Lean in the food sector: strategy to implement lean tools in micro and small enterprises in Quito, Ecuador

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the scenario for all types of enterprises by incorporating new routines to maintain personnel safety, which contributed to increased production time. Micro and small enterprises, which represent 97.89% of the Ecuadorian business network, are not exempt from this situation. Therefore, they need an easy-to-implement strategy to reduce production time, due to their limited resources. This study aims to establish a strategy to implement lean tools in micro and small enterprises in the food sector in Quito. The first step in this process includes a survey to assess the problems related to the eight types of waste. Then, several training sessions were carried out to implement the strategy, based on lean management. Finally, in the monitoring and control phases, the impact of the tools in the short-term is analysed. The effectiveness of this strategy is validated by the elimination of the enterprises’ common waste, excessive inventory.