Lean Manufacturing tools that are currently used by MSEs in the bakery product sector:
The average of companies are in a Qualification or Development of the Lean practices, in 2.98 close to the expected minimum value of 3.0; becoming a Factor of Positioning of 21.8%, well below the 60% (expected minimum value). This means that there is some progress in the implementation or development of Lean practices, although it is not enough to generate value to the sector.
Once the quadrants by Factor of Positioning and development of Lean practices were established, the results of each of the 86 studied bakeries were located, allowing knowing how many and which were in each quadrant:
Quadrant I - Productive: 13 of 86 companies, corresponding to 15.12% of the total. None of the organizations was located in the World Class area. This is the Sector in which the fewest number of companies were located.
Quadrant II: not applicable, due to the average qualification of 3.0 that the organizations had.
Quadrant III - Vulnerable: 44 of 86 companies (51.16% of the total). Most of the companies were located in this sector, with 21 of them (47.73%), in the area of the Critical or Backward ones, because of their rating lower than 2.5 or 50% of Positioning, as a cause of their zero or minimal application of Lean practices.
Quadrant IV - Promising: 19 of 86 companies, which belong to the 33.72% of the studied total. It is the second sector with the largest number of located organizations.
The previous data are the result of the particular behavior in the bakeries in the implementation or development of each of the Lean practices or analyzed factors. Being VSM practices (this due to the lack of knowledge of the concept and therefore the importance of it inside the organization), JIT (there is not an U plant distribution and equipment that facilitate the production in small batches, devices between workstations to control transport and production, balancing lines for the order assignment, deliveries in small quantities several times a day by both external and internal suppliers) and Management (lack of training of employees, knowledge of the production capacity, organizational structure, participation of employees in the business decision making), in that order, are the critical points.
Figure 1 shows the companies combination