Green and Lean: a Gemba–Kaizen model for sustainability enhancement

Despite the encouraging results obtained from the application of Green Lean, organizations have found the integration of Green and Lean, and their implementation as an integrated approach, challenging, especially when resources are limited. This paper aims to overcome some of these challenges by presenting a model for integrating Lean and Green based on the Gemba-Kaizen approach. The objective is to help organizations reduce their environmental waste in a practical and easy manner with limited resources. The proposed model was developed on the basis of a through literature review on Gemba and Kaizen, conducted on peer–reviewed journal articles and pragmatic books with managerial impact on the subject, and the more than 40 years of accumulated experience of the authors as academics, researchers, industrialists and consultants after having worked on a number of projects for multinational organisations that wanted to implement Lean Six Sigma and/or environmental management systems in various industrial sectors. The model was validated through two cases study in the aerospace and automotive industries. The results showed that the proposed model helped the case organizations to reduce the consumption of resources and improve their environmental performance. The proposed model can be the basis for further research on Lean and Green, contributing to help organizations to improve their sustainability performance. This research presents a first attempt to develop a model which integrates Lean and Green based on a combined Gemba-Kaizen approach.