Purpose: The present paper aims at developing an effective framework including all the
components required for implementing lean production properly in Small and Medium-sized
Enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper begins with the review of the main existing
framework of lean implementation in order to highlight shortcomings in the literature through a
lack of suitable framework for small companies. To overcome this literature gap, data of
successful initiatives of lean implementation were collected based on a multiple case study
approach. These initiatives has been juxtaposed in order to develop a new, practical and effective
framework that includes all the components (process, tools, success factors) that are necessary to
implement lean in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.
Findings: The proposed framework presents many significant contributions: First, it provides an
overcoming for the limitations of the existing frameworks by proposing for consultants,
researchers and organizations an effective framework for lean implementation in SMEs. This will
allow SMEs to benefit from competitive advantages gained by lean. Second, it brings together a
set of the more essential and critical elements of lean implementation commonly used by SMEs
and derived from the practical experiences of them in lean implementation. Finally, it highlights
the successful experiences of small companies in implementing lean programs and then proves
that lean can give relevant results even for SMEs.
Research limitations/implications: the proposed framework presents a number of limitations
and still evokes extension for further researches: Although it was derived from practical
experiences of SMEs, the proposed framework is not supported by practical implementation. On
the other hand and even though the elements in the proposed framework are derived from the
practical experiences of four SMEs, the identified elements need to be generalized and enriched
by conducting a survey to identify more elements that are also commonly used in SMEs.
Practical implications: Implementing rigorously the proposed framework will help small
companies’ managers to improve considerably their organization’s performance and benefits
from lean strategies' outcomes. Researchers and practitioners in small businesses now possess an
integral framework for successfully implementing lean strategies.
Originality/value: To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first work that proposes an
effective lean implementation framework believed to be easy to understund, practical and suitable
for small companies. In short, this study is a real quantum leap to resolve the problematic
unanswered of lean implementation in SMEs.
