Abstract

SMEs play a critical role in the sustenance of national economics worldwide. However, these companies are facing enormous challenges and complexities caused by the competitive environment in which they are operating. Therefore, SMEs are attempting to engage new approaches like lean production in order to enhance their performance. However, it is well documented that a very few number of SMEs have been given the opportunity to benefit from competitive advantages gained by lean production. Many researchers have stated that the failure of Lean production implementation in SMEs is, generally, due to: the use of wrong tool, the use of one tool to solve all the problems, the lack of understanding, and the poor decision-making. Although many models and frameworks exist in the literature, a little has been developed based on SMEs’ specifications and contained suitable tools for them to implement lean production properly. This is why the present paper aims to provide a systematic roadmap that contains the most suitable lean tools for SMEs. This roadmap was developed through case studies of five SMEs that were implementing lean in their production systems.