Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Technological Forecasting & Social Change

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/techfore

Integrating lean and agile practices for achieving global sustainability goals
in Indian manufacturing industries
Kaliyan Mathiyazhagan a, *, Vernika Agarwal b, Andrea Appolloni *, c, d, e, Tarik Saikouk f,
A Gnanavelbabu g
a
Operations & Quantitative Methods, Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai-625015, Tamilnadu, India
b
Amity International Business School, Amity University, Sector 125, Noida 201313, Uttar Pradesh, India
c
Department of Management and Law, Faculty of Economics, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via Columbia, 2, Rome 00133, Italy
d
Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development (IRISS), National Research Council (CNR), Naples, Italy
e
Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AL UK
f
Excelia Business School, CERIIM, La Rochelle, France - 17000
g
Department of Industrial Engineering, CEG Campus, Anna University, Chennai 600025, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The rising global pressure from stakeholders regarding climate change and its implications for the various aspects
Lean practices of manufacturing have pressured industrial leaders to develop greater environmental responsibility. This has
Agile practices motivated companies and researchers to identify and incorporate various strategies for ecologically sustainable
Global sustainability goals
operations. Analyzing the relationship between ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ (leagile) practices appears to be a tangible way
Fuzzy best worst method
Innovative solutions
to become more sustainable, specifically in an emerging economy such as India. The literature has investigated
India lean and agile practices for enhancing sustainability, although most studies have not adequately framed their
analyses of both aspects simultaneously. This limitation of previous studies is the motivation for the present
work. The current study expands the scope of previous literature by identifying and prioritizing leagile practices
through the lens of sustainability. This study uses a combination of fuzzy set theory and the best-worst method
(BWM) for identifying and prioritizing the leagile practices that are effective for Indian industrial leaders. The
study is validated for the Indian automotive sector so that industry leaders can implement the requirements of
the ‘Green India Movement’, as recommended by governmental decrees.

1. Introduction sustainable and not just increasing its production quantities (Carvalho
et al., 2011). Climatic changes and air quality have been major drivers
The Indian automotive industry is the fourth largest economy in the for making changes in the automotive industry in the last decade (Couto
world and continues to attract new investors every year, with a current et al., 2016).
annual production of 21.48 million vehicles (Ganapathy et al., 2014). A The relationship between sustainability and business has become one
vast portion of global automotive manufacturing has moved to India, of the central debates at national and international levels in both
where there are spider web networks of small factories supplying parts industrialized and developing countries. To achieve more sustainable
to each other, forming a distribution chain of goods. Transportation of development strategies, automotive manufacturers need to focus on
these parts and finished goods creates a lot of transportation waste, creating a more robust and sustainable manufacturing process (Haq and
which has a tremendous impact on the environment. The automotive Boddu, 2017). Demands from customers and regulators to reduce energy
industry consumes a high amount of energy and resources and emits consumption and greenhouse gas emissions can seem burdensome for
large amounts of greenhouse gases, which increases ecological problems the automotive industry (Iyengar and Bharathi, 2018). Sustainable
such as climate change, global warming, global dimming, and envi­ development goals (SDGs) are motivating this sector to address the is­
ronmental degradation (Maruthi and Rashmi, 2015). This impact on the sues of affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and investment in infra­
environment is accompanied by the need to ensure that Indian society is structure and innovation (SDG 9) in their practices. The automobile

* Corresponding authorYes
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (K. Mathiyazhagan), [email protected] (A. Appolloni).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120982
Received 15 July 2020; Received in revised form 26 May 2021; Accepted 20 June 2021
Available online 28 June 2021
0040-1625/© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

industry is considered to be one of the largest polluters across the globe, • To understand the leagile criteria and practices being used in Indian
and there has always been considerable pressure on this sector to clean automobile industries.
itself up. SDGs 12 and 13 specifically focus on responsible consumption • To rank and identify the crucial leagile practices in the Indian
in companies and address the needs of developing countries to both automobile sector.
adapt to climate change and invest in low-carbon development.
The automobile industry has enthusiastically adopted ‘lean’ and The authors of this paper used a multi-criteria decision-making
‘agile’ (leagile) techniques to achieve these SDGs (Barth and Melin, (MCDM) methodology for analyzing leagile approaches in the automo­
2018). The term ‘lean’ refers to the reduction of waste from every aspect bile SC industrial systems in India. The researchers used the methodol­
of automobile manufacturing (Carvalho et al., 2017). Lean thinking ogy of the fuzzy best-worst method (fuzzy BWM) to compute the priority
helps manufacturers consume less of everything, including packaging, vectors of leagile practices. The remainder of the paper is structured as
raw materials, and energy (Alves and Alves, 2015; Nieuwenhuis and follows: Section 2 is developed and built upon the relevant literature,
Katsifou, 2015). As consumers’ buying patterns are changing rapidly, and gaps in the literature are highlighted. Section 3 discusses the
the whole supply chain (SC) must adapt (Tarafdar and Qrunfleh, 2017). methodology used in this study, Section 4 presents the research design,
The fundamental drivers of agile SCs are speed, cost, and efficiency. and Section 5 provides the results and findings, followed by managerial
Agile SCs are also based on sensitivity to volatile consumer demands recommendations and implications in Section 6. Section 7 presents the
(Ciccullo et al., 2018). conclusions and recommendations for future research.
The production and consumption patterns of developing countries
result in large amounts of waste, so an important element in the work on 2. Literature review
eco-cycles is sustainable waste management (Sankar, 2020). This in­
cludes prevention of waste, changing patterns of consumption, more To meet increasing consumer demands and simultaneously increase
efficient production methods, and waste management with a greater productivity, the concepts of lean and agile practices have been devel­
focus on recycling. In essence, the SDGs’ driving forces are public health, oped and implemented by many companies, who generally adopt one
environmental concerns, and resource value, with the relatively recent approach or the other. The review paper by Iyengar and Bharathi (2018)
additions of climate change and inclusivity. ‘Lean’ is a philosophy built concluded that although several researchers investigated lean and green
around ‘waste minimization’. It is operationalized by implementing a SCs as well as agile and green SCs, research on the integration of all
‘bundle of practices’ that focuses on achieving optimal levels of system approaches has seldom been conducted. In this section, a brief discus­
efficiency by reducing non-value-added activities (Netland and Ferd­ sion of the literature on lean, green, and agile SCs is presented. Research
ows, 2016). The evolution of agile SCs has come as a response to time papers from Scopus database portals and Web of Science were accessed
being a competitive weapon in the market. for the literature review.
Both agile and lean approaches are necessary for the SC to become
greener by preventing, reducing, and properly managing harmful 2.1. Lean supply chain
emissions and saving resources (Li et al., 2020). This encompasses the
environmental dimensions at the process levels (Govindan et al., 2019). A lean SC is defined as a ‘set of organizations directly linked by up­
Järvenpää and Lanz (2020) recognized the need for manufacturing in­ stream and downstream flows of products, services, finances and in­
dustries to be more responsible while producing high-quality and highly formation that collaboratively work to reduce costs and wastes’. The
variable products. Hence, responsiveness and agility have become new evolution of the concept of lean is as old as the automotive industry it­
strategic goals for manufacturing enterprises alongside high quality and self. Toyota developed a lean strategy in the 1950s, and later many re­
cost reduction. searchers and practitioners contributed towards the enhancement of
Combining such techniques in the automobile SC is a Herculean but Toyota’s initial methods and tools. A paper by Mollenkopf et al. (2010)
crucial task that demands extensive research (Rahiminezhad Galankashi suggests that lean techniques are being used around the world to coor­
et al., 2019). These management approaches have been studied indi­ dinate all activities within and outside organizations. Lean techniques
vidually by focusing on lean or agile approaches, or green aspects of originally evolved as a methodology for making the production process
automobile manufacturing (Soni and Kodali, 2012). Many companies more efficient. The existing literature shows that most research in lean
have lost their unique factors and competitive edge due to a lack of manufacturing revolves around measuring the value stream mapping of
proper intermixing of leagile practices (Aguado et al., 2013; Longoni operational performance (Kumar et al., 2020a). However, lean strategies
et al., 2013). This is a consequence of poor decision-making by man­ can also help firms integrate with their consumers and external suppliers
agers, stakeholders, and decision-makers (DMs) (Cabral et al., 2011). (Marodin et al., 2017). A paper by Afonso and Cabrita (2015) stated that
In recent times, researchers and practitioners have increasingly the main purpose of a lean SC is waste elimination and value addition.
focused on the integration of leagile practices to help companies achieve The focus of the literature, hence, shifted towards the inclusion of lean
their green goals and contribute to building more resilient and sus­ approaches for waste elimination in various industries (Tortorella et al.,
tainable societies. This integrated goal is what motivated the current 2018).
study. To create such ideal solutions for the Indian automotive industry, In the Indian context, the research by Singh et al. (2010) documented
the authors faced many challenges in implementing lean and agile the experiences of 127 Indian industries that implemented lean
together, as most industries have implemented either lean or agile ap­ manufacturing practices; they concluded that implementing lean prin­
proaches, but not both simultaneously (Soni and Kodali, 2012). For the ciples aided in satisfying customer requirements and increasing the
remainder of this manuscript the authors will use ‘leagile’ to denote the economic value of businesses. A paper by Upadhye et al. (2010) found
integration of lean and agile approaches. that the first step towards implementation of lean manufacturing in the
With the extensive research in the areas of lean and agile, there re­ Indian context had been taken, but the pace had been slow due to the
mains a need for research on the impact of leagile practices, keeping in inadequacy of working capital, poor technologies, poor management
mind stakeholders’ requirements. Furthermore, it is essential to address skills, and lack of training. Impacts of lean manufacturing and concluded
the role of leagile practices in achieving competitive advantage and that although lean manufacturing and green management practices
enhancing economic and environmental performance. This paper aims were synergistic in reducing inefficiency and waste, from the manage­
to develop a framework to achieve competitive advantage by using ment perspective, green management required more effort and re­
leagile practices. In particular, the paper addresses the following sources (Yang et al., 2011). A review paper by Saboo et al. (2014)
objectives: suggested that literature on the application of lean principles and tools
in Indian manufacturing was limited. Further, Kumar et al. (2016)

2
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

concluded that implementation of lean practices in Indian industries was 2.3. Green supply chain
difficult due to the existence of barriers such as lack of top management
commitment, lack of expertise in training programs, and funding Companies that have large, extended SCs can capitalize on cost
constraints. savings and improved profitability by looking at the synergies involved
In general, there is no ready-made formula available for successful in being green while operating in a manner that continues to emphasize
lean manufacturing implementation (Sangwan et al., 2014). Leong and leanness (Cherrafi et al., 2018). The green SC aids businesses in being
Cheung (2017) suggested that lean manufacturing aided in mitigating effective and ecologically friendly in all working processes. This concept
negative environmental impacts by reducing carbon emissions and has emerged with the acceleration of government regulations and rules
globally addressing climate change. A paper by Gandhi et al. (2018) to achieve environmental standards and the increasing demands of
suggested that ‘top management commitment’ was found to be the most consumers for green products (Tooranloo et al., 2018). Firms that have
essential enabler in the successful implementation of lean been considering ‘greening’ their operations may now be re-evaluating
manufacturing in green SC practices. A study by Moyano-Fuentes et al. the cost-effectiveness of such initiatives. Lean initiatives offer even
(2020) indicated that lean management at the internal level would have more promise of eliminating non-value-adding costs, which may seem to
a positive impact on the service level of the entire SC management. A be the only bright spot in the SC in 2020 (Singh et al., 2020b). A review
study by Singh et al. (2020a) stated that the implementation of lean paper by Hundal and Laux (2020) suggested that integrating technolo­
methods in Indian industries was indispensable in the assessment of gies fostered lean, agile, and green key performance drivers in SCs.
ecological sustainability. A paper by Saini and Singh (2020) concluded However, the integration of a green SC in manufacturing is essential, as
that lean practices had a strong relationship with firm performance in suggested by Jermsittiparsert et al. (2020), when companies want to
the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Northern India, and move towards leanness. A paper by Digalwar et al. (2020) further added
that those practices could significantly boost the economic viability of that, with the shift in business and technology trends, lean, agile, and
these small-scale organizations by reducing waste and enhancing the green SC management were the three paradigms that would aid busi­
production process. It can be seen from the above discussion that nesses in becoming more efficient and competitive. A review by Ciccullo
although the implementation of a lean SC is essential for enhancing the et al. (2018) highlighted the importance of sustainability when com­
ecological and economic aspects of SCs, in the Indian context these panies try to reconcile the pressures of enhancing their SCs’ efficiency
applications are limited by several impediments. and effectiveness. They concluded that an amalgamation of practices
that were lean (efficient and waste-free), agile (fast and flexible to the
needs of the marketplace), and green (environmentally conscious) was
2.2. Agile supply chain critical.

Harrison et al. (1999) suggested that the evolution of agile SCs began 2.4. Lean and agile supply chain
when the importance of time as a competitive weapon in the market was
established. Research by Vecchiato (2015) discussed the relationship Narasimhan et al. (2006) discussed leanness and agility as enhancing
between corporate foresight and the capabilities of an organization to manufacturing paradigms and performance capabilities. The results
achieve strategic agility. The results demonstrated that the three confirmed that while the pursuit of agility might presume leanness, the
micro-foundations of strategic agility—strategic sensitivity, resource pursuit of leanness might not presume agility. Hallgren and Olhager
fluidity, and leadership unity—were the most crucial aspects to enhance (2009) analyzed internal and external enablers for lean and agile prac­
relationships between organizations. Dubey and Gunasekaran (2015) tices in manufacturing industries. They concluded that the choice of a
suggested that customer satisfaction, product quality, and the voices of cost-leadership strategy acted as a driver to select lean or agile
customers were important aspects of agile manufacturing. Christopher manufacturing. A paper by Naim and Gosling (2011) discussed the
et al. (2016) investigated the key issues in the implementation of agile relevance and application of leagile practices in the literature. Kisper­
SCs. Matawale et al. (2016) used MCDM and fuzzy set theory to evaluate ska-Moron and De Haan (2011) discussed the evolution of leagile
the suppliers for agile SCs. A paper by Potdar et al. (2017) reviewed 300 practices in fast-moving consumer goods. They observed that the mar­
scholarly articles from 1993 to 2016 and found that performance mea­ ket’s mature expansion of agility appeared to be counterproductive and
surement and process analysis through empirical and descriptive ana­ the firm’s agility became overly expensive, exposing the company to a
lyses were needed, and implementation was largely neglected. They last-minute crisis. Purvis et al. (2014) discussed the use of agile vendors
reported that the effort made for agile manufacturing was significant for for lean sourcing practices in the United Kingdom. They evaluated the
manufacturing industries but was overlooked in service industries. A case of fashion retailers’ supply networks and concluded that a mixture
paper by Carmeli and Dothan (2017) emphasized agility in product of lean and agile practices could increase SC flexibility to capture more
innovation to enhance the market position. markets.
A study by Alzoubi and Yanamandra (2020) found that, barring a few Soltan and Mostafa (2015) found that the integration of agile and
large companies, medium- and small-sized manufacturing companies lean methods would maximize the benefits of manufacturing firms. They
had not yet been able to adapt and design agile SCs. Further, research by found that implementation of the leagile methodology could help
Centobelli et al. (2020) stated that a lack of coherence and clarity companies make progress towards the zero-waste target and achieve
around the input of technology for the inclusion of agility in the SC had optimal market responsiveness, as expanded upon in this paper. This, in
impeded any accurate portrayal of the importance of information turn, would give rise to a healthier enterprise, which is important for
technology in industries. Overall, it can be stated that an agile SC is society (Banawi and Bilec, 2014).
essential for responsiveness to changing consumer demands. A paper by A paper by Ghezzi (2019) emphasized the need for the inclusion of
Patel et al. (2020) demonstrated that there were three enablers: virtual lean practices in digital technology start-ups. The results demonstrated
enterprises, customer satisfaction, and adaptability, for inclusion in In­ the need for organizations to be more lean and agile when it comes to
dian SCs. A study by Kumar et al. (2020b) suggested that there was digital technologies. A paper by Sindhwani et al. (2019) discussed the
strong potential for agile manufacturing implementation practices to major barriers to the integration of lean, green, and agile concepts to
affect business performance measures in the Indian manufacturing help industry leaders fully understand their interdependence. The re­
sector. The research by Banerjee (2020) also highlights the importance sults demonstrated that current government policies and legislation
of agility for retail businesses. Resilience is another aspect that is very were the main drivers that contributed to implementing lean, green, and
important in today’s retail SCs, and the characteristics of agility further agile manufacturing. Kawa and Maryniak (2019) evaluated the concepts
help to achieve this. of lean and agile in the SCs of e-commerce at the same time.

3
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

Researchers have documented that lean practices have a direct 2.5. Research gaps and highlights
impact on the sustainable performance of companies. Dües et al. (2013)
suggested that lean practices and sustainable performance of firms were After reviewing the major contributions of various authors in lean,
two sides of the same coin. A paper by Hajmohammad et al. (2013) agile, and leagile SC paradigms, it was ascertained that exclusive work
found that implementation of lean principles when selecting suppliers on identifying the practices that the manufacturing sector should un­
could improve the ecological performance of the firm. In addition to dertake is still lacking. Although several researchers have identified the
supplier selection, lean practices such as just-in-time (JIT) and inventory barriers and enablers for implementing leagile practices, the literature
minimization approaches have direct impacts on the environmental still lacks specific information regarding the implementation of these
emissions of a firm (Ugarte et al., 2016). Jakhar et al. (2018) reported practices in the manufacturing sector.
that lean practices contributed to enhancing the sustainability of the Research studies on the simultaneous integration of lean, green, and
entire SC. For sustained growth in industries, SC partners have collab­ agile paradigms in SC management are also lacking, with very few pa­
orated to achieve effective SC practices. Indian industries have the po­ pers focusing on the trade-off between lean and agile practices. Most
tential for substantial growth to achieve improved global researchers have either considered one or two aspects simultaneously;
competitiveness. Indian manufacturing industries that previously they considered it to be crucial for the SC to become more efficient,
focused only on advanced manufacturing processes are moving towards streamlined, and sustainable.
world-class SC practices. To respond to the market challenges faced by
SMEs, lean and green practices were recommended (Jasti and Kurra 3. Solution methodology
2017). To guide the SMEs in achieving more sustainable growth, an
integrated framework of lean-green was developed (ISO 14001 is the The objectives of this paper are to identify and prioritize the leagile
most frequently used green practice). practices based on their role(s) in green supply chain management
The criteria for leanness and greenness were found to be on-time (GSCM) in Indian industries. The MCDM tool was used in the decision-
delivery and reduction in emissions (Nunes and Bennett, 2010). making; this paper utilized the recently updated MCDM method and
Global competition drives interest in SC agility; some technologies and the BWM to prioritize leagile practices. The flowchart of the method­
methodologies are designed to help companies achieve that agility. ology is given in Fig. 1.
Operational performance has significant and positive effects on
customer satisfaction, which ultimately results in organizational 3.1. Research design
growth. To improve internal business activities, industrial engineering
practices such as Total Quality Management, Just-In Time, which are The first step is the design of samples and data collection. The various
also known as lean and agile SC aspects, are practiced (Fahimnia et al., leagile practices for the integration of sustainability were identified
2015). As the situation is dynamic, SC managers change from one model through an extensive literature survey. Initially, the research papers
to another based on market requirements; therefore, they implement were collected from reputable databases such as Elsevier, Springer,
appropriate SC strategies based on customer sensitivity and risk allevi­ Science Direct, Taylor & Francis, Emerald, SAGE, etc. The keywords
ation competency. used for the research were ‘sustainable supply chain management’,
In manufacturing industries, there are several latent variables, such ‘sustainable supply chain’, ‘lean supply chain’, ‘agile supply chain’,
as strategy, service, and cost, which are considered to be the basis for ‘leagile practices’, and ‘lean and agile practices’. In these databases, we
achieving a lean and agile SC (Soni and Kodali, 2012). Manufacturing narrowed our search by assessing peer-reviewed journals in the field of
channel partners are involved in widening the effectiveness of SC SC management. Through this process, we identified a few key leagile
practices (Virmani et al., 2018). It is clear that various barriers hinder practices for sustainable business operations.
the implementation of green SC management, and industries are strug­ The authors of this paper focused on Indian industrial experts with
gling to identify and overcome these barriers. experience of 5–10 years. Managers (higher and middle level) and en­
The traditional SC strategy has shifted, and lean and agile practices gineers (higher level) from South India were the target group for this
have evolved as a separate field, as industrial leaders integrate envi­ paper. These industry experts were invited to attend a virtual workshop
ronmental considerations with traditional SC strategies. As imple­ to explain the concepts of lean and agile and their importance for inte­
mentation of these practices is in its infancy, challenges such as cost grating sustainability into the SC.
implications, resistance to new technology, and a lack of organizational Based on the literature survey, the authors identified the leagile
support, government support, and top management commitment, and criteria and practices that were presented to these experts. It is evident
also customer awareness, are all commonly encountered. In India, there that the opinion of an expert panel is always better than the opinion of
is an increased need to avoid wastage of material and energy resources. only one expert. Taking this into consideration, the authors built upon
Although the lean strategy is evolving as a systematic approach in India, the opinions of several experts. A team of six experts was identified,
its implementation faces pressure from global and market competitive­ which included industry practitioners as well as academic researchers to
ness. These are considered to be the dominant pressures for making shortlist the leagile practices for the present work, as given in Table 1.
urgently needed improvements. To improve environmental perfor­
mance in small-scale industries in India, financial, human resources, and 3.2. Best-worst method
technological capacities are of central importance (Formentini and
Taticchi, 2016). The BWM is an easy and efficient way of providing weights to various
The Indian automobile sector is huge, and the implementation of practices. The strength of this technique is that it can be used to compute
lean and agile practices in SC management would benefit companies, the priorities of practices with relatively less information than other
customers, and the economy, as well as reduce negative environmental MCDM techniques (Rezaei 2015). The BWM compares the set of attri­
impacts. Many Indian industrial leaders are ready to implement leagile butes using pairwise comparison concerning the best (most desirable)
practices in SCs, but it is not possible to be competitive by only using the and worst (least desirable) practices. The time and complexity of the
principles of a green SC (Gupta and Jain, 2013). To provide a broader decision-making process are vastly reduced as only two vectors are used,
framework for improving Indian companies’ performance, the authors compared to the full pairwise matrix that is utilized in the analytical
of this paper used the MCDM approach to identify the most important hierarchy process (AHP). This method can be used by one
agile and lean practices. Subsequently, validation of the case was done decision-maker or a group of DMs (Singh et al., 2020b). It is popular due
using the fuzzy BWM. to its salient features, such as the least comparison matrix data required,
high consistency among alternatives, and only integer numbers being

4
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

Fig. 1.. Flow chart of the methodology.

‘fuzzy best-worst method’ was utilized by the authors of this paper. The
Table 1.
detailed steps of the fuzzy BWM, as proposed by Guo and Zhao (2017),
Short-listed leagile practices based on expert responses.
are as follows:
LC1: Quality LC8: Inventory control Step 1: Identification of the best and worst leagile practices.
LC2: Cost LC9: Stakeholder satisfaction
Before collecting the data, we described the purpose of the paper and
LC3: Service level LC10: Information sharing
LC4: Response time LC11: Profit the leagile concepts at the beginning of the questionnaire to help DMs
LC5: Product variety LC12: Market demand understand the elements in the questionnaire and how the data would be
LC6: Product life cycle LC13: Business organization benefits, used. We set the duration of the survey to three weeks. The question­
LC7: Waste reduction: Reduction of such as rapid decision-making, long- naires were sent to automotive industries; around 40 companies were
wastes such as overproduction, term trustable relationships, employee
waiting, inappropriate processing, empowerment, access to marketplace
targeted, out of which we received responses from 15, making the
inventory, motion, software waste information response rate 37.5%. A paper by Malhotra and Grover (1998) pointed
out that a response rate of more than 20% was enough for a positive
assessment of a survey. Based on the research methodology, we required
required to make a comparison matrix. The BWM provides more data for prioritization of the leagile practices. In the initial step, we
consistent results because it does not involve too many comparisons asked industry experts to select the best and worst leagile practices. The
(Govindan et al., 2019). This is especially useful in this context because best leagile practices were represented as SB and the worst as SW.
Indian DMs prefer to provide subjective judgment, as opposed to Step 2: Calculate the fuzzy preference of the best leagile
quantitative values in real-life situations. To solve such problems, the

5
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

practices over the others. Table 3.

The linguistic terms used in Table 2 were utilized to compute the Consistency index table for fuzzy best-worst method.
preference for the best leagile practices over the others based on the Linguistic terms aBw
̃ Consistency index
inputs given by the stakeholders. The scale for measurement was taken
Equally important (EI) (1, 1, 1) 3.00
from the literature (Guo and Zhao, 2017). Once the best leagile practice
Weakly important (WI) (2/3, 1, 3/2) 3.80
was identified using Step 1, the experts were asked to rate the remaining Fairly important (FI) (3/2, 2, 5/2) 5.29
practices based on the linguistic terms of ‘Equally important (EI)’, Very important (VI) (5/2, 3, 7/2) 6.69
‘Weakly important (WI)’, ‘Fairly important (FI)’, ‘Very important (VI)’ Important (AI) (7/2, 4, 9/2) 8.04
and ‘Important (AI)’. Hence, the fuzzy best-to-others vector is:
( )
̃B = ̃ based on responses from industry and academic experts. Once the data
A aB1 , ̃
aB2 , …, ̃
aBn
were collected, fuzzy BWM was used to identify the best and worst
leagile practices. The best leagile practice is the one that is of highest
Where, A ̃ B represents the fuzzy best-to-others vector; ̃ aBj represents importance while the worst leagile practice is the least important one.
the fuzzy preference of SB over criterion j, j = 1, 2…, n, also, ̃aBB = (1, 1, The best leagile practice was found to be ‘LC1: Quality’, while the worst
1). leagile practice was ‘LC9: Stakeholder satisfaction’. Next, the preference
Step 3: Calculate the fuzzy preference of the factors over the rating of best practices over other practices and the preference of the
worst leagile practices. other practices over worst practices were determined based on the lin­
This step is similar to Step 2, but here the fuzzy vector was calculated guistic scale (See Table 4).
as the ‘worst-to-others’ as: The weights were determined using the equations given in Appendix
( ) after they were coded and solved using the LINGO optimization soft­
̃W = ̃
A a1W , ̃
a2W , …, ̃
anW ware:
̃ ∗1 = (0.0819, 0.0865, 0.0865)
w
Where, Ã W represents the fuzzy others-to-worst vector; ̃ aiW over SW, i
= 1, 2…, n, also ̃ aWW = (1, 1, 1). ̃ ∗2 = (0.0446, 0.0601, 0.0872)
w
Step 4: Computing optimal weights of leagile practices. ̃ ∗3 = (0.0422, 0.1965, 0.1974)
w
In this step, the authors computed the optimal weighting vector ̃ ∗4 = (0.0422, 0.1965, 0.8191)
w
denoted by (w ̃ ∗1 , w
̃ ∗2 ,…, w
̃ ∗n )of the leagile practices using steps given in the ̃ ∗5 = (0.0283, 0.0358, 0.0398)
w
Appendix. ̃ ∗6 = (0.0703, 0.0818, 0.0891)
w
Step 5: Check the consistency of the solution. ̃ ∗7 = (0.0420, 0.0588, 0.0672)
w
The closer the consistency ratio (CR) is to zero, the more consistent
̃ ∗8 = (0.0171, 0.0251, 0.0260)
w
the comparison system provided by the DMs is. We checked the con­
̃ ∗9 = (0.0219, 0.0230, 0.0230)
w
sistency of the solutions by calculating the CR:
̃ ∗10 = (0.0283, 0.0358, 0.0398)
w
θ∗ ̃ ∗11 = (0.0213, 0.0354, 0.0268)
w
ConsistencyRatio =
ConsistencyIndex
̃ ∗12 = (0.0446, 0.0601, 0.0872)
w
Table 3, adapted from Guo and Zhao (2017), was used to obtain the ̃ ∗13 = (0.0422, 0.0588, 0.0672)
w
value of the consistency index.
Further, the valuẽθ equal to (0.5599, 0.5599, 0.5599) was used to
∗
The value of the CR closer to 0 shows more consistency, while values
closer to 1 show less consistency. check the consistency of the solution, as given in Step 5. The CR =
0.5599/8.04 = 0.0696; since the value was closer to zero, the given
4. Application of the methodologies and validation of the data comparisons were considered to be consistent. Once the fuzzy weights
were calculated, the authors determined the crisp weights via the graded
This section outlines the application of the selected methodology. mean integration representation (GMIR) of fuzzy weights of all the
vulnerabilities.
The GMIR of a Triangular Fuzzy Numberai = (li , mi , ui ) was used to
4.1. Calculation of leagile practice weights using the best-worst method rank the triangular fuzzy numbers with the following mathematical
formula (Zhao and Guo, 2014):
Following the steps of the research methodology, we collected data
li + 4mi + ui
from a panel of experts. A total of 13 leagile practices were selected R(ai ) =
6

Table 2.
Scale for membership functions of linguistic variables. Table 4
Pair-wise comparison matrix for leagile practices.
Linguistic terms Membership Interpretation
function Leagile practices Best to Others Others to the Worst

Equally (1,1, 1) It can be interpreted as criteria 1 being LC1: Quality EI AI

important equally as important as criteria 2 LC2: Cost FI VI
(EI) LC3: Service level WI AI
Weakly (2/3, 1, 3/2) It can be interpreted as criteria 1 being LC4: Response time WI AI
important slightly important compared to criteria 2 LC5: Product variety FI WI
(WI) LC6: Product life cycle WI VI
Fairly (3/2, 2, 5/2) It can be interpreted as criteria 1 being fairly LC7: Waste reduction WI FI
important important compared to criteria 2 LC8: Inventory control AI WI
(FI) LC9: Stakeholder satisfaction AI EI
Very important (5/2, 3, 7/2) It can be interpreted as criteria 1 being very LC10: Information sharing FI WI
(VI) important compared to criteria 2 LC11: Profit VI WI
Important (AI) (7/2, 4, 9/2) It can be interpreted as criteria 1 being LC12: Market demand FI VI
extremely important compared to criteria 2 LC13: Business organization benefits WI FI

6
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

Based on these weights, the authors prioritized the vulnerabilities higher the service level, the higher the quality of the final products. In
and ranked them accordingly. The crisp weights and the ranks given to automotive production, we generally have a predefined product, and we
the leagile practices are shown in Table 5. want to produce as many high-quality products as possible, and most
economically. While variation and reworks are expensive, a develop­
5. Results and discussion ment process is considered necessary, leading to positive outcomes.
Indeed, in the development process, the factors are continuously
Lean and agile approaches each provide distinct benefits. Both reviewed and are changed according to new information or feedback.
principles have been demonstrated to be efficient in handling SCs. A Thus, the service level is of utmost importance. It is no coincidence that
more robust strategy can be developed by including the salient features lean management was born in the industrial sector to make production
of both lean and agile principles. The synergy of the two principles, i.e. systems more efficient, while the agile methodology was born in the
leagile, takes advantage of both leanness and agility. Leanness accen­ creative and software development environment. By using lean prac­
tuates the elimination of all forms of non-value-added activities to tices, processes must work in such a way as to minimize waste. This
minimize the cost and time in accordance with the exact qualities ultimately translates into a final product that is produced as efficiently
desired by customers, but might not be able to respond to stochastic as possible. In the adoption of agility, the development of prototypes is
fluctuations in customer demand, while agility enhances responsiveness planned, and they are first tested and evaluated before developing the
through virtual cooperation among manufacturers to tap into profitable final product. The inclusion of information sharing between SC partners
opportunities. In this context, this paper aims to present a comprehen­ using systems such as electronic data interchange, facilitates greater
sive framework that allows for the evaluation and selection of the efficiency in distribution and improved customer service. Research by
various leagile practices for enhancing business efficiency and inclusion Haq and Boddu (2017) also indicates that information sharing is
of sustainability in SCs. necessary for smooth business operations.
A set of 13 leagile practices were drawn upon from the available Choosing the listed practices can help industrial DMs to identify
literature reviewed. As it is not easy for the decision-making body to give which leagile practices can help them achieve more sustainable pro­
information precisely, fuzzy set theory was included to overcome this duction. This will help to ensure that future generations have the re­
issue. As the questionnaires were sent to DMs from automotive in­ sources to innovate and create systems, products, and solutions that can
dustries, these shortlisted attributes were then evaluated using the BWM help to fulfill future demands in responsible and sustainable ways.
to calculate the relative importance of the leagile practices. The The ranking criteria and practices account for reductions in the use of
advantage of the BWM is that it only utilizes the reference comparisons resources, reducing costs, and increasing efficiency in the utilization of
for the best and worst criteria, as opposed to the pair-wise comparison resources, thereby resulting in increased profitability and sustainability
matrix of the AHP. Hence, BWM utilizes only two comparison vectors, of the company and a sustainable eco-system.
which are easy to complete and less complex, as opposed to the pair-wise Implementation of leagile processes has stimulated companies to
comparison matrix of AHP. This reduces the time and complexity of the make significant changes in business operations, along with enhanced
decision-making process (Govindan et al., 2019). sustainability worldwide (Pampanelli et al., 2014). However, Indian
The results obtained from the application of the methodologies were industries have not been using similar tools and continue functioning in
tabulated and presented. To help improve sustainability in the Indian traditional ways, which are not on the green path. Because Indian in­
industry, the major factors presented in order of importance are: LC4 dustries fulfill 8% of the total world needs of various automobile man­
‘Response time’ > LC3 ‘Service level’ > LC1 ‘Quality’ > LC6 ‘Product life ufacturers, and for them to continue to respond to the needs of their
cycle’ > LC2 ‘Cost’ = LC12 ‘Market demand’ > LC13 ‘Business organi­ growing population and for future generations, they should make
zation benefits’ = LC7 ‘Waste reduction’ > LC10 ‘Information sharing’ changes in the way they produce their goods and services.
= LC5 ‘Product variety’ > LC11 ‘Profit’ > LC8 ‘Inventory control’ > LC9 This paper’s objective was to enhance the knowledge of Indian in­
‘Stakeholder satisfaction’. dustrial leaders about the benefits of implementing leagile practices.
Leagile practices with high crisp values must be accorded priority to
enhance the leagility of the organization and be considered for imple­ 6. Managerial implications
mentation. From the results, it is understood that response time has the
highest value, followed by service level. Both lean and agile methodol­ There is strict legislation for manufacturing companies to include
ogies focus on continuous inspection and adaptation of processes for ecological aspects in their business operations. These manufacturers
improvement. The faster the response time, the less time it will take for seek innovative ways to improve their competitiveness by incorporating
businesses to adopt new changes and improve existing processes. The green initiatives into their businesses.
This research has focused on investigating the major leagile practices
that leaders of manufacturing companies can adopt. There are various
Table 5 theoretical and policy suggestions that can be derived from this present
Crisp weights and ranks of leagile practices. work, which are discussed below:
Leagile practices Fuzzy weights Crisp Ranks
l m u weights 6.1. Theoretical relevance
LC1: Quality 0.0819 0.0865 0.0865 0.0857 3
LC2: Cost 0.0446 0.0601 0.0872 0.0620 5 Because, previously, few suggestions for integrating leagile practices
LC3: Service level 0.0422 0.1965 0.1974 0.1709 2 in Indian manufacturing sectors were made, this research was designed
LC4: Response time 0.0422 0.1965 0.8191 0.2746 1
LC5: Product variety 0.0283 0.0358 0.0398 0.0352 9
to help fill this gap for the following reasons:
LC6: Product life cycle 0.0703 0.0818 0.0891 0.0811 4
LC7: Waste reduction 0.0420 0.0588 0.0672 0.0574 7 • Growing pressure from stakeholders is the main reason academia is
LC8: Inventory control 0.0171 0.0251 0.0260 0.0239 12 focusing on the analysis of leagile practices in green SCs.
LC9: Stakeholder 0.0219 0.0230 0.0230 0.0228 13
• Improving response time is a major practice that can aid
satisfaction
LC10: Information sharing 0.0283 0.0358 0.0398 0.0352 9 manufacturing industries in becoming green. Since directives and
LC11: Profit 0.0213 0.0354 0.0268 0.0316 11 legislation are changed frequently to meet global standards, industry
LC12: Market demand 0.0446 0.0601 0.0872 0.0620 5 should be prepared to be more agile. The focus of academia should be
LC13: Business 0.0422 0.0588 0.0672 0.0574 7 on developing ways and means to reduce the response time for
organization benefits
switching to new mechanisms.

7
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

6.2. Policy suggestions interactions with various industry and academic experts. The re­
searchers utilized fuzzy BWM to prioritize the leagile practices based on
Because there is growing pressure for companies to ‘GO GREEN,’ the system interactions in companies and insights provided by members
manufacturers need to include innovative means for achieving this of the expert panel. The most prominent leagile criteria were found to be
target. The authors of this paper provide the following policy LC4: Response time, followed by LC3: Service level. This reflects the
suggestions: inclinations of stakeholders to choose companies that can change with
the changing world scenarios. Overall, the authors conclude that the
• The manufacturing sector will need to implement green initiatives to assessment tools were valuable to support the manufacturing sector in
satisfy stakeholders’ demands. Thus, they need to learn how to prioritizing leagile practices that can/should be adopted in the Indian
effectively include green initiatives to make improvements and to scenario.
document the costs, benefits, pay-back periods, and benefits for Based on the findings, theoretical and policy recommendations have
workers and customers, and to maintain dynamic and sustainable been proposed. The important recommendations are the proposal to
eco-systems. extend the financial support offered by government bodies and recom­
• The government should provide rewards and incentives for com­ mendations to form a strategic regulatory committee to monitor the
panies to practice green purchasing, improved efficiency and safety issue. The policy recommendations suggested in this research can also
in production, as well as updated distribution and warehousing be used for future initiatives. Thus, the conducted study will serve as a
systems. roadmap for government agencies and policymakers to enhance the
• Strict government regulations for reducing a company’s ecological green movement.
impacts will help to stimulate manufacturers to apply leagile prac­ The current study was conducted by utilizing several resource team
tices in their businesses. members across India. However, the validity of the results could be
improved by identifying a resource team specific to a geographical re­
7. Conclusion gion. Future studies may also benefit from other emerging approaches
beyond the fuzzy BWM, to incorporate hybrid approaches. This study
With an increase in Indian and global populations, the level of can also be extended to other areas and disciplines. Regardless of the
pollution is increasing day by day. India has a disproportionately high sector in which this study may be utilized, it can pave the way towards
mortality and disease burden due to air pollution each year (Balak­ responding to the changing demands of consumers by opting for best
rishnan et al., 2019). For this and other reasons, the manufacturing practices. Since large-scale modeling requires cumbersome computa­
sector needs to change attitudes, practices, and technologies so that their tions, appropriate software design can facilitate the problem-solving
production processes and products have much lower negative human process more effectively. Given the multitude of models available for
health and ecological impacts. Therefore, governments, industrialists, decision-making, it is also recommended to evaluate the proposed
academics, customers, and other stakeholders should work together to research process using other models and to compare the results
catalyze the widespread implementation of the Green India Movement. objectively.
There is significant pressure on industrial leaders to implement practices This Indian-based paper can be more widely validated by studying
becoming greener in their product design, procurement, manufacturing, more Indian companies and companies from other countries to obtain a
remanufacturing, providing services to customers, and the end-of-life broader empirical foundation upon which to perform advanced statis­
management of used products. By considering all life cycle phases, the tical analyses on a larger dataset. The results of such broader-based
primary requirement for Indian manufacturing companies is to identify research will help to provide more convincing evidence of the actual
the leagile practices they can adopt in their production and service benefits that companies are already reaping, or could reap, from using
provision systems. leagile practices in industrial sectors worldwide. Further, validation can
This paper provided an analysis of the relationship between leagile be improved using statistical techniques on a larger dataset.
practices for businesses to become more sustainable, specifically in an
emerging economy such as India. Managers (higher and middle levels) Credit author statement
and engineers (higher level) from South India were the target group for
the paper. A team of six experts was identified, which included industry K. Mathiyazhagan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data cura­
practitioners as well as academic researchers to shortlist the leagile tion, Original draft Writing. Vernika Agarwal: Methodology, Writing,
practices for the present study. A combination of fuzzy set theory and Formal analysis - review & editing Andrea Appolloni: Reviewing &
BWM was utilized for identifying and prioritizing the leagile practices editing - Writing Saikouk Tarik: Writing - Review & Editing: A Ganavel
that were effective for Indian industrial leaders. Babu: Supervision, Validation
A total of 13 leagile practices were selected for this paper based on

Appendix

The steps for calculating the optimal weights:

The optimal weight of leagile practices was the one that met the following requirements:

̃B
W ̃j
W
aBj and
= ̃ ajw . To satisfy these conditions for all j, it should determine a solution where the maximum absolute gaps
= ̃
̃j
W ̃w
W

̃ ̃
W
| WB = ̃ aBj | and | j = ̃ ajw | for all j are minimized. We used the following constrained optimization problem for determining the optimal fuzzy
̃j
W ̃w
W
weights, as follows:
⎧⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒⎫
⎨⃒⃒W̃B
⃒ ⃒
⃒ ⃒W ̃j
⃒⎬
⃒
minmax ⃒ ⃒ − ̃ ⃒ ⃒
aBj ⃒, ⃒ ajW ⃒⃒
− ̃
j ⎩⃒ Wi ⃒ ⃒ W̃
W ⃒⎭

8
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

⎧ n ( ) ⎫
⎪ ∑
⎪
⎪ R ̃ j =1 ⎪
W ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎨ j=1 ⎬
w w w
s.t. loj ≤ mij ≤ upj
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ lwj ≥ 0 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ ⎪
⎭
j = 1, 2, ..., n

WhereW̃ B = (low , miw , upw ),W

B B B
̃ j = (low , miw , upw ), W
j j j
̃ w = (low , miw , upw ), ̃
W W W aBj = (loBj , miBj , upBj ), ̃
ajw = (lojw , mijw , upjw ). Eq. (6) can be transferred to the
following nonlinearly constrained optimization problem:

miñ
θ
⎧ ⎫
⎪
⎪ ⃒ ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒
⃒W ̃B
⃒
⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ a ⃒≤̃ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒W ̃
− ̃ Bj ⃒ θ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ j ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒⃒ ⃒
⃒
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒W̃j ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ a ⃒≤̃ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒W̃
− ̃ jw ⃒ θ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ w ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ n ( ) ⎪
⎬
∑
s.t. ̃
R W j =1
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
j=1 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ w w w ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ lo j ≤ mi j ≤ upj ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ lo w
≥ 0 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j = 1, 2, ⋯, n ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ ⎪
⎭

Where ̃
θ = (loθ , miθ , upθ ). Considering

miñ
θ∗
⎧ ⎫
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒(
⃒ low , miw , upw )
⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒( B ( ⃒
)⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ B B
)− loBj , miBj , upBj ⃒ ≤ (k∗, k∗, k ∗ ) ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ low
, mi w
, upw ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j j j ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒( w ) ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ loj , miwj , upwj ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒
⃒( )−
( )⃒ ⎪
lojw , mijw , upjw ⃒ ≤ (k∗, k∗, k ∗ ) ⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ low , miw , upw ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j j j ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ ⎪
⎬
∑
n (
s.t.
⎪ R W ̃ j ) =1 ⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
j=1 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ w w w ⎪
⎪
⎪ loj ≤ mij ≤ upj
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ lowj ≥ 0
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j = 1, 2, ..., n ⎪
⎪
⎩ ⎭

We suppose ̃
θ∗ = (k∗ , k∗ , k∗ ) ≤ lθ , then Eq. (7) can be transferred as

9
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

⎧ ⎫
⎪
⎪ ⃒(
⃒ low , miw , upw )
⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪ ( )⃒⃒ ⎪
⎪ loBj , miBj , upBj ⃒ ≤ (k∗, k∗, k ∗ ) ⎪
⎪ ⃒( B B B
)− ⎪
⎪ ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒ low , miw , upw ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j j j ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒( ) ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒⃒ lowj , miwj , upwj
⎪ ( ⃒
)⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪ ( ) lojw , mijw , upjw ⃒ ≤ (k∗, k∗, k ∗ ) ⎪
⎪
⎪ ⃒⃒ low , miw , upw −
⎪
⎪ ⃒ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j j j ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨ ⎬
∗ (
miñ
θ s.t. ∑
n
⎪ R W ̃ j ) =1 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ j=1 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪ lowj ≤ miwj ≤ upwj
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ lowj ≥ 0 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ ⎪
⎭
⎩ j = 1, 2, ..., n

References Ciccullo, F., Pero, M., Caridi, M., Gosling, J., Purvis, L., 2018. Integrating the
environmental and social sustainability pillars into the lean and agile supply chain
management paradigms: a literature review and future research directions. J. Clean.
Afonso, H., Cabrita, M.R., 2015. Developing a lean supply chain performance framework
Prod. 172, 2336–2350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.176.
in a SME: a perspective based on the balanced scorecard. In: World Conference: TRIZ
Couto, J., Tiago, T., Gil, A., Tiago, F., Faria, S., 2016. It’s hard to be green: reverse green
FUTURE, Procedia Engineering, 131, pp. 270–279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
value chain. Env. Res. 149, 302–313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
proeng.2015.12.389.
envres.2016.05.006.
Aguado, S., Alvarez, R., Domingo, R., 2013. Model of efficient and sustainable
Digalwar, A., Raut, R.D., Yadav, V.S., Narkhede, B., Gardas, B.B., Gotmare, A., 2020.
improvements in a lean production system through processes of environmental
Evaluation of critical constructs for measurement of sustainable supply chain
innovation. J. Clean. Prod. 47, 141–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
practices in lean-agile firms of Indian origin: a hybrid ISM-ANP approach. Bus.
jclepro.2012.11.048.
Strategy Env. 29 (3), 1575–1596. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2455.
Alves, J.R.X., Alves, J.M., 2015. Production management model integrating the
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., 2015. Agile manufacturing: framework and its empirical
principles of lean manufacturing and sustainability supported by the cultural
validation. Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol. 76 (9–12), 2147–2157. https://doi.org/
transformation of a company. Int. J. Prod. Res. 53 (17), 5320–5333. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s00170-014-6455-6.
10.1080/00207543.2015.1033032.
Dües, C.M., Tan, K.H., Lim, M., 2013. Green as the new Lean: how to use Lean practices
Alzoubi, H., Yanamandra, R., 2020. Investigating the mediating role of information
as a catalyst to greening your supply chain. J. Clean. Prod. 40, 93–100. https://doi.
sharing strategy on agile supply chain. Uncertain Supply Chain Manage. 8 (2),
org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.12.023.
273–284. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.uscm.2019.12.004.
Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., Eshragh, A., 2015. A trade-off model for green supply chain
... Balakrishnan, K., Dey, S., Gupta, T., Dhaliwal, R.S., Brauer, M., Cohen, A.J., Sabde, Y.,
planning: a leanness-versus-greenness analysis. Omega (Westport) 54, 173–190.
2019. The impact of air pollution on deaths, disease burden, and life expectancy
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2015.01.014.
across the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 Lancet Planet.
Formentini, M., Taticchi, P., 2016. Corporate sustainability approaches and governance
Health 3 (1), e26–e39. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(20)30161-3.
mechanisms in sustainable supply chain management. J. Clean. Prod. 112,
Banawi, A., Bilec, M.M., 2014. A framework to improve construction processes:
1920–1933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.072.
integrating Lean, Green, and Six Sigma. Int. J. Constr. Manag. 14 (1), 45–55. https://
Ganapathy, S.P., Natarajan, J., Gunasekaran, A., Subramanian, N., 2014. Influence of
doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.875266.
eco-innovation on Indian manufacturing sector sustainable performance. Int. J.
Banerjee, A., 2020. Agile supply chain management. Supply Chain Logist. Manage.
Sustain. Dev. World Ecol. 21 (3), 198–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/
1722–1740. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0945-6.ch084.
13504509.2014.907832.
Barth, H., Melin, M., 2018. A Green Lean approach to global competition and climate
Gandhi, N.S., Thanki, S.J., Thakkar, J.J., 2018. Ranking of drivers for integrated lean-
change in the agricultural sector–a Swedish case study. J. Clean. Prod. 204,
green manufacturing for Indian manufacturing SMEs. J. Clean. Prod. 171, 675–689.
183–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.09.021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.041.
Cabral, I., Grilo, A., Leal, R.P., Machado, V.C., 2011. Modelling lean, agile, resilient, and
Ghezzi, A., 2019. Digital startups and the adoption and implementation of Lean startup
green supply chain management. In: Proceedings of the ITI 2011, 33rd International
approaches: effectuation, bricolage and opportunity creation in practice. Technol.
Conference on Information Technology Interfaces. IEEE, pp. 365–370. https://doi.
Forecast. Soc. Change 146, 945–960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
org/10.1109/iccsn.2011.6015004.
techfore.2018.09.017.
Carmeli, A., Dothan, A., 2017. Generative work relationships as a source of direct and
Govindan, K., Jha, P.C., Agarwal, V., Darbari, J.D., 2019. Environmental management
indirect learning from experiences of failure: implications for innovation agility and
partner selection for reverse supply chain collaboration: a sustainable approach.
product innovation. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 119, 27–38. https://doi.org/
J. Env. Manag. 236, 784–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.088.
10.1016/j.techfore.2017.03.007.
Guo, S., Zhao, H., 2017. Fuzzy best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method and its
Carvalho, H., Duarte, S., Cruz Machado, V., 2011. Lean, agile, resilient and green:
applications. Knowl.-Based Sys. 121, 23–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
divergencies and synergies. Int. J. Lean Six Sigma 2 (2), 151–179. https://doi.org/
knosys.2017.01.010.
10.1108/20401461111135037.
Gupta, S., Jain, S.K., 2013. A literature review of lean manufacturing. Int. J. Manag. Sci.
Carvalho, H., Govindan, K., Azevedo, S.G., Cruz-Machado, V., 2017. Modelling green and
Eng. Manag. 8 (4), 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2013.825074.
lean supply chains: an eco-efficiency perspective. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 120,
Hajmohammad, S., Vachon, S., Klassen, R.D., Gavronski, I., 2013. Reprint of Lean
75–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.09.025.
management and supply management: their role in green practices and performance.
Centobelli, P., Cerchione, R., Ertz, M., 2020. Agile supply chain management: where did
J. Clean. Prod. 56, 86–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.06.038.
it come from and where will it go in the era of digital transformation? Ind. Mark.
Hallgren, M., Olhager, J., 2009. Lean and agile manufacturing: external and internal
Manage. 90, 324–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.07.011.
drivers and performance outcomes. Int. J. Oper. Prod. Manag. 29 (10), 976–999.
Cherrafi, A., Garza-Reyes, J.A., Kumar, V., Mishra, N., Ghobadian, A., Elfezazi, S., 2018.
https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570910993456.
Lean, green practices and process innovation: a model for green supply chain
Haq, A.N., Boddu, V., 2017. Analysis of enablers for the implementation of leagile supply
performance. Int. J. Prod. Econ. 206, 79–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
chain management using an integrated fuzzy QFD approach. J. Intell. Manuf. 28 (1),
ijpe.2018.09.031.
1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-014-0957-9.
Christopher, M., Harrison, A., van Hoek, R., 2016. Creating the agile supply chain: issues
Harrison, A., Christopher, M., van Hoek, R.I., 1999. Creating the Agile Supply chain.
and challenges. Developments in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Palgrave
London: Institute of Logistics and Transport. https://doi.org/10.1057/
Macmillan, London, pp. 61–68. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137541253_6.
9781137541253_6.

10
K. Mathiyazhagan et al. Technological Forecasting & Social Change 171 (2021) 120982

Hundal, G.S., Laux, C.M., 2020. Integrative technologies to make supply chains lean, Pampanelli, A.B., Found, P., Bernardes, A.M., 2014. A Lean & Green Model for a
agile and green: a review. Int. J. Supply Chain Oper. Resil. 4 (2), 171–186. https:// production cell. J. Clean. Prod. 85, 19–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
doi.org/10.1504/ijscor.2020.10031125. jclepro.2013.06.014.
Iyengar, V., Bharathi, S.V., 2018. Bibliometric Analysis of Lean, Agile, and Leagile Supply Patel, B.S., Tiwari, A.K., Kumar, M., Samuel, C., Sutar, G., 2020. Analysis of agile supply
Chains in Automobile Industry (1990-2017). International Journal of Information chain enablers for an Indian manufacturing organisation. Int. J. Agile Sys. Manag. 13
Systems and Supply Chain Management (IJISSCM) 11 (3), 22–45. (1), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijasm.2020.105864.
Jakhar, S.K., Rathore, H., Mangla, S.K., 2018. Is lean synergistic with sustainable supply Potdar, P.K., Routroy, S., Behera, A., 2017. Agile manufacturing: a systematic review of
chain? An empirical investigation from emerging economy. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. literature and implications for future research. Benchmarking Int. J. https://doi.org/
139, 262–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.08.019. 10.1108/bij-06-2016-0100.
Järvenpää, E., Lanz, M., 2020. Lean manufacturing and sustainable development. Purvis, L., Gosling, J., Naim, M.M., 2014. The development of a lean, agile and leagile
Responsible Consum. Prod. 423–432. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95726-5_ supply network taxonomy based on differing types of flexibility. Int. J. Prod. Econ.
7. 151, 100–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.02.002.
Jasti, N.V.K., Kurra, S., 2017. An empirical investigation on lean supply chain Rahiminezhad Galankashi, M., Helmi, S.A., Abdul Rahim, A.R., Rafiei, F.M., 2019.
management frameworks in Indian manufacturing industry. Int. J. Prod. Perform. Agility assessment in manufacturing companies. Benchmarking Int. J. 26 (7),
Manag. 66 (6), 699–723. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-12-2015-0185. 2081–2104. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-10-2018-0328.
Jermsittiparsert, K., Somjai, S., Chienwattanasook, K., 2020. Era of Industry 4.0 Rezaei, J., 2015. Best-worst multi-criteria decision-making method. Omega (Westport)
technologies and environmental performance of Thailand’s garment industry: role of 53, 49–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2014.11.009.
Lean manufacturing and green supply chain management practices. Agile Business Saboo, A., Garza-Reyes, J.A., Er, A., Kumar, V., 2014. A VSM improvement-based
Leadership Methods for Industry 4.0. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/ approach for lean operations in an Indian manufacturing SME. Int. J. Lean Enterp.
10.1108/978-1-80043-380-920201016. Res. 1 (1), 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijler.2014.062281.
Kawa, A., Maryniak, A., 2019. Lean and agile supply chains of e-commerce: empirical Saini, S., Singh, D., 2020. Impact of implementing lean practices on firm performance: a
research. J. Inform. Telecommun. 3 (2), 235–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/ study of Northern India SMEs. Int. J. Lean Six Sigma 11 (6), 1019–1048. https://doi.
24751839.2018.1553915. org/10.1108/IJLSS-06-2019-0069.
Kisperska-Moron, D., De Haan, J., 2011. Improving supply chain performance to satisfy Sangwan, K.S., Bhamu, J., Mehta, D., 2014. Development of lean manufacturing
final customers: ‘Leagile’ experiences of a Polish distributor. Int. J. Prod. Eco. 133 implementation drivers for Indian ceramic industry. Int. J. Prod. Perform. Manag. 63
(1), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2009.12.013. (5), 569–587. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-06-2013-0105.
Kumar, B.R., Agarwal, A., Sharma, M.K., 2016a. Lean management–a step towards Sankar, U., 2020. Challenges in achieving inclusive and sustainable growth in India.
sustainable green supply chain. Competitiveness Rev 26 (3), 311–331. https://doi. Issues and Challenges of Inclusive Development. Springer, Singapore, pp. 71–89.
org/10.1108/cr-05-2015-0040. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2229-1_4.
Kumar, D.V., Mohan, G.M., Mohanasundaram, K.M., 2020a. Lean supply chain Sindhwani, R., Mittal, V.K., Singh, P.L., Aggarwal, A., Gautam, N., 2019. Modelling and
management in garment industry using value stream mapping. Int. J. Serv. Oper. analysis of barriers affecting the implementation of lean green agile manufacturing
Manag. 37 (1), 133–143. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsom.2020.109440. system (LGAMS). Benchmarking Int. J. 26 (2), 498–529. https://doi.org/10.1108/
Kumar, R., Singh, K., Jain, S.K., 2020b. An empirical exploration of Agile manufacturing bij-09-2017-0245.
for enhanced business performance in Indian manufacturing industry. World J. Sci. Singh, B., Garg, S.K., Sharma, S.K., 2010. Scope for lean implementation: a survey of 127
Technol. Sustain. Dev. 17 (1), 90–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-07-2019- Indian industries. Int. J. Rapid Manuf. 1 (3), 323–333. https://doi.org/10.1504/
0040. ijrapidm.2010.034253.
Leong, J.T., Cheung, W.M., 2017. Cross-functional mapping to link lean manufacturing Singh, J., Singh, H., Kumar, A., 2020a. Impact of lean practices on organizational
and life cycle assessment in environmental impact reduction. In: International sustainability through green supply chain management–an empirical investigation.
Conference on Sustainable Design and Manufacturing. Cham. Springer, pp. 421–431. Int. J. Lean Six Sigma 11 (6), 1049–1082. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLSS-06-2017-
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57078-5_40. 0068.
Li, Y., Diabat, A., Lu, C.C., 2020. Leagile supplier selection in Chinese textile industries: a Singh, M., Rathi, R., Garza-Reyes, J.A., 2020b. Analysis and prioritization of Lean Six
DEMATEL approach. Ann. Oper. Res. 287 (1), 303–322. https://doi.org/10.1007/ Sigma enablers with environmental facets using best worst method: a case of Indian
s10479-019-03453-2. MSMEs. J. Clean. Prod. 279, 123592 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Longoni, A., Pagell, M., Johnston, D., Veltri, A., 2013. When does lean hurt? An jclepro.2020.123592.
exploration of lean practices and worker health and safety outcomes. Int. J. Prod. Soltan, H., Mostafa, S., 2015. Lean and agile performance framework for manufacturing
Res. 51 (11), 3300–3320. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2013.765072. enterprises. Procedia Manuf 2, 476–484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Malhotra, M.K., Grover, V., 1998. An assessment of survey research in POM: from promfg.2015.07.082.
constructs to theory. J. Oper. Manag. 16 (4), 407–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/ Soni, G., Kodali, R., 2012. Evaluating reliability and validity of lean, agile and leagile
s0272-6963(98)00021-7. supply chain constructs in Indian manufacturing industry. Prod. Plan. Control 23
Marodin, G.A., Frank, A.G., Tortorella, G.L., Fetterman, D.C., 2017. Lean production and (10–11), 864–884. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2011.642207.
operational performance in the Brazilian automotive supply chain. Total Quality Tarafdar, M., Qrunfleh, S., 2017. Agile supply chain strategy and supply chain
Manag. Bus. Excell. 30, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2017.1308221. performance: complementary roles of supply chain practices and information
Maruthi, G.D., Rashmi, R., 2015. Green manufacturing: it’s tools and techniques that can systems capability for agility. Int. J. Prod. Res. 55 (4), 925–938. https://doi.org/
be implemented in manufacturing sectors. Mater. Today Proc. 2 (4–5), 3350–3355. 10.1080/00207543.2016.1203079.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2015.07.308. Tooranloo, H.S., Alavi, M., Saghafi, S., 2018. Evaluating indicators of the agility of the
Matawale, C.R., Datta, S., Mahapatra, S.S., 2016. Supplier/partner selection in agile green supply chain. Compet. Rev. Int. Bus. J. 28 (5), 541–563. https://doi.org/
supply chain. Benchmarking Int. J. 23 (4), 866–892. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ- 10.1108/CR-01-2017-0009.
03-2014-0020. Tortorella, G., Giglio, R., Fettermmann, D.C., Tlapa, D., 2018. Lean supply chain
Mollenkopf, D., Stolze, H., Tate, W.L., Ueltschy, M., 2010. Green, lean, and global supply practices: an exploratory study on their relationship. Int. J. Logist. Manag. 29 (3),
chains. Int. J. Phys. Distrib. Logist. Manag. 40 (1–2), 14–41. https://doi.org/ 1049–1076. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-06-2017-0141.
10.1108/09600031011018028. Ugarte, G.M., Golden, J.S., Dooley, K.J., 2016. Lean versus green: the impact of lean
Moyano-Fuentes, J., Maqueira-Marín, J.M., Martínez-Jurado, P.J., Sacristán-Díaz, M., logistics on greenhouse gas emissions in consumer goods supply chains. J. Purch.
2020. Extending lean management along the supply chain: impact on efficiency. Supply Manag. 22 (2), 98–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2015.09.002.
J. Manuf. Tech. Manag. 32 (1), 63–84. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-10-2019- Upadhye, N., Deshmukh, S.G., Garg, S., 2010. Lean manufacturing system for medium
0388. size manufacturing enterprises: an Indian case. Int. J. Manag. Sci. Eng. Manag. 5 (5),
Naim, M.M., Gosling, J., 2011. On leanness, agility and leagile supply chains. Int. J. Prod. 362–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2010.10671127.
Econ. 131 (1), 342–354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2010.04.045. Vecchiato, R., 2015. Creating value through foresight: first mover advantages and
Narasimhan, R., Swink, M., Kim, S.W., 2006. Disentangling leanness and agility: an strategic agility. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 101, 25–36. https://doi.org/
empirical investigation. J. Oper. Manag. 24 (5), 440–457. https://doi.org/10.1016/ 10.1016/j.techfore.2014.08.016.
j.jom.2005.11.011. Virmani, N., Saha, R., Sahai, R., 2018. Social implications of leagile manufacturing
Netland, T.H., Ferdows, K., 2016. The S-curve effect of lean implementation. Prod. Oper. system: TISM approach. Int. J. Product. Qual. Manag. 23 (4), 423–445. https://doi.
Manag. 25 (6), 1106–1120. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.12539. org/10.1504/ijpqm.2018.10011185.
Nieuwenhuis, P., Katsifou, E., 2015. More sustainable automotive production through Yang, M.G.M., Hong, P., Modi, S.B., 2011. Impact of lean manufacturing and
understanding decoupling points in leagile manufacturing. J. Clean. Prod. 95, environmental management on business performance: an empirical study of
232–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.084. manufacturing firms. Int. J. Prod. Eco. 129 (2), 251–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
Nunes, B., Bennett, D., 2010. Green operations initiatives in the automotive industry: an ijpe.2010.10.017.
environmental reports’ analysis and benchmarking study. Benchmarking: Int. J. 17 Zhao, H., Guo, S., 2014. Selecting green supplier of thermal power equipment by using a
(3), 396–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.084. hybrid MCDM method for sustainability. Sustainability 6 (1), 217–235. https://doi.
org/10.3390/su6010217.

11