The combination of lean thinking and systems thinking in the design of manufacturing systems

Manufacturing systems are crucial in competitive battles in many industries all over the world and become more and more complex to design. A continuance of competitiveness requires holistic systems approaches that use interdisciplinary methods to improve the design of manufacturing systems, such as the combination of lean thinking and systems thinking. A poor design will typically result in defects and over-processing, which will also lead to waiting for a redesign. In this respect, the adoption of a systems engineering perspective will contribute to the reduction of waste within lean thinking, therefore we attempt to combine the two approaches for more effective design of manufacturing systems. The research considers a selection of contemporary literature and takes insights from a practical case study in order to develop a framework which shall support lean systems engineering thinking.