Investigation of the Level of Adoption of the Lean Philosophy in Small and Medium Enterprises Using integrated Fuzzy Assessment Model Based on Fuzzy DEMATEL / Fuzzy TOPSIS

Abstract

Lean Production is a continuous improvement philosophy derived from the Toyota Production System (TPS) aimed at improving the operational efficiency and performance of companies. Although the Lean philosophy has been widely applied in large enterprises, its implementation and adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has remained relatively underexplored. In this paper, a fuzzy assessment model has been proposed that integrates Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Fuzzy DEMATEL) and Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Fuzzy TOPSIS) to aim to investigate the level of implementation and adoption of the lean philosophy in SMEs through five lean dimensions, namely, management, process, supplier, customer, and employee. Fuzzy DEMATEL is used to identify the weight of influence of each lean dimension on SMEs leanness and identify the cause and effect lean dimensions, while Fuzzy TOPSIS is used to investigate and assess the level of adoption of lean philosophy related to these five dimensions in SMEs. The main contribution of this research lies in providing a comprehensive framework for; assessing the level of influence of lean dimensions on SMEs leanness which is an important issue in the improvement process and identifying the level of adoption of lean philosophy in SMEs. The proposed model has been applied in five Iraqi SMEs for producing healthy water and juice. The results show that although the management, employee, and process have the highest weights of influence on SMEs leanness, management, and employee are cause lean dimensions that have a high influence on improving the effect dimensions, process, and customer. The level of adoption of lean philosophy of the assessed SMEs related to the five lean dimensions is in the mid-level so this refers to acceptable implementation of lean philosophy.

Keywords

• lean philosophy
• ftopsis
• fdematel
• lean dimensions
• smes