An ISM approach for lean implementation barriers in labour intensive Indian ceramic SMEs

Abstract

Worldwide challenges and competition have urged manufacturing industries and organisations to upgrade their proficiency by implementing lean concept. A demographically suitable and reliable structural model of lean barriers has been developed, through which industries can increase their effectiveness of lean practices in labour intensive SMEs. Twelve critical barriers to lean implementation extracted from literature were analysed and validated after discussion with industrial experts/academicians. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique was employed to observe the relationship amongst the barriers and fuzzy MICMAC analysis was performed to identify a model based on hierarchy of these barriers. The results revealed that 'lack of top management commitment and leadership' and 'resistance to change and adopt innovations' as the most critical barriers. The observations of this analysis thus may be considered as a realistic orientation to present scientific and administrative solutions and a road map to improve the lean implementation in context of Indian ceramic SMEs.