The utility of Lean Six Sigma(LSS) in the Supply Chain agro-industry

Abstract

The competition has become aggressive and the customer has become more demanding and more complex, which have forced organizations to continuously improve their operations and the quality of their products and services. To attain such enhancements, organizations over the last decades have been using two of the most known and powerful methodologies Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma. However, the quest for more efficiency and effectiveness and higher quality of products and services has resulted the integration of these two methodologies to found an improved approach known as Lean Six Sigma.[1] The nature of competition has changed over the past two decades, from competition between companies to competition between supply chains. So reducing costs and optimizing the supply chain is a strategic issue for the company. Therefore, Lean Six Sigma is a lever that allows the company to improve speed through the elimination of waste, and improve quality through the reduction of process variability at the same time. The purpose of this article is to present the Lean Six Sigma approach and demonstrate its utility in the agro-food supply chain, and show how this integrated approach model can offer considerable performance improvement and provide a base for further contributions in this field. Furthermore this article aims to present a bibliographical study of the various studies made between 2012 and 2018 to better position ourselves in relation to literature.