Opportunities for improvement in five groups of SMEs by a new lean assessment tool

Abstract

The object of this research was to evaluate the implementation of lean manufacturing for Small and Medium Enterprises of five industries in Northeast Thailand. The five industries were Machinery Industry, Food industry, Rubber Industry, Packaging industry and Garment Industry. The instruments used were applying the lean assessment tool. There were five steps. The first was a lean assessment providing a baseline of 14 items for lean perspective. The 14 items were Kanban system, Visual management, Supplier responsibility, 5s, Operation base layout, Line balancing, Quick changeover, Multi-skill, Standard operation procedure, Poka-yoke, Total preventive maintenance, Policy deployment, Awareness of 7 waste, and Kaizen. The second step was the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for process evaluation by Approach Deployment Learning and Integration (ADLI). The ADLI included performance evaluation items classified 0 - 4 for in depth evaluation reflecting level of operations. The last steps were selecting a case study, visiting the SME plants, and data analysis. The findings of the lean assessment process were amazingly at a high level of leanness in the garment industry in all cases. The rubber industry was the lowest.