Title: An assessment of contributions of 5S initiatives in the Indian manufacturing industry

Authors: Jugraj Singh Randhawa; Inderpreet Singh Ahuja

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Global Institute of Management and Emerging Technologies, Amritsar, Punjab, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala 147001, Punjab, India

Abstract: In the last few decades, the Indian manufacturing entrepreneurs have been found to be somewhat struggling to cope up with immense global challenges and lagging behind in the global production scenario. The basic reason of their low ranking has been negligible involvement or practice of lean tools. To attain high ranking and affect significant improvement in manufacturing performance, 5S has been envisioned as a significant basic tool among the lean techniques. The practice of 5S technique drives a significant role in the foundation of several lean management practices and bringing continuous improvement throughout the organisations. In order to improve the manufacturing performance, the Indian manufacturing industries have been effectively paying attention towards these lean tools and philosophies in the last couple of decades. The aim of this research paper is to investigate the contributions of imbibing 5S principles for achieving manufacturing performance enhancements in manufacturing industries of Indian country.

Keywords: 5S; lean manufacturing; manufacturing industry; manufacturing performance; Toyota production.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2017.087251

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2017 Vol.17 No.4, pp.297 - 336

Received: 29 Jun 2016
Accepted: 19 Dec 2016
Published online: 11 Oct 2017 *

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