Abstract—International markets driven forces are changing continuously, therefore companies need to gain a competitive edge in such markets. Improving the company's products, processes and practices is no longer auxiliary. Lean production is a production management philosophy that consolidates work tasks with minimum waste resulting in improved productivity. Lean production practices can be mapped into many production areas. One of these is Manufacturing Equipment and Technology (MET). Many lean production practices can be implemented in MET, namely, specific equipment configurations, total preventive maintenance, visual control, new equipment/ technologies, production process reengineering and shared vision of perfection.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation level of these six practices in Jordanian industries. To achieve that a questionnaire survey has been designed according to five-point Likert scale. The questionnaire is validated through pilot study and through experts review. A sample of 350 Jordanian companies were surveyed, the response rate was 83%. The respondents were asked to rate the extent of implementation for each of practices. A relationship conceptual model is developed, hypotheses are proposed, and consequently the essential statistical analyses are then performed. An assessment tool that enables management to monitor the progress and the effectiveness of lean practices implementation is designed and presented. Consequently, the results show that the average implementation level of lean practices in MET is 77%, Jordanian companies are implementing successfully the considered lean production practices, and the presented model has Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.87 which is good evidence on model consistency and results validation. Keywords—Lean Production, SME applications, Visual Control, New equipment/technologies, Specific equipment configurations, Jordan I. INTRODUCTION O enhance the competitiveness of Jordanian enterprises, companies embrace a series of proven techniques; one of them is lean production (LP) that consolidates work tasks with minimum waste resulting in greatly reduced wait time, queue time, and other delays. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value adding activities in design, production, supply chain management and customer relations. M. D. AL-Tahat is with the Industrial Engineering Department. The University of Jordan. Amman 11942 Jordan. (phone: +962 6 5355000/ 22933. fax: +962 6 5300813. e-mail: altahat@ju.edu.jo) S. M. Alkhalil was a graduate student with the University of Jordan. Amman 11942. Jordan. (phone: +962 6 5355000. fax: +962 6 5300813. e- mail: altahat@yahoo.com) Lean production, as a concept, has two driving forces: to continuously eliminate the source of waste, and to continuously add value. LP is the elimination of anything not absolutely required to deliver a quality product or service, on time, to our customers. Lean production is doing what you do in the least wasteful way possible. That’s the heart of LP. The “Soul” of lean production is getting everyone involved in the continuous improvement process so they treat the company, suppliers and customers like they own the place. LP is doing more with less inventory, fewer workers, less space. Lean production as a philosophy is to shorten lead times and reduce costs by eliminating waste and improving employee performance, skills and satisfaction [1]. Non-value adding sources can be structured into; [2] overproduction, waiting, unnecessary transport or conveyance, over processing or incorrect processing, unnecessary movement, defects, and unused employee creativity. Lean Production is a set of tools and methodologies that aims for the continuous elimination of such sources. The goal benefit of that is the productivity improvement [3]. Lean practices and tactics involved when managing Manufacturing Equipment and Technology (MET) system are the focus of this research. Results of this paper are expected to provide advanced insights into the adoption of such lean practices and their effect on managing MET system. A relationship model between MET constitutes will be proposed, a proper data collection method will be followed; consequently a comprehensive statistical analysis using SPSS, AMOS, and LISREL software will be conducted. II. LEAN-BASED MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM Management MET may involve several lean practices such as; specific equipment configurations (group technology, cellular layouts, and continuous flow), total preventive maintenance, visual control, new equipment/technologies, production process reengineering and shared vision of perfection. Table I summarizes such practices; subsequence sections provide a brief explanation about each. A. Specific equipment configurations Specific equipment configurations are a supporting discipline, according to lean principles such discipline could be considered as a source of waste. However a total lack of specific equipment configurations would lead to a chaotic situation without any progress at all in most projects, the Mohammad D. AL-Tahat and Shahnaz M. Alkhalil Evaluation and Analysis of Lean-Based Manufacturing Equipment and Technology System for Jordanian Industries T World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 64 2012 1192