Abstract:

Manufacturing organizations have adopted the concept of lean manufacturing in order to develop the quality of their products and decrease their wastes. This is done by guarantees that products are evaluated or assessed at each and every stage hence costs are decreased. The objective of this study was to investigate the lean manufacturing apply in small manufacturers companies in Romania and to observed the level of accepting of the concept an implementation and benefits of the lean manufacturing refer to level of education of employees. This research is a cross sectional study which is conducted as an email survey. Accordingly, 25 companies have been surveyed to investigate the tendency for small manufacturers entreprises in Romania to analyse the existence of lean methods for the application in this type of organization and difficulties in the implementation stage and to identify the critical success factors. The results of this preliminary study should illustrate the existing hidden potential in small and medium sized enterprises and it is found that 87% of factories in this survey indicated that the employees need lean training. Awareness of the existence of such needs can help management and training providers to establish appropriate preparation strategies for the successful implementation of a lean program in SMEs.