More sustainable automotive production through understanding decoupling points in leagile manufacturing

Abstract

Attempts to link ‘lean’ and ‘green’ have a long history, yet they mostly remain wedded to an eco-efficiency agenda. The question addressed here is to what extent lean can inform more radical change towards greater sustainability in industrial systems. The automobile is one of our least sustainable systems and the main issue is overproduction. Yet, the current automotive business and manufacturing models depend on high levels of production due to the need for economies of scale determined by the chosen production technologies. These technologies center on the internal combustion engine and the all-steel body. This paper shows through a review of the ‘leagile’ literature, that a new understanding of the factors that determine the ‘decoupling point’ between lean and agile processes can be used in order to bring about a radical shift in economies of scale in car production such that lower volume production becomes feasible thereby reducing the need for overproduction and enabling a move towards more sustainable car production and hence consumption. A case study of the Morgan Motor Company is included to illustrate how such an approach could work in practice.

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