Introduction

The Japanese developed the philosophy of ‘Lean’ in the mid 1950’s. Lean is concerned with stabilizing and
standardizing the work processes so that the critical problems become clearly visible and the workforce
develops critical thinking capability so that they are able to solve the problems and improve the work flow.
Lean practices have been efficiently utilized in manufacturing industries for the past two decades (Alsmadi
et al. 2012). Lean implementation has been very much successful in the manufacturing sector. Of late,
service industries are gaining lots of importance. These service industries are, at present, adopting lean
methodology to enhance their efficiencies in delivering top quality services.

Lean thinking involves understanding the philosophy of continuously finding ways to reduce waste by
applying lean tools and techniques for customer satisfaction (Schiele and McCue, 2011). Service firms need
to meet the specific requirements of each and every customer so that they can always stay ahead of their
competitors. This literature survey delineates the different approaches that lead to the successful
implementation of the lean philosophy with the objective of accomplishing improved quality in the service
industries.

The services sector is not only the dominant sector in India’s GDP, but has also attracted significant foreign
investment flows, contributed significantly to exports as well as provided large-scale employment. India’s
services sector covers a wide variety of activities such as trade, hotel and restaurants, transport, storage and
communication, financing, insurance, real estate, business services, community, social and personal services,
and services associated with constructionThe services sector is the key driver of India’s economic growth. The
sector has contributed 57.12 per cent of India’s Gross Value Added at current price in H1 2018-19. Net service
exports stood at US$ 38.95 billion in H1 2018-19 (P).

Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 53.7 in November 2018. The expansion in
November 2018 was marked with boost in output, the strongest since July 2018

Service industry

HDFC Bank Limited (the Bank) is a holding company. The bank offers a range of banking services covering
commercial and investment banking on the wholesale side and transactional/branch banking on the retail side. It also
offers financial services. The bank's segments include treasury, retail banking, wholesale banking and other banking
business. The treasury segment primarily consists of net interest earnings from the Bank's investment portfolio, money
market borrowing and lending, gains or losses on investment operations and on account of trading in foreign exchange
and derivative contracts. The retail banking segment serves retail customers through a branch network and other
delivery channels, as well as through alternative delivery channels. The bank provides its corporate and institutional
clients a range of commercial and transactional banking products. The other banking business segment includes
income from para banking activities.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation that
delivers real results to global businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a
consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPO, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is
delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery ModelTM, recognised as the benchmark of
excellence in software development.

A part of the Tata group, India's largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 394,998 of the world's best-
trained consultants in 46 countries. The company is India's first listed IT company to reach the US$ 100
billion market capitalisation mark
Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 16 countries across
Asia and Africa. It is headquartered in New Delhi, India. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile
service providers globally in terms of subscribers. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G
and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high speed home broadband, DTH,
enterprise services including national & international long distance services to carriers. In the rest of the
geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 448
million customers across its operations at the end of September 2018.

Services sector is the biggest one in India and contributes more than half of Gross Value Added (GVA). As
of 2018, 34.49 per cent of India’s employed population was working in the services sector. India ranked as
the eighth largest exporter of commercial services globally in 2017. The sector is a major contributor to the
country’s FDI Inflows.

Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) reached 53.2 in December 2018.

Services exports comprise a major part of the total exports of India. Net Services exports from India stood at
US$ 38.95 billion in H1 2018-19 (P).

India is the export hub for software services. It has a 55 per cent share in the US$ 185-190 billion global
sourcing market in 2017.

Sub-sectors that are performing well are:

 Aviation – India’s air passenger traffic doubled to 117.18 million in 2017 from 59.87 million in
2011. It stood at 226.80 million during April-November 2018.

 Tourism – Foreign Exchange Earnings from tourism rose 20.8 per cent year-on-year to US$ 27.7
billion in 2017.

 Information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) – Software exports are expected to

grow 7-8 per cent and the domestic market is expected to expand by 10-11 per cent*.

The Government introduced ‘Services Exports from India Scheme’ (SIES) aimed at promoting export of
services from India by providing duty scrip credit for eligible exports. Under this scheme, a reward of 3 to 5
per cent of net foreign exchange earned is given for Mode 1 and Mode 2 services. In the mid-term review of
Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, SEIS incentives to notified services were increased by 2 per cent. Also,
Government of India has identified 12 sectors under the Champion Services Sectors Initiative which is
aimed at formulating cross-cutting action plans to promote their growth.