A systematic review of lean implementation approaches: a proposed technology combined lean implementation framework

Nowadays, lean implementation seems to be very effective when combined with technologies like radio frequency identification (RFID) but a gap has been observed regarding the availability of certain lean implementation approaches that practice this confluence. Keeping this requirement in view, an extensive systematic literature study has been conducted to first confirm this gap and then to propose an implementation approach by selecting the right approach, methodologies, tools and steps from previous literature. In order to achieve this task, 39 most relevant previous lean implementation approaches have been selected through rigorous search and selection (based on studying their originality, methodology, objectives and limitations) which first confirmed the gap and then enlighten that 56% of previous implementation approaches have utilised ‘implementation framework’ as the most common approach and the common methodologies utilised were case study and literature review. Moreover, about 25.6% of previous approaches have utilised Value Stream Mapping (VSM) for lean implementation and Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework was considered as the most appropriate methodology for RFID deployment. So, these statistics were further utilised to invent an implementation framework comprising 21 steps and four implementation phases in which confluence of VSM and TOE has been effectively utilised to achieve successful deployment of technology combined lean.