A method to evaluate lean manufacturing influence on product social sustainability: a quantitative SLCA

The reduction of waste is a core topic that involves each industrial process on a global scale. Industry has a crucial role in the game of waste reduction: larger lots of more efficient products have to guarantee less raw... [ view full abstract ]

The reduction of waste is a core topic that involves each industrial process on a global scale. Industry has a crucial role in the game of waste reduction: larger lots of more efficient products have to guarantee less raw materials usage, less scraps and a very low use of energy. Following this goal, the lean manufacturing system sets its focus on the identification of production waste in order to implement effective actions on the production system for a more efficient production. Tools and methodologies embedded within lean production have a main shared player that needs to be taken into account: the human contribution. Lean philosophy in fact, focuses on the involvement of a physical person in each corrective action taken toward production efficiency. Results are new actions and procedures that employers have to deal with. It is then important from a social sustainability point of view to understand how these actions are really collected by the core force of a lean framework, namely the employers. In the literature, different research studies that assess lean manufacturing approach in terms of environmental sustainability and cost reduction can be found but only a few refers to the social sustainability issue. This paper wants to boost the discussion about the social effects of lean manufacturing, understanding real relapses on humans. After a description of lean philosophy milestones and more specifically the idea of lean manufacturing, this paper will analyze the lean manufacturing system of an Italian production plant with the aim to perform a quantitative Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) for a product developed according to lean principles. Here stakeholders related to a household appliance production will be taken into account namely the production line workers. The final scope is to understand if efforts made for reducing waste in the name of the lean manufacturing are sustainable for people that implement new actions on a daily basis. The SLCA here is performed through a new method, shown in a previous work by the authors, that sets its basis on the UNEP/SETAC framework. Analysis through the mentioned method will be performed developing customized surveys for the SLCA analysis: results are shown in a quantitative manner in order to obtain a measurable index to deeply understand effects of lean philosophy on humans involved in the manufacturing kaizen process.