Title: Investigating the level of involvement of lean manufacturing tools in Hail Industrial City

Authors: Isam Abdul Qader Abdul Rahman Elbadawi

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Hail, P.O. Box 2440, Building 3, Office 25, Hail, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Lean Manufacturing is a strategy of eliminating waste in organisations intended for expediting the flow of the manufacturing process. The extent to which Lean manufacturing is applied in various types of industries is partially related to the lean manufacturing tools that are used. However, not all organisations are aware of the exact impact of each Lean manufacturing tool on their business value and productivity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of involvement of selected lean manufacturing tools in Hail Industrial City (HIC). The study categorised the HIC industries into ten sectors based on their business focus. It was found that lean manufacturing tools are extensively used in automotive parts companies with 90% occurrence, plastic products companies and steel structures companies with 80% occurrence. The study also found that TPM is the most common used lean manufacturing tool in HIC, while SMED and Heijunka are the least.

Keywords: lean manufacturing tools; level of involvement; Hail industrial city; manufacturing waste.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFE.2018.094050

International Journal of Forensic Engineering, 2018 Vol.4 No.1, pp.75 - 88

Received: 20 Apr 2018
Accepted: 07 May 2018
Published online: 13 Aug 2018 *