The impacts of utilizing lean processes on the environmental sustainability of food production

Abstract

The recent decade has been shadowed with gradually worsening news of the state of our climate and nature. Consequently, sustainability has become a topic known by all and effecting nearly every aspect of our society. With growing concerns about the impacts of human activity on the environment, there is an urgent need to explore ways to reduce waste and resource consumption in all sectors. The environmental impacts of food are mostly discussed from the viewpoint of individual’s diet choices. While this too, is an important discussion to have, this paper resettles the spotlight into the environmental sustainability of the food production system.

This thesis examines the environmental sustainability impacts of utilizing lean management strategy in agriculture and food production context. The study is strongly based on previously done case studies concerning the topic and combining the findings presented in them. The paper discusses both the environmental sustainability impacts of lean implementation and the lean tools and practices used to achieve such effects. Finally, it goes through the main challenges when implementing lean into agri-food context and argues whether or not it is worthwhile to utilize lean in agri-food industry.

The result of this study suggests that implementing lean management strategies in agri-food production context can lead to reductions in waste and resource consumption, and thereby contribute to greater environmental sustainability. While the implementation process of lean may encounter some challenges, with the right approach, it can be successfully executed. This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing an analysis of the environmental sustainability impacts of lean management in the context of food production and emphasizing the importance of reducing waste and resource consumption in this sector.