An overview of 42 years of lean production: applying bibliometric analysis to investigate strategic themes and scientific evolution structure

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to apply bibliometric network analysis to the Lean Production (LP) field of study in order to investigate the strategic themes and the scientific evolution structure. To perform this research, VOSviewer and SciMAT were used to analyse 4,412 documents from 1977 to 2019. The performance analysis of publications, researchers, journals, universities and countries related to LP were measured quantitatively and qualitatively. 24 themes were presented and classified according to their centrality (importance) and density (development), and the intellectual structure of each theme is presented. Lastly, the scientific evolution structure shows the most important clusters over time. The results show that the most important themes are related to manufacturing processes, industrial management, project management and human aspects. Finally, we provide new perspectives to assist researchers in the detection of research opportunities and literature gaps in the field of LP.