Redesign of the production system: A hard decision-making process

Lean production is an organizational methodology that has been successfully adopted by many companies aiming to improve their performance. Nevertheless, the implementation of lean involves challenges and problems that many companies are not prepared for. The main challenge is the need for a cultural change (mindset). A very common problem is the decision-making process on the need to redefine the production system. In fact, the production systems of many companies are obsolete and therefore not suited to the current market needs, but, even though, the decision to proceed to the indispensable redesign is not easy. This paper presents and analyzes eight industrial projects involving the redesign of production systems, providing a discussion on the main enablers and inhibitors of the referred decision-making process. Each project was developed by a student, in the ambit of his/her Master Thesis on Industrial Engineering and Management, under supervision of one of the authors.