The impact of the Lean-Green philosophy on Zimbabwean manufacturing industry

Abstract

Due to the pressure of global competitiveness and its local ramifications on manufacturing businesses in the global south, many organisations are struggling to be both profitable and environmentally compliant as local regulatory institutions begin to demand environmental friendliness from the manufacturers. Over the past few years, organisations have adopted different methodologies to improve their performance. These methodologies include Lean Manufacturing (LM) and Green Manufacturing (GM).

This research was carried out in four parts, using two methods, one qualitative and the other quantitative. The first part was based on a qualitative method where a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted using the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) format, and ATLAS.ti. This part seeks to understand the impact of the joint implementation of Lean and Green techniques on the performance of organisations from a literature perspective and propose ways to improve the synergies while limiting the mutually detrimental effects. It is apparent from the literature that implementing Green methodologies is not always complementary to Lean, but the nature of this relationship and the extent of their interaction have not been fully studied. Buoyed by the increasing demand for improved productivity and environmentally conscious manufacturing, research in the area of Lean-Green Manufacturing has experienced significant growth over the last decade, while there has not been a review of the work done since then. This first section, therefore, seeks to review Lean-Green articles published post-2013 and compare the findings to that of Dües et al. (2013) to understand the current state of the research. A systematic literature search was done to identify the Lean-Green articles from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases that were published post-2013. The PICO strategy was used to develop and answer research questions. ATLAS.ti version 22 was used to analyse the 141 papers and develop research themes. The results indicated that LM and GM have strong synergies, and when integrated, they tend to deliver superior organisational performance than individually. These findings agree with the pre-2013 results but with some additions, such as synergies in sustainable performance and value addition. Therefore, it helps to align LM and GM so that the full benefits of the complementary relationship are realised, and where dichotomy exists, it guides its amelioration.

The other parts were carried out using the quantitative method by collecting data through a survey and analysing the data using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The second part investigates the complementary nature of LM and GM on how they impact operational and environmental performance. It examines whether a combined Lean-Green implementation leads to better organisational performance than when LM and GM are implemented individually. It also explores whether being environmentally compliant leads to improved organisational performance. A survey was conducted on the Zimbabwean manufacturing industry. Out of the 782 questionnaires distributed, 302 valid responses were obtained and analysed using SEM in SMART-PLS. The results indicated that both LM and GM impact environmental and operational performance. However, GM indirectly affects operational performance through environmental performance. In addition, when LM and GM were combined, the impact was greater than when they were used separately. Therefore, the companies that have successfully implemented LM can implement GM more easily because of their complementary nature. Integrating LM and GM reduces most forms of waste, causing improved environmental performance, community relations and customer satisfaction.

The third part evaluates whether the integration of LM and GM impacts sustainable performance more than when they are implemented separately. Also, it investigates whether being environmentally compliant has an impact on social and economic performances of organisations. It investigated whether an improvement in environmental performance can make organisations improve their economic and social performance. Thus, demonstrating that environmental compliance should not only be viewed as a requirement for compliance but as a way of improving social and economic performances. The results of the SEM showed that integrating GM and LM has a greater impact on economic, social, and environmental performance than when implemented separately. Moreover, an improvement in environmental performance led to improvement in both social and economic performances. Thus, Lean-Green positively impacts social performance by improving workers' health and safety, labour and community relations.

The last part assessed the impact of internal and external Lean-Green barriers on sustainable performance. More recently, organisations have been integrating LM and GM to harness their combined benefits, and some have successfully integrated the two methods. However, even after successful implementation, other organisations fail to achieve their goal of improving their sustainable performance due to extant Lean-Green barriers. Thus, organisations need to know and understand these barriers, because without such understanding, performance improvements may be jeopardised. Thus, this research aims to investigate the impact of internal and external barriers faced by organisations post implementation and how they affect their intended goal of improving sustainable performance. The results showed that internal and external barriers impede organisations from achieving their goals, and hence, they deserve attention.