Positive Impacts of Integrating Lean Methodologies and Ergonomics: A Literature Review

In the last decades, more and more companies have adopted continuous improvement strategies to increase competitiveness. To that end, Lean Manufacturing is one of the most used approaches. However, the workload imposed by Lean manufacturing can be higher than the workers’ capacity. Understanding how the workload demanded by the Lean models affects workers’ health and well-being became highly relevant to the companies. This work carried out a literature review on the topic. It aims to clarify the actual impacts for companies of integrating Lean Methodologies with Ergonomics. Moreover, it is expected to enhance the most common ergonomic methods used. The research was performed on two highly regarded scientific databases, the Scopus and Web of Science, and included articles published between 2013 and 2022. A total of 16 articles were selected based on the inclusion criteria. Results show that a few studies focus on the relationship between Continuous Improvement and Ergonomics. Nevertheless, the articles analysed evidenced the positive effects of integrating the two areas, both for companies and workers. In addition, the integrated approach enables the identification of the risk factors imposed by the Lean methodologies and the definition of adequate strategies to mitigate the risk.