One root of lean comes from the person of Sakichi Toyoda inventing a loom in

1924 that automatically stopped when a threat broke (Hayes, 2010). This was a
groundbreaking method which saved a lot of time and guaranteed a high quality
standard. A second root of lean can be found in the development of the first
moving assembly line to manufacture cars, which was invented by Henry Ford in
1913 (Black, 2007). Lean Manufacturing is the spine of efficient and effective
manufacturing and is significant to the achievement of manufacturing firm by
turning the waste into profit (Hassan Alaaraj et al., 2019). Therefore
Manufacturing firms should recognize wastes in every manufacturing operation
and proposes accurate solutions for eliminating them and consequently improving
the profitability of the firm considering the impact of the Ukraine war on processes
(Marguarossian, 2017; Mwelu, et al., 2014; Moori, et al., 2013).

Lean management was a hot topic already in the early 80s in operations manage-
ment (Schonberger, 2007) and flourished in the US (Holweg, 2007) under the
name of just-in-time (JIT). In the ’90s lean management became the dominant
strategy for organizing production systems (Karlsson and Ahlstr ̈om, 1996).
Moreover, Hines et al., (2004) considered it as the most influential paradigm of
operations management. Schmenner (1988) concluded, that “Out of many potential
means of improving productivity, only the JIT-related ones were statistically
shown to be consistently effective”. Shah and Ward (2007) found a positive
relationship between lean management and outstanding operating performance,
and added that the relationship is well accepted among researchers and
practitioners (see their referred sources e. g., Krafcik(1988); MacDuffie (1995);
MacDuffie et al (1996); Shah and Ward (2003); Wom-ack and Jones (1996)).
More than an era ago, the United States Institute of Medicine published two reports
entitled “To Err Is Human” and “Crossing the Quality Chasm” that examined the
methods in which healthcare is conveyed and placed focus on quality improvement
and patient safety issues (Kohn et al. 2000; Committee on Quality Health Care in
America, Institute of Medicine 2001). Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle,
Washington, has been able to reduce the occurrence of ventilator-associated
pneumonias from 34 to 4 cases employing lean thinking methods (Institute for
Healthcare Improvement2005; Spear 2005).

This organization has remained able to achieve a $3.3 million cost savings in 2004;
reduce the amount of days outstanding in accounts receivable by 21 %, equating to
about$12 million in cash flow; and redeploy staff in several areas by improving the
efficacy of their operations, which have led to a savings of 33 full-time
corresponding employees (Institute for Healthcare Improvement 2005).
According to BBC News (2021), over the first few months of this crisis, the stock
indices such as FTSE from London, Dow Jones Industrial Average from the United
States and Nikkei from the Japanese market experienced drastic falls as the number
of COVID-19 cases increased.
In pre-pandemic years – according to Conexión ESAN (2019), Peruvian retail
businesses lacked adequate packing space for their products due to the supply
exponential growth back then. On the other hand, product delivery and distribution
had problems, and this generated a drop in productivity and competitiveness for the
businesses in this sector (Conexión ESAN, 2018).
The fluctuating demand of the concluding prompt the former to become more
flexible and adjust their supply chain strategy while finding a way to save costs,
promote sales and add value. (Daine et al. 2011). We can emphasize that Lean
tools are mostly applied in marketing and sales, outbound logistics (distribution),
and storage and inventory which is consistent with retail business key processes
(Pride et al. 2018).
Studies conducted at several GKN sites indicate that 70% of wastes in the
manufacturing sites are in non-shop floor areas. The studies also indicate that
implementing efficient business processes is a significant success factor for
ensuring success at the site (GKN Aerospace, 2018). Research from the industry
supports the argument that investing efforts into improving business processes has
a positive impact on productivity and saving cost (Bakotic & Krnic, 2017). The
data collected from the ongoing and completed BPIs at GAN indicate that there
have been efficiency improvements in all BPIs who aimed to improve the
efficiency.
Klassen and Corbet in their study about the impact of lean manufacturing on the
firm’s sustainability showed better financial returns through gaining new
customers, eliminating cost through reducing waste and competitive differentiation
(Iranmanesh et al., 2019). The financial analysis of the investment management
permits investors to evaluate and measure the return and risk from individual
investments (Baran et al., 2016). According to Lenox and King (2001), in their
study about lean manufacturing and environmental performance, discussed that
lean practices contribute to financial performance by carrying down the managerial
cost by lowering pollution, they agree that there is a positive relationship between
financial performance and lean manufacturing (King and Lenox, 2001). Also, by
using the survey of 711 companies from different industries through 23 countries
and gathering data through 2005-2006, Matyusz and Demter established that
companies implementing lean techniques and tools have greater inventory turnover
and better financial performance from the companies that didn’t implement lean in
its production (Demeter and Matyusz, 2010).
In the global manufacturing arena, India is becoming a favorite manufacturing
destination (Pannizolo et al., 2012). Becoming an international manufacturing hub
has not only generated a plethora of opportunities but also forced Indian process
industries to face heightened competition, local as well as global. To remain
competitive in contemporary, dynamic markets these industries are required to
counter several challenges. Two prominent challenges are to improve
manufacturing efficiency and supply chain performance (Jaiganesh and Sudhahar
2013). Another challenge is to improve quality (Poongothai and Arul 2011).
Additionally, due to the inherent characteristics of process industries, energy
consumption is high (Wesseling et al., 2017). Recently, Piercy and Rich (2015)
found that the adoption of lean thinking can also result in many sustainability
outcomes. Therefore, lean adoption can result in operational, financial and
environmental performance improvements (Negrão, Godinho, and Marodin, 2017).

Mathur, Mittal and Dangayach (2012) emphasize that lean targets the elimination
of non-valueadding activities, thus reducing production cost. Radnor and Johnston
(2013) claim that lean helps both in process improvement and customer service.
Moreover, the manufacturing management literature suggests that lean
manufacturing is one of the most effective modern management tools to cope with
contemporary competitive challenges (Martínez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes,
2014).

Lah and Ward (2007) reached the same conclusion: employees working in cross-
functional, self-managed teams are faster and more efficient in solving identified
problems. MacDuffie (1995) and Shah and Ward (2007) proved that companies
relying on HR practices as an integral part of their lean production system can
achieve higher results (this is also supported by Wood (1999)).

Since 1975, Lebanon is moving from one conflict to another, the economy is going
through hurtful cycle driven by extreme volatility relying on inflows rather on
productive sectors, in addition to corruption and fiscal challenges driving un-
conducive business environment. The quality of Moving to the Lebanese
infrastructure, it is amongst the poorest in the world, ranked 130 out of 137
countries (Kemayel, 2015).

Throughout the last years, the GDP growth was stagnant and the government
deficit became 9.3% of GDP. Furthermore, in 2018, poor growth was accompanied
by large and increasing fiscal deficits, estimated at around 10 percent as public
finances seriously deteriorated. High and rising fiscal deficits over the years,
coupled with poor growth resulted in a debt-to-GDP of 152 percent by the end of
2018, the third highest in the world (UNDP, 2018). According to Khlat, et al.
(2014), Lebanon is looking forward for implementing lean principles but managers
should be trained to the leadership style in lean implementation to learn how to
spread a lean culture, organize communication strategy, assess application
progress, motivate their employees and solve problems.

Lean has recorded successes over the years, but the method is not without a
challenge. The challenges are mainly formulated from the perspective of the lean
stereotype by Wilson (2010). Eroglu and Hofer (2011) found in their research that
some industries, because of the particular product, or the conditions of
manufacturing, demand, or supply may not be suitable to lean operations. The first
and probably one of the most important lean challenge discussed in this thesis is
the implementation of as many lean tools and techniques as possible. This is
because all the lean tools reinforce each other (Scherrer-Rathje et al, 2009; Dora et
al., 2013; Angelis et al., 2011) because they are complementary (Chauhan and
Singh, 2012). Many companies trying to apply lean only focus on the tools and
neglect the necessary cultural changes (Losonci et al., 2011; Liker and Morgan,
2006; Hines et al., 2004). Only applying the tools without changing the company
culture will almost never bring optimal results (Mann, 2009). For lean and
especially Just-in-time to work in the whole product value chain, supplier
involvement is crucial in the process of a lean implementation (Lyons et al. 2013).
Dora et al. (2013) concluded that lean in the food processing industry is not really
developed yet. The focus is more on food safety than on process improvement
methods. According to Dora et al. (2013) there are several reasons why lean
manufacturing has a low impact to the food sector because of characteristics
including shortness of shelf-life, raw material heterogeneity, seasonality, and
varied harvesting conditions. Dora et al. (2013) also mention the complex
production chains and networks of buyers and sellers as factors affecting food
processing. It is thus evident that this method facilitates business sustainace if
employed in the right business process.