Quantitative modelling approaches for lean manufacturing under uncertainty

Lean manufacturing (LM) applies different tools that help to eliminate waste as well as the operations that do not add value to the product or processes to increase the value of each performed activity. Here the main motivation is to study how quantitative modelling approaches can support LM tools even under system and environment uncertainties. The main contributions of the article are: (i) providing a systematic literature review of 99 works related to the modelling of uncertainty in LM environments; (ii) proposing a methodology to classify the reviewed works; (iii) classifying LM works under uncertainty; and (iv) identify quantitative models and their solution to deal with uncertainty in LM environments by identifying the main variables involved. Hence this article provides a conceptual framework for future LM quantitative modelling under uncertainty as a guide for academics, researchers and industrial practitioners. The main findings identify that LM under uncertainty has been empirically investigated mainly in the US, India and the UK in the automotive and aerospace manufacturing sectors using analytical and simulation models to minimise time and cost. Value stream mapping (VSM) and just in time (JIT) are the most used LM techniques to reduce waste in a context of system uncertainty.