Textile management enabled by lean thinking: a case study of textile SMEs

The textile industry in Europe consists mainly of small and medium enterprises (SME), which are a vital part of the European Union economy. The SMEs are pressured by a challenging financial situation and must become more efficient to stay competitive. Many textile SMEs have, however, not adopted new quality management concepts for efficiency; this represents an interesting research gap. Hence, the purpose of this paper was to investigate the effects of a lean approach in the management area of textile SMEs. The findings suggest overall positive effects as a result of applying lean principles in the textile management area. Several areas, characterised as waste in a lean service context, were improved. This suggests possible cost reduction with a lean approach. From a team perspective, improvements of team collaboration, information and communication as well as team performance were identified. A conflicting finding was that work-related stress increased in one case, while it was reduced in the other case.