Identifying an improvement method for Ecuadorian small companies

Published in: Innovation in Engineering, Technology and Education for Competitiveness and Prosperity: Proceedings of the 11th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology
Date of Conference: August 14-16, 2013
Location of Conference: Cancun, Mexico
Authors: Denise Rodriguez
Marcos Buestan
Refereed Paper: #210

Abstract:

This article presents the improvement methodologies that fit the characteristics of Ecuadorian small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs). First, these characteristics were collected through primary and secondary data. The secondary data was collected from previous studies performed by gubernmental and not gubenmental institutions. The primary data was collected through twelve in-depth interviews performed by the researches to key personnel from SMEs from the plastic industry of Ecuador. Lean Manufacturing and the SHEN mode