Simulation-based analysis of catalyzers and trade-offs in Lean & Green manufacturing

Manufacturing companies have been forced to rethink their management and operations strategies due to the growing demand for greener products and services. To support these initiatives, the Lean and Green (L&G) approach has gained increasing attention from academic and industry. However, according to the literature in the field not all Lean practice has a positive environmental impact. In addition, there is a lack of empirical research on L&G to understand the catalyzers and trade-offs between both paradigms. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap by assessing the applicability of Lean Manufacturing (LM) tools and investigate how Lean impacts Green performance in a real-world company case. This research paper assesses the integration of Lean & Green in the job shop of a Brazilian company and is supported by a discrete-event simulation (DES) model. Green analysis regarding water, energy and raw material consumption are performed for every single operation. Environmental and production variables are simultaneously evaluated, and the environmental impacts resulting from the implementation of the Lean practices and tools, such as Kanban, are also discussed. While the outcomes of the research reveal a positive correlation between Lean & Green on performance indicators, they also substantiate a trade-off on water consumption. The empirical study along with the simulation-based analysis demonstrate that generalizations such as "Lean is Green" must be carefully revisited and also emphasize the importance of Lean & Green relationship in the improvement of manufacturing processes. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.