Advancing Sustainable Development in Manufacturing: A Strategic Framework for Overcoming Green–Lean Implementation Barriers

ABSTRACT Manufacturing's transition to sustainable development depends on integrating green with lean under credible environmental policy and stakeholder engagement. Although benefits are well established, the literature underspecifies implementation barriers and their prioritisation. This study identifies, structures, and prioritises barriers to green–lean adoption using an Indonesia‐based, mixed‐methods design, producing a decision‐oriented roadmap for sustainable production. A structured literature review (SLR) informed a survey of manufacturing managers ( n = 132), with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) categorising barriers into five dimensions: managerial orchestration (MO), ecosystem and governance (EG), behaviour and belief (BB), knowledge and know‐how (KK) and tools, methodology and technology (TMT). An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with a diverse expert panel ( n = 12) then ranked these dimensions and derived sequenced deployment guidance. MO and EG emerged as the most significant barriers, with salient impediments including inadequate top management support, substantial initial capital requirements, limited government incentives and resistance to organisational change; BB, KK and TMT factors further constrain diffusion via skills gaps and methodological complexity. We propose and validate a theory‐linked framework for green–lean integration (GLI) barriers—derived via EFA and prioritised with AHP—anchored in diffusion of innovation (DoI), institutional theory, resource‐based view (RBV)/dynamic capabilities and change‐management; the process is portable, whereas weights require local reestimation. Bounded by Indonesia's institutional conditions—regulatory stringency and enforcement, energy mix and cost structures, small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) prevalence and supplier informality, and hierarchical managerial norms—this study delivers a decision‐oriented roadmap for Indonesian manufacturing and a clearly defined process (SLR → EFA validation → AHP prioritisation with consistency ratio [CR] control) that can be adapted, via local reweighting and replication, to settings with comparable profiles.