Identification of the Barriers in Implementation of Lean Principles in Iranian SMEs: Case Study Approach

The manufacturing sector is considered to be a cornerstone in the global economy through its influence on areas such as mining and construction in upstream and warehousing and transportation in downstream. Despite having a rich literature concerning the application of lean principles in the large companies, the number of studies related to SMEs is relatively limited and a lot of essential problems and areas are largely untouched in academic research. This paper aims to identify the main barriers in implementation of lean manufacturing principles in Iranian SMEs. In order to do so, case study approach was selected and 9 in-depth interviews were conducted in various industrial sectors such as electrical equipment, industrial machinery and automotive part supplier. As a result the main barriers were classified into four categories namely, lack of top management support, financial capability, lack of employee’s skill and expertise and organizational culture. Accordingly a guideline was developed that can be adopted to address the aforementioned barriers and reduce their costs by adopting the lean principles