Lean awareness and potential for lean implementation in the Indian coal mining industry: An empirical study

The purpose of this paper is to determine the degree of lean awareness and implementation and to identify the perception on tools, enablers, barriers and potential benefits of lean in the Indian coal mining industry.

A systematic review of lean literature and expert opinion was used to design the survey instrument. Data were collected through electronic survey and traditional pencil and paper approach. In order to test the research hypotheses, independent sample t-tests were done.

The study reveals that there is a certain degree of lean awareness although the level of lean implementation is still at a nascent stage in the Indian coal mining sector. The main applicable tools, barriers, enablers and benefits have also been identified based on 54 respondents out of 109 suitable respondents.

In this study, relatively the maximum participants were from the mines located in Eastern India. Thus, a certain level of bias can be anticipated. The findings would help the decision makers, researchers and practitioners to better utilize the available resources for lean implementation and support the existing academic research on lean.

The concept of lean in mining industry is relatively a new paradigm and there is a lack of empirical study that explores applicable tools, barriers, enablers and benefits of lean in Indian mining industry. The study addresses this gap in the lean literature.