Unpacking the Lean Manufacturing Implementation in Small and Medium Food and Beverage Industries in Tanzania: A Factor Analysis Approach

This paper examined the status of lean manufacturing implementation in food and beverage SMEs in the selected two regions through lean tools integrated and lean outputs achieved. The study employed a mixed method approach. Qualitative and quantitative designs were used to inform the analysis. The study used cluster random sampling with a sample of 120 industries consisting of different small and medium food and beverage processing industries. We used descriptive statistics and Index of Relative Importance to rank indicators for both lean tools implementation and lean output. Factor analysis was also used to identify the underlying relationships of the variables for lean implementation. Results show that majority of the food and beverage SMEs have adopted and implemented work standardization through presences of operation procedures to avoid variations; followed by Statistical Process Control. Also, out of the seventeen lean tools indicators, five are highly implemented in most of the selected industries for increasing process utilization, efficiency and quality improvement with the remaining twelve not highly implemented. Further, results revealed that, defective products are highly reduced in the SMEs after the implementation of lean tools, followed by reduction of inappropriate processing of products. It is recommended that, in order to identify areas for improvement, necessary for industry sustainability, the industries must do lean assessments, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure the continuous improvement of lean practices. Also, tailoring lean strategies to specific sectors within SMEs is very important.