Studies linking the use of lean practices to company performance have been increasing as

markets are becoming more competitive and companies are eager for reducing waste and

therefore implementing the Lean Management (LM) philosophy to improve performance.

However, results from these studies have found various and different impacts and some light

is needed. Extant literature was reviewed and, to achieve the research objective, a metaanalysis

of correlations was carried out. The obtained results suggest a positive relationship

between some lean practices and performance measures. Furthermore, the presence of moderators

influencing the relationship between lean practices and performance outcomes is

highlighted in our results. To our best knowledge, this is the first research that proposes

a comparison of results from primary studies on Lean implementation, by analysing the

linear relationship between lean practices and enterprise performance. It fills this gap and

therefore represents an important contribution.