Lean manufacturing : implementation and assessment case of “Algorithm Pharmaceutical Manufacturers” s.a.l.

Abstract

Lebanese industries are growing so fast and expanding their businesses. They should know how to manage their time, inventory, labor, quality and all the other production factors in order to increase productivity and output while reducing different types of wastes. For that, lean manufacturing was adopted by many companies across the globe in order to try to reduce the wastes as much as possible. Lean is a manufacturing strategy aiming to reduce the inventory and to gain more profits while getting a better quality of the goods delivered to the customers. “Algorithm Pharmaceutical Manufacturers” is a Lebanese industry that is trying to implement lean in its production strategy. The aim of this study is to understand to which extent lean tools are implemented in the company (H1) and to know if a relationship exists between the application of these tools (Kaizen, JIT, TPM and standardization) and the effectiveness of the productivity (H2). The research will be done via a five-point likert scale questionnaire related to “Algorithm Pharmaceutical manufacturers”. It will be addressed to employees from different levels of the organization. The answers were analyzed by using a linear regression and a Chi-square test in “SPSS” and by conducting a focus group and a depth-interview with employees. Results showed that lean tools were implemented but not fully so hypothesis H1 is partially proved. In addition, in the team members’ opinion, a relation exists between the application of lean tools (especially the standardization and Total productive maintenance) and the effectiveness of productivity (significance: 0.000-0.309) but managers don’t believe in this relation according to the results (significance: 0.212-0.653). Therefore, hypothesis H2 is significant in the team members’ opinion more than in the managers’.