Impact of lean tools on companies during industrial engineering projects implementation: a correlation study

Abstract

Lean production is an integrated methodology aiming the elimination of all activities that do not add value to products and services. To get this objective, a set of tools are typically applied regarding waste elimination. Industrial companies from different activity sectors propose the implementation of Lean tools in the development of Industrial Engineering Projects, since the focus is to solve their real problems. In this work, 22 final-year projects developed during the graduation and master degrees in Industrial Engineering were analysed. The impact of Lean tools implementation was studied and a correlation analysis with projects output indicators was performed. It was observed that the most used tools were Time and Methods, 5S, Standard Work and Visual Management. Time and costs reduction, productivity increase, human factors and layout modifications are the five indicators most used to measure the impact and the success of Industrial Engineering projects. It was obtained a good correlation between the implementation of Times and Methods and 5S tools with the productivity increase and reduction of time (Pearson coefficient equal to 0.98).