Covid-19 Impact on Moroccan Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Can Lean Practices Be an Effective Solution for Getting Out of Crisis?

Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 crisis hit the economy hard, it is a global situation of declining activity due to a highly contagious disease which has pushed the world to the brink of a deeper recession than ever. Small and medium-sized enterprises constitute 92% of the Moroccan economic fabric, they are among the organizations most seriously affected by the current pandemic. This paper examines the problems that exist before and during this crisis, in order to raise major challenges and choose the ideal approach that will strengthen the competitiveness of these companies. the analysis is based on secondary data and the literature to demonstrate the different constraints of these companies and to show the importance of lean manufacturing as the guarantor of industrial performance. the main question is how the alignment of Lean principals goes well with the desired improvement and with the constraints posed by this crisis, the primary objective of Lean is to provide the means to succeed and accelerate competitiveness. Finally, these circumstances can be a real opportunity to assist Small and Medium Moroccan companies to integrate the methods they need, and “Lean approach” is one of the best performance solutions to adopt in a post COVID-19.