Lean manufacturing and sustainability pillars. A systematic literature review

Purpose – Organisations are no longer able to avoid the new and critical stakeholder awareness of the impacts they generate in the surrounding context. In this perspective, it is crucial to adopt an innovative business model that can optimise the entire corporate system, generating a positive long-term impact in terms of sustainability and value creation for all stakeholders. All this is explained by an integrated approach, Lean- Sustainability (LS), which represents a new management paradigm, based on the joint consideration of Lean practices and all pillars of sustainable development. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the current state of the art on the relationship between Lean and Sustainability, identifying possible gaps and opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach – A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is conducted to examine and classify 188 scientific documents on the issue of Lean and Sustainability practices published in the Scopus database from 2012 to 2024. Findings – The results confirm the existence of a positive relationship between the adoption of a Lean approach and the achievement of sustainability goals, thus enabling organisations to improve their environmental, economic and social performance. However, it is emphasised that more empirical investigations on the subject are needed, which still appear to be lacking, especially with reference to the social pillar. Originality/value – Besides enriching the literature on the subject, the study encourages companies to act in an integrated Lean-sustainability perspective, as it meets new stakeholder needs and increases competitiveness in the long term.