Systematic bibliometric analysis on Kaizen in scientific journals

Blockchain technology in the smart city: a bibliometric review

Blockchain can function as a foundational technology with numerous applications in smart cities. The objective of this paper is twofold. First, it provides a detailed overview of the extant literature on blockchain applications in smart cities; second, it reveals the trends and suggests future research directions for scholars who wish to contribute to this rapidly growing field. We conducted a bibliometric review using a keyword co-occurrence network and article co-citation analysis. The analysis includes the assessment of 148 articles published between 2016 and 2020 in 76 academic journals. The review results demonstrate that the number of articles devoted to the study of blockchain applications and smart cities has increased exponentially in recent years. More importantly, the research identifies some of the most influential studies in this area. The paper discusses trends and highlights the challenges related to the deployment of blockchain in smart cities. To the authors’ best knowledge, this represents the first study to review the literature from leading journals on blockchain applications in smart cities using bibliometric techniques.

Kaizen event process quality: towards a phase-based understanding of high-quality group problem-solving

Purpose

As a problem-solving tool, the kaizen event (KE) is underutilised in practice. Assuming this is due to a lack of group process quality during those events, the authors aimed to grasp what is needed during high-quality KE meetings. Guided by the phased approach for structured problem-solving, the authors built and explored a measure for enriching future KE research.

Design/methodology/approach

Six phases were used to code all verbal contributions (N = 5,442) in 21 diverse, videotaped KE meetings. Resembling state space grids, the authors visualised the course of each meeting with line graphs which were shown to ten individual kaizen experts as well as to the filmed kaizen groups.

Findings

From their reactions to the graphs the authors extracted high-quality KE process characteristics. At the end of each phase, that should be enacted sequentially, explicit group consensus appeared to be crucial. Some of the groups spent too little time on a group-shared understanding of the problem and its root causes. Surprisingly, the mixed-methods data suggested that small and infrequent deviations (“jumps”) to another phase might be necessary for a high-quality process. According to the newly developed quantitative process measure, when groups often jump from one phase to a distant, previous or next phase, this relates to low KE process quality.

Originality/value

A refined conceptual model and research agenda are offered for generating better solutions during KEs, and the authors urge examinations of the effects of well-crafted KE training.

Research Trends in Career Success: A Bibliometric Review

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of academic research on professional success, using the bibliometric analysis to understand the evolution of this field between the years 1990 and 2020. The information was obtained from the publications indexed in the Scopus database, under a rigorous bibliometric process that comprises five parts: (i) criteria search of the field, (ii) selection of database and documents, (iii) inclusion and selection criteria, (iv) software and data selection, and (v) analysis and results. The results show professional success as a scientific discipline in full exponential growth, which allows us to consider the main contributions of authors, institutions, and international contributions, as well as to consider the main themes that have shaped the intellectual structure of the subject through their visualization using bibliometric maps of co-citation and co-occurrence, which combined showed eight main lines of research. The results obtained allowed us to identify patterns of convergence and divergence in various topics, which allows obtaining current and diverse information on the state of the research field’s art.

Application of Kaizen philosophy for enhancing manufacturing industries’ performance: exploratory study of Ethiopian chemical industries

Purpose

Kaizen is an umbrella concept for a management philosophy based on a set of principles and values with different tools and techniques that form part of Company-Wide Quality Control. The purpose of this study to explore the empirical evidence of Kaizen philosophy practice and its effect on Ethiopian manufacturing industries, chemical companies in particular.

Design/methodology/approach

After the literature review, an exploratory empirical research, supported on a company observation, was adopted. The eight companies visit giveaway collecting annual technical reports and Kaizen award presentations. The review structure encompassed four major approaches. The first approach is conducting extensive literature review and adopting methodologies. The second approach is examining secondary data and developing SWOT analysis. The third is exploring Kaizen practices, developing framework, identifying drivers and barriers using charts, diagrams and graphs. The final approach is proposing way forward and implications based on the findings from the investigative study to emphasize the link between Kaizen practice and its effect on manufacturing industries’ performance.

Findings

The findings indicate practice of Kaizen brought in achieving monetary, nonmonetary and qualitative results. However, results vary from company to company. The average attained improvements of productivity, production volume, machine productivity and sales volume are 2.77%, 28.69%, 10.14% and 31.53% respectively. Moreover, a total of 71,932,472.19 ETB is saved by following structured framework and practice of social and technical factors. However, companies could not sustain Kaizen activities and unable to maintain the attained substantial improvements due to less effort made on some of the Kaizen practices identified as barriers on the cause and effect diagram of this exploratory study.

Research limitations/implications:

A sample size of eight companies is not adequate to generalize key findings of this study. This will be put right by carrying out further surveys in the future using questionnaire and semistructured interviews.

Practical implications

The findings of this study underlined that practice of Kaizen philosophy on chemical companies supported by structured implementation framework, full practice of drivers, eradicating barriers, sustaining practices and maintaining improvements enable in enhancing chemical companies performance through achieving quantitative (monetary and nonmonetary) and qualitative results.

Originality/value

Although there are a number of studies published on Kaizen, currently it is found that there is lack of literature on practice and effect of Kaizen philosophy. Based on this exploratory study and assessment, the framework and circumstance of Kaizen philosophy practices are providing valuable insights for chemical companies, other manufacturing industries and organizations, which will be on board on this voyage including Ethiopian Kaizen Institute, practitioners and academicians.

Lean simulations in production and operations management – a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis

Purpose

Recently, much research about the effects of simulation on an organization’s operational performance and efficiency has been carried out. But still, there is a need for lean-based simulations rather than just modelling the system. However, these studies still lack systematization. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to systematize the literature on lean simulations in the area of production and operations management.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic analysis was performed on 93 articles extracted from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection database. The analysis was limited to only articles that come under the “Engineering industrial,” “Engineering Manufacturing” and “Operations Research and Management” subject category in WoS Core Collection database. Later, a bibliometric analysis was integrated with the literature review for deeper literature categorization.

Findings

A bibliometric analysis displayed the relevance of selected literature (keywords, authors and sources). The systematic literature review helped to clarify each clusters’ content and purpose.

Research limitations/implications

This study portrays the gaps in the lean simulation integration methods and techniques through a detailed systematic and bibliometric review.

Practical implications

Lean managers can get various insights and ideas on implementing lean and simulation integration methods in real-time process improvement scenarios.

Social implications

This study demonstrates the best future recommendations for lean based modelling for both consumers and organizations that shall address the social and economic issues.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, minimal attention has been paid to systematizing the literature on lean simulation in industrial, manufacturing and operations management. This study contributes to close this gap.

The applications of Kaizen methods in project settings: applied study in Jordan

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the results of implementing the Kaizen approach in a caravan repairing project near the Jordanian–Syrian border in the Zaatari camp.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on the exploratory qualitative research approach. The data were collected through interviews and on-site observation with employees who were involved with the caravan maintenance project and have adequate knowledge and information about this project. In this process, a fishbone diagram, a quality control tool, is used to recognize and explain a causal-effect relationship under the selected Kaizen theme.

Findings

The findings suggest that the Kaizen approach was economical in terms of both money and time. Also, waste elimination can be achieved through a variety of tools and easily combined with the Kaizen approach. Implementing the Kaizen approach is an effective and reliable system that allows for the tackling of all types of inefficiencies in the caravan repairing project.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study will help policy makers and managers put together suitable and effective policies that will assist those firms in overcoming the demands of customers and competitors to deliver high quality, inexpensive products in less time through the application of the Kaizen approach. This, in turn, will lead to improved quality, efficiency and productivity in the most cost-effective way. However, these results should not be generalized since they are only confined to the context of caravan repairing project.

Originality/value

Very little research has been done that takes into account the contexts of developing countries. Additionally, most literature presents the use of Kaizen applications only in the manufacturing or production sectors. This study is the first to implement Kaizen as a continuous improvement technique in a caravan repairing project – a job shop industry different from the repetitive batch work environment that is usually associated with implementation of Kaizen. The current research should be of great interest to researchers, managers and professionals who wish to apply Kaizen approach as it is sustainable over time in similar projects.

An application of value stream mapping in auto-ancillary industry: a case study

Purpose

Lean manufacturing (LM) plays a major role in eliminating wastes (activities/resources) in a manufacturing organization. Value stream mapping (VSM) is one of the critical tools in LM which will help in identifying wastes in materials and information flow in a specific product family. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the significance of VSM in the auto-ancillary industry in enhancing the productivity and the quality.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study approach is followed to demonstrate the significance of VSM in identifying various wastes in the auto-ancillary industry. The study has been performed by implementing seven critical steps. A product family is identified based on the customer demand and a cross functional team with specialized experts was formed. The overall processes with sequence are mapped using process flowchart. A cross functional team has been formed to develop the current state of VSM and perform a critical analysis to identify shortcomings. An investigation was performed to overcome the existing shortcomings by identifying opportunities. The relevant kaizens to improve the current state have been proposed. The cross functional team of experts have performed a feasibility study on implementation of proposed kaizens. Finally, a future state of VSM after implementation of feasible kaizens has been reported.

Findings

The results show that future state of VSM brings out the positive impact with respect to process ratio, TAKT time, process inventory level, total lead time and bottleneck time. The proposed improvement also helped to achieve higher customer satisfaction in terms of increased quality, reduced cost and on time delivery.

Research limitations/implications

Present study is focussed on a single product family cell in one of the auto-component organization.

Originality/value

Helps practitioners in the auto-component industry to implement the VSM effectively in their organization.