Lean vs. Green manufacturing: Similarities and differences

Paper in proceeding, 2009

This paper compares the Lean and Green manufacturing concepts regarding a number of aspects: focus of the concept, basic principles of the concept, product and/or process focus, methods and tools, employee involvement, and supply chain involvement. The analysis shows that the concepts display similarities at the level of resource productivity, organizational change, and source reduction. However, implementation of the concepts may lead to trade-off situations, which originate from that the two concepts have different generic focus. This duality needs to be managed in manufacturing practice.