Introduction: This article is a product of the “Design of a comprehensive methodology for the Lean Manufacturing implementation in the Colombian context” research, carried out during 2019, 2020 and 2021 in Bogotá, Cundinamarca.

Challenge: Existing Lean Manufacturing implementation methodologies do not take into account the organizational culture aspects of the country in which it is being developed, making it difficult for its full implementation.

Objective: Present a comprehensive implementation methodology that increases the successful Lean Manufacturing application in the Colombian industry.

Methodology: This article presents the review and analysis of the existing implementation methodologies and the results of the analysis of problems in implementation processes in the Colombian industry, as well as the comprehensive implementation methodology designed.

Results: To achieve a successful Lean Manufacturing implementation in the Colombian context, it’s necessary to carry out an adequate implementation process’ follow-up, the company’s Senior Managers commitment, the definition of appropriate leaders for the implementation process and the adequate personnel training.

Conclusion: This project seeks to develop a flexible methodology that adapts to organizational conditions.

Originality: This research integrates key success factors associated with the Colombian context in the implementation’s methodology.

Limitations: The size of the sample to diagnose the Lean Manufacturing implementation degree in the Colombian industry, from which the key success factors are taken to be included in the methodology.

Globalization has managed to make companies adopt technologies that allow production costs to be reduced, improve productivity and flexibility, broadening their value chain by optimizing resources and activities. This is because resources are not being used efficiently and most of the activities carried out are not sufficiently effective, as they generate waste, which creates problems that result in higher costs.

As the contemporary market is becoming increasingly competitive worldwide, manufacturing organizations are under immense pressure to pursue operational excellence and improve their performance in order to reduce their costs and provide higher quality products in shorter time frames. Lean manufacturing principles and techniques have been widely used by manufacturing organizations to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals [1]. Lean manufacturing is an approach to manufacturing management that strives to make organizations more competitive by increasing their efficiency and decreasing costs by eliminating non-value-added steps and inefficiencies from the process [2]; [1].

Lean Manufacturing tools are independent, but they have a common goal; they seek to improve profits and eliminate as much waste as possible. These tools contain basic guidelines for their implementation, but it is essential that at the time of implementation not only the theory alone is understood, but also the particular processes of each company and the necessary adjustments are made to ensure the success of its implementation. This requires constant adaptation and learning [3], especially in Colombian companies where cultural behavior directly affects their improvement systems.

The Colombian manufacturing industry is no stranger to the need of remaining competitive at a global level since the import and export index in Colombia increased 8.5% in annual percentage average from 2001 to 2019 [4]. Colombian companies, in their eagerness to be competitive and meet the needs of their customers, have innovated processes to reduce production costs, increase productivity, improve flexibility and expand the value chain, among others. Likewise, changes have been observed in relation to social and institutional aspects, which go beyond the company itself, and these have adopted philosophies that allow the continuous improvement of all the links that make up its value chain.

One of the main objectives in strategy formulation and implementation is the creation of sustainable advantages for companies. De Oliveira and Fensterseifer [5] argue the need to understand why some companies perform better than others operating in similar market and competitive situations. These performance differences can be attributed to differentiation in internal factors, such as knowledge and other strategic assets, which have an impact on the overall company’s performance. This mindset is embodied in the “Resource-Based View” (RBV) approach that considers companies as different amalgamations of both productive and strategic resources as well as capabilities that lead to different performance potentials.

Since each company has its characteristics, it is viable to design a production management model that includes the fundamental theoretical concepts and the variations required to achieve an implementation methodology tailored to the needs of each company. Therefore, with the objective of adapting the principles, approaches, and tools of Lean Manufacturing to the Colombian context, the idea of proposing a methodological process that takes into account pre-existing methodologies and success and failure factors in the implementation processes in the Colombian industry arises, thus achieving a complete implementation of the Lean Manufacturing philosophy in Colombian companies.

Therefore, in order to support Lean Manufacturing implementation processes, this work presents a methodology for Lean Manufacturing implementation that understands each company’s particular processes and adapts to them to guarantee its successful implementation in the Colombian industry.

A systematic literature review involves the study of selected articles searched in different databases and sources [6]. According to Hong and Easterby-Smith [7], the literature review is a necessary step in structuring a field of research and progressing our understanding of any emerging research area.

In order to search for information related to the review of the state of the art, the following keywords were established: methodology, lean manufacturing, implementation, and Colombia. The following electronic databases were used to search for information: Sciens Direct, Taylor & Francis Online, Sage, Oxford, Scielo, and Dialnet

Two search processes were carried out between 1999 and 2021; in the first process the words: methodology, Implementation, and Lean Manufacturing were used and a total of 19,646 results were identified in databases; in the second process the words: methodology, Implementation, Lean Manufacturing, and Colombia were used and a total of 750 results were identified.

Within the results obtained in the two search processes carried out, it was possible to identify that there is a great variety of information related to the subject and that this has increased in the last 10 years, as shown in the graph below.

A pre-selection of articles presenting information on Lean Manufacturing implementation methodologies in the title, summary, or keywords fields was made from the totality of the results obtained. Then, articles that could be repeated in the 6 databases consulted were eliminated. A total of 29 articles were identified in this exercise.

Finally, each of the selected articles was read from the abstract, followed by the introduction and general reading to determine if it described the Lean Manufacturing tools included in the implementation methodologies and the general aspects to develop a successful implementation methodology. In this last step, a total of 18 articles that could serve as a reference were identified.

The literature review process took time and effort. Six databases were considered and a 20-year period was reviewed for each of them with 2 search processes, totaling 46 different searches. In this search exercise, 20,402 results were retrieved, and the preselection and selection process explained above was applied to them. Finally, 18 articles with content describing Lean Manufacturing implementation methodologies were obtained, and for this reason, they were considered suitable for the development of the research background review, which is presented below.

The term “Lean” was introduced by a study group of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to analyze the manufacturing methods of companies in the automotive industry worldwide [8], this philosophy emerged as Toyota’s Production System (TPS) in 1950 [9]. Its main objective was to carry out operations with minimum cost and zero waste [10]. The TPS is represented by a house whose foundations are given by operational stability and continuous improvement. The walls, on one hand, are represented by the Just In Time system: “the right part, at the right time, in the right quantity” [11]; and on the other hand, the quality in the process, or “Jikoda” is stated with the control of line stops, poka-yoke, visual factories, efficient work, and machinery. With these foundations and walls, we have the house’s roof, which represents high quality, lower cost, and shorter delivery time goals.

In Colombia, the context of incorporating the model of economic openness since the early nineties; the national government policy of the first decade of the 21st century, which favors the signing of international free trade agreements and treaties with different countries of the world; and the closing of trade relations with Venezuela in between 2008-2010; are factors that have encouraged entrepreneurs in the sector to gradually incorporate into their production processes the administrative and operational adjustments that enable them to meet the quality requirements and gain share in international markets [12].

Regarding implementation methodologies, the literature is very vast; however, we will try to describe some of them, showing their techniques and results. The first one is the one proposed by Carreras and Sanchez [13], in which they suggest a model dividing it into three levels:

First level: Identifying and defining the key factors of the model: Leadership, communication, planning, training, operational, continuous improvement, monitoring, and measurement.

Second level: Group identified key aspects, classify them under each key factor, and prioritize them for each of the phases in which a company is in the implementation process.

Third Level: Defining the strategies/good practices for each of these key aspects to follow in order to achieve a consolidated Lean implementation. The first is associated with the vital aspect defined by the commitment of the management, for which it was determined that all Lean implementation must be endorsed by the support and commitment of the organization. The second refers to the facilitator as responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Lean strategy; and the third focuses on the visualization that should be given to the company as a value chain so that each department’s objectives become common objectives, which leads to a radical change in the functional structure.

In this model, pre-operation is given special treatment, meaning that before implementing any Lean practice, the important thing is the motivation from management, the company’s size, the determination of the complexity of the process, and the recognition of management’s expectations. In this way, according to the proposed model, the implementation of Lean is not a short-term strategy but becomes a habit of continuous improvement. [13]

The implementation of the Lean methodology is extremely interesting and good contributions have been made for its implementation. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in a collaboration program they have with the US Air Force, presents a model that describes 7 phases with its main components or actions in order to make the transition to a Lean-type company [14]. The methodology is cyclical, which evokes basic continuous improvement methodologies such as PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) popularized by Deming and developed by Shewhart in the 30’s, only that in the MIT model the activities to implement Lean are particularized, such as the paradigm shift that the organization must have based on the managers’ support, going on to establish a value flow map that clearly tells what the goals are, who is involved in them and then, in a team effort, implement the Lean thinking and culture through activities described in specific plans that over time allow seeing results that improve the company and that will be reviewed in strategic planning.

Another methodology called “Enterprise Lean Model” is derived from a study by MIT and Lean Aerospace Initiative in 2004 to enhance the best practices in the execution of this methodology in organizations. It provides a series of steps where the successful practices in aspects that are linked to the Lean implementation in the company are specified. The methodology suggests metrics to monitor the results of the changes made in the internal processes of the organization. This methodology attempts to optimize information, human and material workflows in the processes, providing us with metrics that respond directly to each of the 12 points to track in the methodology. The Enterprise Lean Model, unlike the previous one, which was used to initiate the implementation of Lean, is used more to refine and make processes work better based on Lean concepts.

It is also possible to identify 5 basic steps to have a Lean process [15][16][17]:

Jing [18], in a conference for the IIE (Institute of Industrial Engineers), summarized the Lean methodology. This methodology shows how the tools are common to others previously presented, and the event called Kaizen stands out because it is under its continuous execution that improvements are produced in the organization.

The so-called Lean Production System is consolidated by applying most of these tools, being interdependent with each other. Arrieta, Muñoz, Salcedo, and Sossa designed a scheme that allows seeing the general effects of the implementation of different Lean Manufacturing tools in the Colombian Industry. [19].

According to Herrera, Herrera, González [20] various authors have shown the usefulness of lean tools in improving productivity, which is why it is necessary to identify the various implementation methodologies and the tools that were used in each one of them.

The following is a comparison of the research articles related to the development of Lean Manufacturing implementation methodologies. Table 1 shows the title of the article or document, the authors, the tools used in the implementation methodology designed, and whether organizational aspects are included in the methodology or not.

During the last few years there has been progress in the design of Lean Manufacturing implementation methodologies. Different variants have been generated, but generally, common tools are used, such as: Kaizen, Value Chain Maps, 5’s, Just-in-Time, SMED, Total Productive Maintenance, Heijunka, Six Sigma, Poka-Yoke, among others.

The organizational aspects identified in the different methodologies are related to the organizational structure rather than to the strategic guidelines or the organizational culture factors.

Colombia was a late starter in the implementation of Lean Manufacturing tools within companies. According to Arrieta, Botero, and Romano [39], only implementation initiatives have operations in the country, such as General Motors - Colmotores, Tetra Pak, Unilever Andina, and Siemens. These companies have implemented some of this philosophy’s tools.

In the process of implementing Lean in Colombian companies, some of the initiatives have been successful, while difficulties have arisen for other organizations, with negative results or failure to meet expectations. Two reviewed case studies evaluating the level of implementation of Lean tools in SMEs in the Aburrá Valley [39], in the textile sector and in the industrial sector [40], found that companies have not developed a Lean culture and philosophy, and therefore, the use of tools is reduced. The least implemented tools are the Electronic Document or Information Exchange (“EDI”), supplier certification, Kanban, 5’s, Six Sigma, SMED, and TPM. However, there are tools such as statistical process control and benchmarking that have been beneficial to companies.

Lean Manufacturing has been implemented in other continents, achieving continuous improvement of organizations for more than 40 years. Since it was implemented in Japan during the mid-1970’s, there are few cases that have been implemented and documented in Colombia. According to Valencia & Plazas [41] in a certain way, the tools that have been successful in Japanese companies may face some barriers in Colombian companies, among which are the management of information systems, customer-supplier relationships, organizational culture, labor stability, and staff turnover. Moreover, such cases are limited to some industrial sectors.

The implementation methodologies reviewed have similar aspects, such as leadership, planning, continuous improvement, and follow-up. 63% of the reviewed methodologies take into account organizational aspects, however, none of them took into account the implementation success factors related to the country’s context.

The Lean Manufacturing tools included in the most common implementation methodologies are: Kaizen, Value Chain Maps, 5’s, Just-in-Time, SMED, Total Productive Maintenance, Heijunka, Six Sigma, and Poka-Yoke.

To evaluate the level of implementation and the tools applied in Colombian companies in order to identify the problems to be solved with the methodology designed for this document, a qualitative survey was conducted based on seven case studies of organizations located in Cundinamarca, which have implemented Lean Manufacturing philosophy tools.

The companies were selected from a list of names compiled out of the articles reviewed; the list had a total of 15 companies. It is important to keep in mind that sampling was non-probabilistic for convenience since the companies surveyed were the ones that made this study possible. Initially, they were contacted and only 7 companies agreed to participate. The survey was conducted by telephone with those directly responsible for the Lean tools’ implementation process, who were familiar with it, its results, and the problems encountered during its implementation.

The survey was based on one previously applied by Leon, Marulanda, and Gonzalez [42] with some variations, this one has four sections.

With the information collected, data was tabulated and the important and recurring aspects of successful implementations were identified. This information was supported by related bibliographic sources.

Each of the companies surveyed had a variety of tools implemented, according to their particular needs. Not all the tools were implemented in their entirety, but they were implemented in some of the company’s processes. In this particular exercise, the visual factory was identified as the most generalized tool, followed by 5S’s and Manufacturing Cells, as can be seen in Table 2.

Just-in-Time is the least implemented tool in the companies interviewed because of the lack of delivery control from suppliers, which means that Kanban must be kept in the company’s own facilities or in the suppliers’ facilities.

According to the survey’s results, in order to achieve success in a process of implementing the Lean philosophy in Colombian companies, it is necessary to have the commitment of investors and the organizations’ top management. According to León, Marulanda, and González [42], “Regarding small and medium-sized companies, Lean experts should be consulted to train both owners, leaders, and supervisors in the Lean key aspects, and these latter should be the ones who carry out the training and coaching to operators and employees in general. Good leadership ensures and drives skills creation or improvement in work teams, allowing the implementation to be enhanced with available tools, generating innovative ideas, and integrating new technologies into the process. This is why in the Lean implementation, this ability should be trained and developed in supervisors and mid-level managers.”

Each tool’s implementation will depend on each company’s capabilities and the resources’ availability. Therefore, it is necessary to be clear about which resources are available in order to define a work plan and adequately monitor the use of such resources.

Indicators must be managed to monitor and control the project’s progress, as they are necessary to evaluate the implementation’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Awareness and training processes are vital during the project’s implementation; they should be carried out with the support of the organization’s leaders to ensure the philosophy’s adoption and appropriation.

A comparative table was developed as a result of the above reviews, comparing the lean manufacturing tools included in the research articles and those implemented in the surveyed companies.

Based on the considerations of the previous chapters, one identifies that Lean tools can be implemented independently of each other and can be implemented at different stages of the project. Additionally, the need to take into account the cultural factors of each country was identified, since they determine some behaviors in the organizational culture that can prevent a successful Lean Manufacturing implementation.

The implementation methodologies reviewed have similar aspects, such as leadership, planning, continuous improvement, and follow-up. Some of them take into account organizational aspects, however, none of them took into account implementation success factors related to the country’s context.

Considering the above, and according to the success cases of Lean implementation in the Colombian companies interviewed, we have defined the following methodology proposal for the implementation of Lean Manufacturing in the Colombian context:

The first step in this methodology, or steps to follow for the Lean implementation in the organization, is to have the unconditional support of the company’s management.

As can be seen in Illustration 4, it is crucial to analyze where the organization is in relation to the initiative being taken. It is desirable to be at least in the lower left box, where the initiative is important to the business and therefore has 100% support from top management. To have a point of reference: Toyota would be in a great position in terms of the Lean initiative since they are pioneers of this production system.

Leaders play an extremely important role within organizations for implementing Lean at different company levels. To apply this methodology it is necessary to modify the organizational structure and create positions to lead and manage the implementation process.

The general leader of the process must have the knowledge of the tools, and their leadership is essential. These are the leader’s main functions:

There are different models for work team selection; among them Gordon Raber mentions a series of steps that are important [43]:

The team is critical to the success of the initiative within the organization. It is recommended to form a working team as follows:

After an Action Work Out (AWO), it is very common to have additional people in the production lines. One of the initiatives adopted here is to take the person who best grasped Lean ideas and tools, they join the team. That way, the tacit knowledge created based on lived experience can be used to transmit it to new areas where the new AWO will be carried out.

Therefore, when selecting the internal team, it is very important to fulfill the following characteristics:

The next step is to train the entire organization, introducing the initiative and the benefits and challenges that the organization will face by implementing it. After defining the vision, objectives, and goals, developing a training plan for all levels of the organization is fundamental in order to start speaking the same language. Initially, a training sequence is defined, starting with department leaders, then employees, coordinators, supervisors and operators, so that the support of this initiative comes from management. The other people who join the list of trained employees start creating what is called the “snowball effect”, which means that once the idea is approved and adopted by the organization, the initiative gains momentum and the benefits start growing exponentially.

The training plan should not only have a sequence. A training plan that contains all the tools that have been defined to be implemented should be established.

The following are some of the advantages of Lean training at all organizational levels:

The next step of the methodology is the Action Work Out, which is going to the work area and applying the tools discussed in this paper. The steps to follow to perform the AWO are: - Familiarize yourself with the Process:

It is very important that the team performing the AWO knows the process that will be carried out, for the team member to be able to identify the operations that add value and those that do not when observing operations and recording times. To do this it is necessary to read the procedures and instructions to see which operations are the ones that really need to be carried out, which are surplus, and which are not being carried out.

Through process visualization and monitoring, the waste generated in diverse company processes will be identified.

The Takt Time of the operations should be measured in order to know how often a product unit should be produced, according to the demand. This Takt Time, understood as the rate at which a production line should be flowing depending entirely on the customer’s demand and the time available for operation would explain how often a product should be produced in a specific process. For this purpose, the following formula should be applied:

Takt Time = (Time Available) ⁄ (Units required (demand))

Time taking is vital, because this is where we can detect other wastes in which operators incur and that do not add value to the product, such as crane time, transportation, defects, etc. It is important to make around 10 samples when taking times which will be taken 10% by the process’ engineer, 10% by the area supervisor, and the remaining 80% by the Lean team that was previously appointed; the purpose of this is that the process owners of such areas can become aware of their wastes and activities that do not add value to the operation, and that many times, due to the blindness of the workshop, are not able to be detected.

Once the times are taken, it is necessary to analyze them and see the differences between operators.

At the same time, when times are taken, using tools such as spaghetti chart, standard work combination sheet, 7 ways, is important to analyze exactly which activities add value and which don’t.

When taking operation times at workstations and performing the analysis, identify each of the operations that are carried out, these may be:

Therefore, when taking time, it is important to be able to analyze and try to eliminate all activities that do not add value. This is because, if the Takt Time is not being fulfilled, eliminating these activities can help in producing within it.

Once non-value-adding activities have been established, they need to be eliminated from our process. If, before the AWO we were not complying with the Takt time, once we eliminate all those operations that do not add value, we will be able to produce within it.

Once the operations that do not add value have been eliminated, we must determine the sequence of operations that each operator has to follow, in order to produce units consistently within the Takt Time. When defining the sequence of operations, we have to remember that the operators are the ones who carry out the operation and that they are the ones who know it deeply.

There are many purposes of following a sequence of operations, among them we can mention:

Once the AWO process has progressed, implementing tools should be carried out in the following way:

Just because we are producing below Takt Time and following a sequence of operations to standardize the process, we should not stop working to improve our process continuously, we must remember that a lot of discipline and continuous work is required to be able to maintain the right level. In the world of Lean Manufacturing, a metaphor is made using a diet. It is hard for a person to lose weight and be in shape; but once they do, they have to keep exercising and eating healthy in order to stay at the desired level, and this is where it is very difficult to maintain. The same thing happens with Lean, in order to be able to work below Takt Time, we have to follow the standard operation routine (diet) while at the same time observing the operation to be able to detect any of the 7 wastes that appear in the process. That is why continuous improvement, better known by the Japanese as Kaizen, is of great importance in the organization to ensure success when implementing Lean.

“Mr. Ohno was passionate about TPS. He would say that he had to clean up and identify all the problems that existed in the workplace. He usually complained if he couldn’t tell if there was a problem in a work area.”[44], Fujio Cho, President, Toyota Motor Corporation.

All the areas of opportunity in a work area that have been found during an AWO must be addressed, and the necessary changes must be made in order to eliminate the problems’ root cause. It is very common to see problems in organizations that are not aired, and are solved without letting the whole company know the reason or the cause of the problem. Normally they try to hide it, but in Toyota Production System (TPS) culture it is completely opposite, making it very important to visualize the problems so that they do not happen again.

So far, we have presented works from different authors that present methodologies to carry out an implementation, and we have also presented a proposal of a methodology that allows the implementation of Lean Manufacturing in the Colombian context. In addition, we have found a good compendium of experiences where, one or more Lean tools have been developed but now the question that arises is, how to determine the Lean strategy’ development level in the companies, and how to know if the Lean Manufacturing methodology’ execution process is being carried out correctly.

Once the process previously mentioned in this work has been carried out, it is essential to be able to highlight the results obtained during the Lean tools’ implementation. A visual way to show these results is by using a tool called the Objectives Sheet.

The illustration above shows us all the parameters we should measure before starting a workout, and establishes a goal to achieve. At the end of the AWO, depending on the time frame, which can be a few hours or more than a week. Here we can see parameters such as: Cycle time, lead time, number of operators, inventory, travelling distance of a piece, liberated space, etc.

The implementation methodologies reviewed have similar aspects, such as leadership, planning, continuous improvement and follow-up. The most common Lean Manufacturing tools included in these methodologies are: Kaizen, Value Chain Maps, 5’s, Just-in-Time, SMED, Total Productive Maintenance, Heijunka, Six Sigma and Poka-Yoke.

63% of the methodologies reviewed take organizational aspects into account. However, none of them took into account implementation success factors related to the country’ s context.

Each of the companies surveyed in Colombia had a variety of tools implemented, depending on their specific needs. Also, not all tools were fully implemented and only some of them had been implemented in some of the company’s processes.

The implementation methodologies reviewed have similar aspects such as leadership, planning, continuous improvement and follow-up. Some of them take into account organizational aspects. However, none of them took into account the implementation’s success factors related to the country’s context.

The success factors identified in the survey, according to the survey applied in the Lean Manufacturing implementation processes in the Colombian industry are: Top Management Commitment, work plan according to the resources available, management indicators that allow the follow-up of the project and an adequate awareness raising and training process.

Lean tools can be implemented independently, and this implementation can be done at different stages of the project. Additionally, there is a need to take into account cultural factors in each country, since they determine some organizational culture behaviors that can be obstacles to a successful Lean Manufacturing implementation.

During this project, a methodology for Lean Manufacturing implementation was developed, based on pre-existing methodologies’ literature and successful cases of Lean Manufacturing implementation in Colombia.

With the experience gathered, we can conclude that this methodology can help other organizations in the Lean Manufacturing implementation and above all, that the methodology outlined in this document is flexible rather than rigid, it will depend on the organization in which it is applied.

During the research process, it became evident that there is a possibility of wasting the knowledge gained through experience. It is proposed as follow-up work to create a system in which knowledge management can be applied within the Lean Manufacturing implementation methodology for the Colombian context, so that expertise and insights gained by team members are not wasted, making them available for other members of the organization.

The results of the survey showed that the suppliers’ development and the organizational culture modification are difficult aspects to deal with. Therefore, as a future research, we propose the characterization and adequate development for suppliers in the Lean Manufacturing implementation, starting from the country’s logistic systems to achieve an adequate implementation of JIT in Colombia.