Over the last decades, the world is encountering an increase in global manufacturing competitiveness (GMC). Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS), a major pillar in achieving GMC, has lately witnessed a unique advancement and became a vital part of the intelligent manufacturing system. In order to preserve the industry’s place with all the fluctuation in the market environment, an adoption of new manufacturing philosophies such as lean manufacturing systems (LMS) and FMS coupled with good sustainability practices remains mandatory. This paper would fill the reserach gap by exploring the relationship between FMS, LMS, Sustainability, and their impact on the textile industry’s operational performance. Accordingly, the present paper discusses the effect of strategic, operational, and tactical flexibility dimensions, lean manufacturing, and sustainability practices (economic, social, and environmental) on different operational performance metrics (OPMs). A survey questionnaire was structured based on in-depth literature and was conducted in 82 US and European textile facilities. Hypotheses testing and polynomial regression coupled to response surface analysis were performed for model validation and detection of significant linear, quadratic, and mediating effects of the studied variables on sales, cost, and productivity. The data analysis carried out in the present pilot study showed that the LMS implementation played a major role in mediating the FMS-OPMs relationships (p < 0.001), while at a time sustainability practices significantly enhanced the positive effect of LMS on all OPMs and primarily on sales and productivity while drastically reducing costs (p < .001).

Keywords

Lean Manufacturing Systems, Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Sustainability Practices, Operational Performance, Response Surface Analysis.