Assessing the Impact of Lean Tools on Production and Safety by a Multicriteria Decision-Making Model and Statistical Analysis: A Case Study in Textile Sector

The global competitiveness creates an enormous pressure on companies as they need to reduce production costs in order to increase productivity. In this sense, the SMED and 5S tools appear as competent tools to reduce the waste associated with these processes. This work aims to study and assess some processes in a company in the textile sector. Improvement proposals supported in the SMED and 5S methodology are presented in different areas of the company. Advantages, investments and respective return times are presented. Regarding to SMED, reductions in setup time in the order of 30–40% were obtained with investment return times between 6 and 7 months. The implementation of the 5S allowed to reduce the time and distance traveled for a given task. The reorganization of the area, it was possible to obtain a space gain of about 58 m2. For this purpose, a multi-criteria decision model was designed to diagnose the critical areas for the implementation of Lean tools. Then, a questionnaire was also applied to the workers, with the goal to assess the impact of the implementation of lean philosophy in the field of occupational safety.