Romana Heinzova

COVID-19 has created an entirely new unknown environment with new risks. Various restrictive national measures seeking to protect health took precedence over economic measures. Moreover, a large number of businesses are entirely dependent on international trade and exports. The aim of this paper is to map and analyze the development of small and medium enterprises’ exports during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic. Moreover, it identifies the most significant export risks and their perception by small and medium enterprises. The chi-square test, Cramer’s coefficient, and exact binomial test were used to verify the statistical dependencies of research questions and hypotheses.
Empirically, the statistically significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the decline in small and medium enterprises’ exports was confirmed. In connection with the effectiveness of risk management, it was found that less than 50% of enterprises in the research sample are not ISO 31000-certified. The study concluded that the most significant export risks confirmed by statistical testing were COVID-19 risks and payment morale of foreign trading partners.

Acknowledgment
This study is co-financed by DKRVO 2022/04 Lean a Project Management in manufacturing Industry in the Czech Republic.

Lean management is a way to satisfy the increasing customer demands while maintaining production efficiency. This paper aims to map and analyze the level of use of lean management methods in the manufacturing industry in the Czech Republic. It searched for links and dependencies between company size, production type, and lean management methods in operational processes. The data were obtained from a nationwide survey within the manufacturing industry companies and were presented using descriptive statistics. A structured questionnaire was sent to 469 manufacturing companies with a return rate of 18.8%. Nonparametric statistical analysis (Fisher’s exact test) was used to confirm or reject the hypotheses. The research results confirmed the dependence of lean management methods on company size and production type. Lean management methods are used mainly by large enterprises, while micro- and small enterprises rarely employ them. Considering production typology, lean management is applied in serial production, and Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) prevails. The most used techniques in mass production include the method of order in the workplace (5S) and Kaizen. The findings suggest that the future of industrial output should focus on sustainability and rationalization of production resources, which is offered by the synergy of lean management and Industry 5.0.

Acknowledgment
This paper is co-financed by IGA/FLKR/2023/002 Rationalization and Sustainability of Resources in Production-Logistics Processes the Czech Republic and RVO/FLKŘ/2024/01 Logistic Systems Safety.