Title: Sustaining Indian pharmaceutical SMEs as global players: an empirical study on role of Lean-Kaizen tools

Authors: Thirumani Muniswami Iyer Venkatesan; Goutam Kumar Kundu

Addresses: VIT Business School, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, Tamil Nadu, India ' VIT Business School, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Lean-Kaizen tools are among the popular industrial engineering concepts that guide managers and technicians to proactively improve an organisation's sustainable competitive advantage in the fast growing pharmaceutical industry .The purpose of this paper is to highlight outcomes of empirical studies. The design of this research paper is case study research. For collecting data on process improvements by conducting empirical studies in SME sector, three pharmaceutical units which deployed/implemented lean tools were chosen. The findings of this study revealed that the value stream mapping (VSM) a lean tool contributed effective improvement in productivity and lead time reduction in one study. SMED tool has improved productivity by reduction in change over time. Similarly, Kaizen ideas have lead to savings in rework and reduction. This paper addresses the link between the theory and practice complimented with outcomes.

Keywords: Lean-Kaizen tools; Indian; SMEs; pharmaceutical; empirical study; sustaining; global.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2022.126749

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2022 Vol.31 No.3, pp.340 - 367

Received: 01 Jul 2019
Accepted: 04 Oct 2019
Published online: 04 Nov 2022 *

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