Lean Production Assessment: Case Study in Auto Parts Companies from Brazil and Spain

The lack of a coordinated and structured way in the Lean Production implementation may result in poor and disappointing results. In this way, identification and measurement of best practices, followed by the evaluation of its usage level in the organizations, is the way through which the Lean Production may be reached, focusing the elimination or minimization of waste. The purpose of this paper is to present a field research carried out within companies of the automotive sector, analyzing the adherence level in Lean Production implementation, being the data collected in Brazilian and Spanish companies. In order to do so, the main groundings of Lean Production are presented, the analysis on the adherence level is performed by using the SAE J4000 standards and the results are obtained considering a statistical analysis of the data. The obtained results offer to the organizations some outstanding points regarding the Lean Production practices implementation.