Lean and green approach: an evaluation tool for new product development focused on small and medium enterprises

Oliveira, Gilson Adamczuk; Tan, Kim; Guedes, Bruno Turmina

Abstract

SMEs are crucial for economic health in both high and low-income economies worldwide. In Brazil, they are responsible for around 50% of the national GDP. However, SMEs face considerable barriers such as difficulties in financing international activity, identifying opportunities and making appropriate contacts in their target markets. This paper investigates the adherence of both lean and green practices for the development of new products (NPD), as means to improve their efficiency (lean perspective) and manufacture environment-friendly products (green perspective). Through a systemic review, we present 16 lean and green enablers for NPD operations. These elements comprise a structure of building blocks to evaluate lean and green practices. Thus, we propose a model that ranks the incidence of these practices regardless of the NPD organization level. Using two MCDM tools: AHP and fuzzy-TOPSIS, each enabler is evaluated considering the SMEs context in Brazil. Firstly, AHP defines the relative importance of six SMEs' characteristics. Secondly, we applied an expansion of the TOPSIS technique, adequate when the values of each alternative are not clearly determined. Therefore, we organized a structured interview consisting of 96 evaluation questions for NPD stakeholders. We carried out this diagnosis in three companies from southern Brazil, analysing their NPD operations, which is useful to establish a future improvement agenda.

Citation

Oliveira, G. A., Tan, K., & Guedes, B. T. (2018). Lean and green approach: an evaluation tool for new product development focused on small and medium enterprises. International Journal of Production Economics, 205, 62-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.08.026

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 26, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 30, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-11
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 1, 2020
• Print ISSN: 0925-5273
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 205
• Pages: 62-73
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.08.026
• Keywords: new product development, NPD, lean NPD, green product development, GPD, multicriteria evaluation, AHP, fuzzy-TOPSIS
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1091322
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527318303463
• Contract Date: Sep 19, 2018