Lean in Indian MSMEs: Critical Success Factors and Barriers

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, popularly known as MSMEs, have proven their importance worldwide through contribution in economic development. The MSMEs form the backbone of any country specially the emerging economies. The growth rate of MSMEs directly affects the growth of the economy of an emerging economy like India. In India this sector of 36 million units, today offers job to more than 80 million people. The industry through its more than 6,000 products contributes about 8% to GDP with 45% of total manufacturing output and 40% in the country's exports. The process of liberalization and globalization has opened up new vistas for various sectors of the economy as also posed certain challenges. Implementation of Lean philosophy acts as a catalyst for this growth engine. This work presents the survey and analysis of the enterprises having implemented Lean. It Identifies and Analyse the Technical Variables/ barriers that affect the implementation of lean; and Identify the Critical factors that ensure successful implementation of lean in Indian MSMEs.