Analysis of Technology Effectiveness of Lean Manufacturing Using System Dynamics

Abstract

In today’s competitive environment, organizations are seeking to improve their position in the market. Lean manufacturing is an effective tool for elevating the competitiveness of organizations based on the fact that each can find its own way of improvement. Technology improvement is considered to be one of lean manufacturing’s dimensions. Technology is defined as the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems, or methods of organization, with the aim of solving a problem or creating an artistic perspective. A dynamic model could be appropriate for analyzing the interrelated behavior of technology and lean manufacturing. Despite the fact that there are plenty of papers and case studies on the applications of Lean manufacturing in organizations, only a few are focused on the dynamic aspects of the system. In this paper, a dynamic model is presented in which Lean manufacturing is linked with technology by causal relationships. The notable advantage of the presented model is the ability to alter a parameter to find how it affects others parameters by considering key results. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the results of such analysis could somewhat improve the efficiency of technology improvement on Lean manufacturing.