Enhancing Efficiency in the Maritime Industry Through Lean Practices: A Critical Literature Review of Benefits and Barriers

The maritime industry is an important sector of the world economy, facing many challenges. Lean tools can have a significant impact on reducing waste, time and costs, and increasing efficiency. This paper aims to identify and categorise the different lean practices implemented in the maritime industry and the main barriers and benefits of their implementation through a systematic literature review. This categorisation is intended to improve the understanding of lean practices and their benefits and to contribute to the decision making of stakeholders for their implementation. The analysis of the selected articles suggests that the implementation of these practices is effective in the context of the maritime industry, having as main benefits the increase of efficiency, and cost reduction. It was also possible to see that the vast majority of studies do not specify the lean tools used. The lack of knowledge, know-how, training of workers, and the lack of management involvement were identified as the main barriers to the implementation of these initiatives. However, further research is needed in this industry, namely in quantifying the impacts and identifying best practices for the implementation of these initiatives.