Benefits of lean management : results from some industrial cases in Portugal

Abstract

This paper documents a set of Industrial Lean projects over a decade timespan in the North of Portugal, which were conducted by final year students of the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) in partnership with the Department of Production and Systems of University of Minho. The study analyses a total of forty one such projects and reveals a clear growth in the number of Lean projects, and gives some evidence of Lean awareness and importance to companies. The lean tools used were listed and the most frequently applied tools spotted. Resulting benefits to companies were documented and quantification of such benefits endorsed. Results from 2010 indicate a strong growth in the ratio of quantification of benefits, but the remaining data does not clearly support such trend.