• Energy Research

This paper investigates the barriers that hinder the implementation of lean manufacturing in wood and furniture industries as the adoption of this philosophy in such industries is not promising especially in emerging economies. To this end, a comprehensive review of the literature was performed to identify the barriers and develop a conceptual model. Next, structural equation modeling is employed to examine the model using the collected data from 131 wood and furniture companies. The findings revealed a synergetic effect between three key factors—culture and human attitude, knowledge, and resources—which play a crucial role in implementing lean. The analyses indicated the reasons of companies refused or not ready to implement lean on knowledge and culture and human attitudinal issues, particularly in companies that have limited resources. It is believed that resource issues are an obstacle to lean implementation, but not as important as knowledge and culture and human attitudinal issues. Sufficient knowledge is needed to deploy lean practices as well as changes in culture and human attitude. Investigating the relationships between these three key barriers is a contribution that this study intends to become a forward step for promoting lean manufacturing among under-studied industries. This paper also proposes that through adopting the activities for lean implementation, small and medium enterprises can experience and quantify the positive impacts of lean practices. Government agencies, universities, and professional bodies can support such enterprises in this transition through targeted interventions that address the barriers presented.

Due to the upward trend in the globalization of sustainability issues and the intense competitive environment, it is evident that higher education institutions need new strategic approaches to succeed. To this end, the inquiry for this paper has been made into the debate about student relationship management. Going through the literature indicates that institutions have mainly perceived the concept as a technological initiative for solving the problems in individual domains, accompanied by uncoordinated efforts. Thus, the aims of this study are to theoretically present the critical success factors of this strategic approach and to empirically examine the recognized factors. To do so, a confirmatory factor analysis that is a quantitative analytic method was performed. The results and analyses revealed that there has been a significant correlation between the four critical success factors including knowledge management, student relationship management technology, student orientation, and employees’ involvement. It was also found that these factors are significantly correlated with the construct of student relationship management success. The findings have consequently highlighted that in addition to the technological tool, the role of knowledge management, employees’ involvement, and student orientation appeared to be particularly important for the implementation of the application.

The manufacturing industry has undergone numerous revolutions over the years, with a unanimous acceptance of the greater benefits of being sustainable. The present industrial wave—Industry 4.0—by using its enabling technologies and principles holds great potential to develop sustainable manufacturing paradigms which require balancing out the three fundamental elements —products, processes, and systems. Yet, numerous stakeholders, including industrial policy and decision makers, remain oblivious of such potential and requirements. Thus, this bibliometric study is aimed at presenting an overview of the broad field of research on the convergence of sustainable manufacturing and Industry 4.0 under the umbrella of “Sustainable Manufacturing 4.0”, which has yet to be developed. It includes the dissemination of original findings on pathways and practices of Industry 4.0 applied to the development of sustainable manufacturing, contributing a bibliometric structure of the literature on the aforementioned convergence to reveal how Industry 4.0 could be used to shift the manufacturing sector to a more sustainable-based state. An initial research agenda for this emerging area has accordingly been presented, which may pave the way for having a futuristic view on Sustainable Manufacturing 5.0 in the next industrial wave, i.e., Industry 5.0.