Lean Supply Chain Research Articles

Lean and resilience in the healthcare supply chain – a scoping review

PurposeThe importance of a lean health-care supply chain is increasingly discussed. However, it is still not very clear how lean practices relate to resilience capabilities, as there are synergies and divergences between them. This study aims at identifying the relationship between lean practices and resilience capabilities in the health-care supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted a scoping review based on five databases, which allowed the content analysis of 44 articles. Such analysis allowed the verification of trends and volume of studies on this topic. Further, the descriptive numerical and thematic analyses enabled the proposition of a conceptual framework, relating the adoption of lean practices to the development of resilience capabilities according to the tiers of the health-care supply chain in different value streams.FindingsThree research directions were derived from this scoping review: empirical validation of the contribution of lean practices to resilience capabilities in the health-care supply chain; systemic implementation of lean practices across tier levels of the health-care supply chain; and complementary approaches to lean implementation toward a more resilient health-care supply chain.Practical implicationsThe understanding of these relationships provides health-care managers arguments to prioritize the application of lean practices to improve desired resilience capabilities in the entire health-care supply chain.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no similar study in the literature.

Lean and Legacy supply chains for coordinated demand driven production to handle disruptions

The pandemic created a massive disruption and exposed the lack of resilience in supply chains (SCs), bringing resilience to the spotlight. SC practices have become lean to achieve maximum profitability, with very little or no buffer stocks. On the other hand, with disruptions being the new norm in an ever-increasing uncertain and volatile business environment, organizations’ sustainability is being severely tested. A comparison of Legacy and Lean SC practices is carried out in this paper. Legacy practices are costly, inefficient and forgotten but valuable in the context. Lean practices are highly profitable and efficient, but they are insufficient for a firm's survival in a disruption. This paper through the basics of control engineering applications and proposes a methodology to achieve an appropriate dynamic mix of Lean and Legacy SC practices through coordinated demand-driven production. The work presented in this paper will enable SC managers and practitioners struggling to find solutions to deal with disruptions and help strengthen SCs, albeit at the cost of sacrificing some profitability and efficiency.

Supply chain ambidexterity and performance under uncertainty: The case of inter-island logistics in Indonesia

This study investigated the impact of supply chain ambidexterity on supply chain performance (SCP) under uncertainties. The dynamic capability theory of firms was adopted in the supply chain to design a research framework that recommends a supply chain strategy under uncertainties pertaining to inter-island logistics in Indonesia. This study involved the survey of 140 large-scale companies delivering products across the Indonesian islands to identify the supply chain uncertainties by analyzing data using SmartPLS. The supply chain ambidexterity (SAM) was identified to exhibit no direct correlation with SCP; however, agile supply chain (ASC) and lean supply chain (LSC) could indirectly relate the SAM and SCP. For supply chain professionals, the results indicated that SCP cannot be achieved solely through SAM, thereby necessitating the development of LSCs and/or ASCs, driven from SAM, to achieve SCP. Thus, this study empirically confirmed ASC and LSC to be effective practices for mitigating supply chain uncertainties by mediating supply chain ambidexterity on SCP.

Exploring the effects of lean practices and supply chain disruption on performance

Lean practices have been a dominant approach in dealing with business and supply chain issues for the last few decades, but many studies suggest that the leaner the supply chain process, the more vulnerable the supply chain network amid supply chain disruptions. This study aims to explore the relationship between lean practices and supply chain disruption occurrences (SCDOs) and their impact on firm performance. In a large-scale survey of 198 companies in the USA, structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results of this study suggest that lean practices can promote a firm's operational performance directly, but they can conversely decrease a firm's operational performance through SCDOs. This study contributes to the literature of lean practices and supply chain risk management, and provides practical implications by extending our understanding of the positive as well as negative sides of the lean approach in operation and supply chain practices.

Implementation of lean and green supply chain in medium scale automobile industries using AHP, VIKOR and fuzzy VIKOR

Implementation of lean and green supply chain in medium scale automobile industries using AHP, VIKOR and fuzzy VIKOR

Retracted] Evaluation Model of Enterprise Lean Management Effect Based on Data Mining

This article discusses the task allocation decision of single management ability and multiple management ability in view of the operation stage of the specific project of enterprise lean management service supply chain. First of all, the basic process of the management service integrator’s task allocation to the functional management service provider is given. Based on factors such as business satisfaction and other factors, we construct a management task allocation model based on service income price discounts in the case of fuzzy demand. On this basis, we further dig out the external and internal related factors of supply risk, use enterprise research and data mining methods to verify theoretical hypotheses and identify related factors of supply risk, analyze the impact of the characteristics of cooperation with different types of suppliers in data mining to determine the key factors of supply risk for different types of supply and demand cooperation, and determine the focus of supply risk control for different types of suppliers for data mining. In the process of simulation experiment, the method of maximum satisfaction of fuzzy multiobjective programming is adopted, and the influence of factors such as the preference of decision‐makers and price discounts on the result of task allocation is analyzed in combination with specific examples. Finally, on the basis of fully considering the characteristics of management services, we build a comprehensive evaluation index system for management service providers in terms of service capabilities, service quality, informatization capabilities, and cooperation risks and comprehensively consider the uncertain factors in the decision‐making process. The experimental results show that the proposed interval data mining solution method based on the degree of possibility can realize the ranking of management service providers by combining the subjective wishes of decision‐makers with the objective evaluation of data mining.

Optimization of Lean and Agile Supply Chain Management Practices in the Aviation Industry

Organizations that provide products and/or services must be able to execute fast, adaptive supply and (fluctuating) demand practices. From producers to consumers, and every stakeholder involved throughout the supply chain network processes, a collaborative relationship promotes sharing information that is beneficial to all. This long-term relationship then flourishes and in return stimulates the growth, health, and stability of the supply chain. Understanding the organizational processes and requirements is a complex endeavor. However, with technological advances and with the right type of data collected, it is possible to optimize entire supply chain networks.

Cope with the Uncertainty by Systematic Improvement of Lean Supply Chain Management in Shipbuilding

Based on the same author’s previous study, A Systematic Approach of Lean Supply Chain Management in Shipbuilding, this paper presents further analysis on the uncertainty of supply chain management in shipbuilding, clarifies the nature of uncertainty in the supply chain of shipbuilding, and establishes a systematic improvement model of lean supply chain management to mitigate the uncertainty of supply chain in shipbuilding. It refines the systematic approach on the respect of uncertainty and radically improvement of the theory. With the cases study, it is learnt that uncertainty of the supply chain in shipbuilding forces some trivial, particular, and detailed supply to become urgent issues, especially in the later stage when the ship closes to delivery; in these cases, the solution of solving such urgent parts causes the shipyard to pay a much higher cost. Less urgent issues and uncertainty in the supply chain of shipbuilding can not only benefit the total cost of the supply chain but also the efficiency of building processes. In a systematic path, this paper analyzes the root causes of the uncertainty of the supply chain management in shipbuilding in terms of technical specification, standardization ratio, unforeseen damage and defects, and change of demand schedule. The uncertainty of supply chain management in shipbuilding can be mitigated and reduced by means of high-quality design and engineering, higher standardization ratio in the parts and fittings, and proper safety margin on schedule time. After the procedure of LSCM obtained and refined by circulation for perfection, the professional software bund with new technology devices makes digital transformation reality. In the digital LSCM system, all performance measurement results with the original data of LSCM can be calculated and shown for the management. Therefore, the uncertainty of the LSCM in shipbuilding can be easily captured and solved.

A Framework for design Lean Supply Chain: A Case Study in a Peruvian Concrete Company

A Framework for design Lean Supply Chain: A Case Study in a Peruvian Concrete Company

A framework for design lean supply chain: a case study in a Peruvian concrete company

A framework for design lean supply chain: a case study in a Peruvian concrete company

Prioritising Lean, Agile, Resilient and Green Supply Chain Practices: An Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in FMCG sector of Pakistan

This study prioritises the lean, agile, resilient and green (LARG) supplychain practices in Pakistan’s FMCG sector. This study utilises theAHP methodology to rank the different LARG practices in Pakistan’sFMCG sector. The primary purpose of this analytical study is torecognise and prioritise the usage of these practices to develop theLARG paradigm in the FMCG sector. In this study, various methodshave been identified with the help of extensive literature review and discussion with subject matter experts. The results demonstrate that anorganisational structure (infrastructure) that can deal with disruption isone of the most critical practices among all LARG practices. The result also indicates that firms should establish resilience in their supply chainnetwork, and described as the most vital supply chain phenomenonamong the LARG category. The study findings provide the directionto the supply chain professional as to which practices are critical forestablishing the LARG system in the organisation. Prioritising LARGpractices is scant in literature; hence, this study contributes. Also, other recent multi-criteria assessment tools may be used for significantcontributions in the future.

Digital Twin Integrated Reinforced Learning in Supply Chain and Logistics

Background: As the Internet of Things (IoT) has become more prevalent in recent years, digital twins have attracted a lot of attention. A digital twin is a virtual representation that replicates a physical object or process over a period of time. These tools directly assist in reducing the manufacturing and supply chain lead time to produce a lean, flexible, and smart production and supply chain setting. Recently, reinforced machine learning has been introduced in production and logistics systems to build prescriptive decision support platforms to create a combination of lean, smart, and agile production setup. Therefore, there is a need to cumulatively arrange and systematize the past research done in this area to get a better understanding of the current trend and future research directions from the perspective of Industry 4.0. Methods: Strict keyword selection, search strategy, and exclusion criteria were applied in the Scopus database (2010 to 2021) to systematize the literature. Results: The findings are snowballed as a systematic review and later the final data set has been conducted to understand the intensity and relevance of research work done in different subsections related to the context of the research agenda proposed. Conclusion: A framework for data-driven digital twin generation and reinforced learning has been proposed at the end of the paper along with a research paradigm.

A bibliometric study of lean supply chain management research: 1996–2020

Lean Supply Chain Management is an emerging research field in Operations Management that is attracting growing attention from researchers and practitioners. This paper aims to present a comprehensive analysis of the Lean Supply Chain Management literature to understand the influence, basic research characteristics, interrelationships, and productivity of the research in this field. The present study uses BibExcel and VOSviewer software to conduct thorough bibliometric and network analyses of 715 papers published in the Web of Science database over the period 1996-2020. The use of bibliometric methods has enabled the identification of current and emerging research clusters to detect some key research topics, interrelations, and collaboration patterns. Moreover, this analysis has enabled to draw numerous conclusions and propose a roadmap for future research in the field. This paper, therefore, provides some new insights not previously evaluated in other reviews of Lean Supply Chain Management that can help researchers to understand the evolution of research trends through a proposed classification of the literature on this topic.

Influence of Supply Chain Management Strategies on Performance of Medical Supply Chain Organisations in Kenya

Institutions within the medical supply sector have consistently faced substandard supply chain results because of failure of timely deliveries on the part of suppliers failing to quickly respond to deliver medical shipments. This indicates the procurement role having inadequacies as a key component of an organization since it does not deliver on maximized effectiveness and a reduction of costs based on poor supply chain management plans. A critical purpose of the study was the intention to identify influence of supply chain management strategies on performance of medical supply chain organisations in Kenya. More so, the analysis deals with the degree information integration impacts on Organization performance; to evaluate the impact of warehousing on performance; to examine the impact of outsourcing on performance; and to evaluate the influence of lean supply chain on performance of medical supply entities across Kenya. Direction will through be relying on the resource-based theory as well as the supply chain constraints principle. The analysis will adopt a descriptive study approach; with the targeted size comprising of 30 medical supply entities. The study participants included 2,529 staff of pharmaceutical supply chain entities within Kenya. Determination of the sample group was by Yamane’s concept that led to to a group of 345 participants. Accessing the participants was by stratified and simple random sampling approaches. Towards indicating dispersion and central tendency, standard deviation and respectively, with the inferential statistics being analysed by multiple regression and correlation analysis. The study findings reveal that performance of medical supply organizations in Kenya was significantly related with supply chain information integration (p < 0.05), warehousing (p < 0.05) and outsourcing. Despite this, the association among differentiation strategy and performance was insignificant at p > 0.05 but only significant at p <0.1). It was also found that while lean supply chain had a negative influence on performance (t = -.528, p >0.5) information integration, warehousing and outsourcing had positive influence on performance (information integration: t = 16.461, p <0.05; warehousing: t = 19.671, p <0.05; outsourcing: t = 15.528, p <0.05). The result of these outcomes is that the leadership across medical supply organizations in Kenya need to adopt information integration, warehousing, and outsourcing, which would positively contribute to performance. Medical supply organizations in Kenya should continue emphasizing on supply chain strategies. The outcomes of the study may assist organisations in drawing plans or improving existing strategies governing supply chain management across institutions.

Development of lean construction supply chain risk management based on enhanced neural network

In order to stay successful today, Construction Project can implement a modern company management framework. The corporation uses their philosophy is mostly to waste, focusing around the elimination of constant less change. Lean Construction Project is an appealing method that promises positive performance. Lean and, which are likely to be quite simple to implement based on recent literature in this sector, mean that areas are challenging to manage. The survey's key findings are presented in this paper, which focused on quality management and quality assurance processes and chart-based automation of a wide range of limited amounts of lean Construction projects. This research provides a multi-species, Large/small-quantity continuous management method model and an approach suggested by Lean Construction Project. The core Construction Materials Supply Chain Risk Management in this working as a condition for a stable continuity of adoption such as lean and lean, as a modern form of management, may be split between conflicting desires, to loss is not suitable as a mechanism for sense. As a result, the current study track places a strong emphasis on standardization and promotion management. The output of input neurons in neural networks is dependent on a network by weight training input. If the network properly categorized images to assist with correcting answers, the weights of the correct answers will rise, while the consequences of the incorrect answers will decrease.

Lean Supply Chain System in Indonesian Banking Industry

The goal of this research is to identify, inspect, and assess the existing system, performance, limitations encountered, and lean supply chain solutions that may be used in the banking industry’s account opening process. The qualitative exploratory analytical research approach was utilized, using a sample of state-owned banks such as Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), and Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI). The process of developing a lean supply chain strategy include identifying problems using SIPOC and VSM tools, analyzing problems using VALSAT tools, improving processes using FMEA tools, and controlling processes using SQC tools. The system of account opening that is now in use in the banking industry is partial, the performance of the banking industry’s account opening system is not ideal, some of the issues that have arisen as a result of the banking industry’s account opening system include, among other things, an increase in the number of employees and a lack of ergonomic in the design of the teller machine, and Process Activity Mapping may be used in the banking industry as a lean supply chain strategy

Achieving Resilience and Business Sustainability during COVID-19: The Role of Lean Supply Chain Practices and Digitalization

This paper investigates how firms can enjoy a sustainable business even during the COVID-19 pandemic. The adoption of lean coordination mechanisms over the supply chain (SC) and lean approaches in omnichannel strategies can guarantee the business sustainability and resilience. Furthermore, we investigate whether business sustainability, along with digitalization through mobile apps, Artificial Intelligence systems, and Big Data and Machine Learning enable firms’ resilience. We first explore the background on the subject, identify the research gap, and develop some research hypotheses to be tested. Then, we present the data collection process and the sample, which finally consists of firms from different sectors, including retailing, electronics, pharmaceutics, and agriculture. Several logistic regression models are developed and estimated to generate findings and managerial insights. Our results show that a lean omnichannel approach is an effective practice to preserve production costs, SC visibility, inventory available over the SC, and sales. Furthermore, lean coordination with contracts can make a business sustainable by preserving quality, ROI, production costs, customer service, and inventory availability. Finally, firms can be highly sustainable through resilience when they engage in sustainable ROI, SC visibility, and sales; in contrast, the adoption of mobile apps worsens firms’ resilience, which is not influenced by Artificial Intelligence and Big Data and Machine Learning.

Moderating effect of environmental uncertainties on the relationship between lean supply chain strategy and performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya

The purpose of the study was to determine the moderating effect of environmental uncertainties on the relationship between lean supply chain strategy and the performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study utilized a descriptive research design. The target population was 829 supply chain managers or directors from manufacturing firms around the country. A sample of 270 supply chain or procurement managers was selected using stratified random sampling. Results indicated that lean supply chain strategy explained 60.7% of the total variations in the performance of manufacturing firms. In addition, lean supply chain strategy had a positive and significant effect on the performance of manufacturing firms. With the introduction of moderating variables (environmental uncertainties); lean supply chain strategy explained 33% of the total variations in the performance of manufacturing firms. This denoted those environmental uncertainties had a negative moderating effect on the relationship between lean supply chain strategy and performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study concluded that lean supply chain strategy had a positive and statistically significant effect on the performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya.

A systematic literature review on supply chain approaches

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present green supply chain, resilient supply chain, agile supply chain, cold supply chain and lean supply chain (GRACL SC) procedures based on a detailed perspective, analyzing subjects in the past 19 years with a systematic literature review (SLR) of the papers reported from 2000 to 2019, and offering information and guidelines for further studies.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on 17 keywords in the title and topic of the articles and collects data from Web of Science (WOS) databases and objectively chooses 1,190 articles and performs meta-data analyses. Tables and statistical reports are based on the following three filters: publication year, authors and document type. At least, 39 publications from the ISI WOS has been examined for presenting information of categorization of the conducted research with regard to the content analysis, comprising the conceptual development and obstacles, cooperation with the supply chain elements, as well as mathematical and other optimization models.FindingsFinally, this study answered three main questions in the research and demonstrates that the majority studies in the green supply chain (GSC) and a minimum number of studies on the cold supply chain have been conducted and 27 factors are chosen to achieve the 2000 to 2019 GRACL SCM model which robust and fit for Iranian food industries. The model shows that the agile, resilient and lean supply chain have direct effect on GSC and it can be said that all 27 groups which are selected for the final model of this research can be the main groups in the supply chain.Originality/valueThis paper was actually conducted by authors who reported it. To prevent plagiarized, redoubled efforts have been made and actually this paper is based on SLR methodology and the results are real and the researcher discusses the results appropriately. This investigation can have a positive impact within the field of expanding supply chain flexibility and lessening squander within the Iranian generation framework.

Development of a conceptual model for lean supply chain planning in industry 4.0: multidimensional analysis for operations management

A lean supply chain (LSC) is a set of organizations directly linked by upstream and downstream value streams between processes that work collaboratively to reduce costs and waste. Currently, supply chains (SCs) have been put to the test as the world has had to face a series of unprecedented disruptions in demand and supply caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, a detailed study of constructs and multistructural components was carried out to develop a conceptual reference model that merges Industry 4.0 (I4.0) digital technologies with lean manufacturing tools to reduce waste and minimize costs in the lean supply chain planning (LSCP) context. The main theoretical contribution of this conceptual proposal is to establish a structured relation among the lean, agile, sustainable, resilient and flexible paradigms to improve SC performance by implementing I4.0 enabling technologies. The proposed conceptual model, dubbed as LSCP 4.0, is applied and validated with a case study in a large footwear company. It can help decision-makers and researchers to improve the planning and management of digital SC production processes, even with unexpected disruptions.