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Pathways of lean manufacturing in wood and furniture industries: a bibliometric and systematic review

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Abstract

As wood and furniture industries have little knowledge of the implementation of lean manufacturing particularly in emerging economies, the purpose of this study is to analytically and systematically review the literature in this context. To this end, a multi-method approach was implemented in two ways. Firstly, a bibliometric method was performed to analyse the scientific literature and examine all general papers on lean manufacturing in the Scopus database—2879 articles published in leading journals from 1991 to 2019 were accordingly identified and analysed. Secondly, a methodological approach was employed to systematically review all papers focusing on the topic of lean manufacturing in the wood and furniture industries. After fine-tuning, 36 articles were considered to classify the research findings into three sections: (1) growth of research interest, (2) motives and application of lean practices, and (3) lean implementation status, organizational context, barriers, and challenges. The findings revealed that lean has gradually evolved over the years, but not for the wood and furniture industries. The vast amount of scholarly studies has contributed to successful lean implementation in developed countries. Moreover, the existing literature on lean in the context of wood and furniture industries have insufficient evidence levels, and their findings have not yet been widely accepted. Interestingly, the first publication on lean implementation in the wood and furniture industries was recorded in 2003, accordingly revealing that the lean concept is new for practitioners. The present study offers a valuable insight into the development of a lean implementation framework specifically for the wood and furniture industries and is the first attempt to examining the industry-level variable which can lead to new theoretical insight.

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Acknowledgements

The authors hereby acknowledge Universiti Teknologi MARA UiTM Shah Alam for the provision of financial support and the Ministry of Higher Education for the provision of financial sponsorship under the Latihan Akademik Bumiputra (SLAB). This research in its full capacity had been funded by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Skudai under the High Impact Research (HIR) Grant, Vot no. Q.J130000.2409.04G61. Appreciation also goes out to the Research Management Centre (RMC) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the support and funding of this research under the Postdoctoral Research Fellowship scheme (PDRU Grant), Vot no. Q.J130000.21A2.05E33.

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  1. Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Johor, Malaysia

    Falah Abu, Hamed Gholami, Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Safian Sharif

  2. Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450, Shah Alam, Malaysia

    Falah Abu

  3. Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Johor, Malaysia

    Norhayati Zakuan

  4. Lithuanian Energy Institute, Breslaujos 3, 44403, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Dalia Streimikiene

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  1. Falah Abu
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Abu, F., Gholami, H., Saman, M.Z.M. et al. Pathways of lean manufacturing in wood and furniture industries: a bibliometric and systematic review. Eur. J. Wood Prod. 79, 753–772 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-021-01713-2

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