Lean approaches in fashion and luxury context: a methodology to overcome critical issues and limitations

Purpose The purposes of this work are (i) to highlight critical issues and limitations that exist in applying the lean production approaches in the fashion and luxury fields and (ii) to propose a methodology to overcome these limitations applying the lean tools to make the production/logistic processes more efficient in this kind of companies. Methodology Starting from (i) literature concerning lean approaches, (ii) studies on fashion and luxury firms and (iii) the analysis conducted during the real applied case, a set of characteristic elements in the luxury fashion market is defined to underlined the critical issues that exist in applying lean approaches. Then, a method for applying lean production methodologies in luxury fashion goods market is proposed. Findings The findings concerning (i) a set of elements that limit lean tools implementation in the luxury fashion firms and (ii) a structured framework to develop lean techniques in this kind of companies This method provides a general lean production approach based on Value Stream Mapping, 5S Technique and Visual Management System (VMS). Managerial implications The proposed approach is applied on a real luxury fashion goods company in order to show its validity. It could provide a guideline for the practitioners to develop similar project. Originality/value From a wide literature analysis it is hard to find practical application of lean methodologies in the field of luxury and fashion good producers. This work wants (i) to open the analysis on the limitations and criticalities that exist to implement lean approaches in this field and (ii) to propose a first approach to overcome this obstacles.