific consumption of
energy and water. Lastly, quality control can help to reduce
production defects, which reduces the consumption of
raw materials.
RQ3: How production managers in SMEs can integrate
the green component in their manufacturing facility’s every-
day operations.
The case study presented in this paper demonstrates
clearly that lean and green can be implemented and man-
aged even by small companies. Indeed, it can easily observe
that the case company has enjoyed relevant achievement in
both operational and environmental side without engaging
expensive investment. The willingness of improvement and
the commitment of all organisation’s levels to change have
been the essence of these achievements. From this case, sev-
eral lessons can be learned which could be useful for other
SMEs that are trying to enhance operational and environ-
mental performance:

4.4.2. Step 2: Capitalisation and standardisation of
lean practices
Having achieved the relevant result by mean of several
improvements, the team took a moment to establish work
standards derived from new ways of doing tasks developed.
The standardisation of actions may have a significant impact
on sustainability and commitment of doing tasks according
to lean and green standards.
5. Discussion of results
RQ1: What are the benefits of lean practices on the green
performance of SMEs?
Through this study, the impact of lean implementation in
the betterment of greenness level of the company is broadly
demonstrated. The case study shows that implementing lean
practices has a very beneficial effect on the environmental
performance of SMEs in terms of the efficient use of resour-
ces such as water, energy and raw materials. Table 13 pro-
vides information from the case study on how each lean
practice can support corporate environmental management
and improve green performance in SMEs.
As explained earlier, lean practices have a positive impact
on green performance and this applies also to small compa-
nies. Practices like 5S and training can help in the cultural

Commitment and involvement of all management’s levels
is highly required to define the strategy and the objec-
tives targeted;

Simple, easy to use and non-financial performance met-
rics would be the most suitable way to provide directions
for improving the performance in SMEs. Moreover, it is
widely recommended to integrate environmental metrics
as well;

The involvement of all operators can be widely improved
by 5S and internal training because of their low imple-
mentation costs and their significant role in creating lean
and green culture in which will rely the programme;

Green value stream mapping is an easy way perfectly
adapted to small companies in order to identify opportu-
nities for improvement and focus resources;

Several lean practices such as SMED, cellular manufactur-
ing, autonomous maintenance are suitable to use for
SMEs and can give relevant results;

Employee empowerment and self-directed Kaizen teams
help in effectively implement Kaizen events and enjoy
significant improvement in performance for SMEs;

A gradual implementation will lead to focus resources
and show quick results. This improves the commitment of
managers and the morale of employees during the
change process.
892 A. BELHADI ET AL.

Table 13. Impact of lean practices on the green performance in the case of SMEs.
Lean practice Impact on green performance
5S
Impacts water and energy consumption through cultural waste eradication;

Impacts energy consumption through systematic detection and fixing of waste in energy use
VSM
Helps to the measurement and the visualisation of wastage;

Identification of unnecessary operations and opportunity to avoid excess of energy, water and raw material use.
Cellular manufacturing
Reduces space utilisation that minimises water needed for washing and cleaning storage zone and work area. Also it
minimises the energy use (lightening, handling, conditioning … );

Reduce transport between stations that generates an important source of energy use. Thus it enhances energy efficiency
SMED
Promotes the continuous flow that reduces energy needed to storage of big lot of product;

Helps to produce small lot sizes. This avoids unnecessary use of energy for storage and handling of big lots of products;

Reduce non value added time and enhance productivity which reduces the specific consumption of energy and water
Pull system Kanban
Help reducing WIP in the shop floor with very few batches between the stations;

Avoids overproduction that generates inventory and WIP. This avoids unnecessary use of energy for storage and han-
dling of products
Autonomous maintenance
Establishes the basic equipment conditions which has a positive impact in reduction of wastage in energy and material;

Creates a culture of earlier detection and repair of water leaks. This reduces water consumption;

Enhances availability of facilities which avoid use of energy while not producing
Quality control
Reduces scrap and rework which reduces the specific consumption of raw materials and energy use

6. Managerial implications
This study broadens key managerial implications. Actually,
the study discloses the pride of lean-green implementation
to the SMEs’ owners/managers and stakeholders and pro-
motes these companies to focus on sustainability during
their manufacturing operations. In addition, the study will
help to increase the likeliness of successful adoption of
lean and green paradigms by providing a new way of
implementation that is believed to be suitable for SMEs.
The findings have helped to develop the following
recommendations:

Managers of SMEs must recognise that lean approach is a
fundamental way very suitable to use by SME to promote
and convince employees of the need for making such
changes when targeting improvement in performance.

It is mandatory for any SME to include the training of all
operators for energy reduction best practices and estab-
lish new standards of work for equipment operation and
maintenance.

SMEs should include energy and water waste checkpoint
into 5S and Autonomous maintenance checklists.

Continuous update of the Green VSM and the inclusion
of more green indicators are necessary to sustain the
results of the approach in long term.
7. Conclusion
Although the well-documented beneficial effect of lean on
green performance, small companies have been reluctant to
integrate and implement both lean and green practices sim-
ultaneously especially because of their limited resources. In
this study, an analysis of lean and green implementation in
a small company was made based on a proposed frame-
work. The main objective of the study was to demonstrate
in a practical context of SMEs the relationship between lean
practices and green performance. However, there are some
secondary objectives that the paper was aimed to achieve
implicitly. Namely, the applicability of lean and green in
SMEs through a proposed methodology that has not been
yet experienced.
The framework implemented has enabled the use of sev-
eral practices such as 5S, training, green VSM, SMED,
Kanban, AM and quality control to create a corporate lean
and green culture which allowed to achieve significant
improvements in both operational and environmental side.
The improvements were assessed using quantitative metrics.
For instance, the rate of value-added time has increased
from 49 to around 62%. In addition, the rate of quality
defect has decreased from 4.33 to 3.61%. In terms of inven-
tory, a decrease from 15.3 to 4.5 d was observed. In addition,
the availability rate has increased from 93.90 to 95.98%.
These improvements in operational metrics have resulted in
several green performances. In particular, the reduction in
specific consumption of water (from 0.6 to around 0.33 m3/
product), energy (from 745 to 409 Wh/product) and raw
materials (from 65.17 to 46.38 kg/product). These results
clearly demonstrate the applicability of lean and green pro-
grammes in SMEs and the usefulness of this approach for
enhancing SMEs’ performance on all sides.
However, there are some limitations to this study that
evoke further improvements. First, the proposed framework
cannot be generalised based on the successful experience of
a single company operating in a specific sector. It should
also be recognised that more lean practices could be also
experienced to show their correlation with environmental
performance.
To advance research in this area further, research is
required to explore and understand the benefits that SMEs
could obtain through the implementation of lean production.
The framework perused in this paper can be applied within
diversified contexts of SMEs not only to improve the sustain-
ability of discrete processes but also other types of processes
such as continuous processes and services. This is one of the
main research streams proposed as a part of the future
research agenda derived from this research. The results of
our work can also stimulate further research to provide new
empirical evidence, for example, by extending this study to
other components of the supply chain such as transport
and logistics.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Amine Belhadi is a researcher in Industrial Engineering
at Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco). Amine is an
Industrial Engineer. He works currently as production
and process engineer in chemical sector. After having
his PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2018, he became
member in the Industrial Engineering Research Team
at Higher School of Technology (Safi), Cadi Ayyad
University subsidiary. His expertise area is the
Industrial Engineering particularly Lean Manufacturing.
He has participated in lean programs implementation in many compa-
nies. His publications have appeared in international peer-
reviewed journals.
Fatima Ezahra Touriki is an Associate Professor at
National School of the applied Sciences of Safi
(Morocco). Fatima Ezahra started her research career
at the Paul C
ezanne University - Faculty of Science
and Technology of Marseille (France), by obtaining her
PhD in "Intelligence and competitive intelligence" in
2005. In 2016, Fatima Ezahra became Head of the
Industrial Engineering Department. Her scientific activ-
ity focuses on Lean Management, Quality
Management, food supply chains and sustainability. She has published
several articles in leading academic peer-reviewed journals.
Said El Fezazi is a professor in the Department of
Industrial Engineering and Maintenance at the
University of Cadi Ayyad University (Morocco). He is
the leader of the Research Team in Industrial
Engineering at Higher School of Technology of Safi.
His research interests include supply chain manage-
ment, Lean management, Six Sigma, production and
operation management.
ORCID
Amine Belhadi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4831-4941
Said El Fezazi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9410-5860
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