Search results

A crucial aspect of supply chain management (SCM) is the formulation of lean supply chain management (LSCM). In this sense, the key practices are extended towards the LSCM settings as alternative strategies and several frameworks were developed to help companies to make choices based on production disruption. Studies in this field have focussed mainly on SCM. Although manufacturing businesses recognise the necessity of effective SCM, but little study has been done on manufacturing LSCM. The behaviour and the potential for significant impacts on sustainable performance (SP) in manufacturing companies can vary with time and variations for approaches of the LSCM key practices. This chapter, therefore, focusses on main practices for LSCM on the basis of evaluations of experts in the Malaysian manufacturing sector in order to achieve SP in manufacturing companies. The aim of this chapter is to identify the key practices in LSCM on SP. Hence, this chapter reviewed 172 articles published from 2015 to 2019, used the methodology for SLR with three main steps: literature review planning, reviewing, and reporting. As a result, there are evidence that the key practices for LSCM used in previous studies are (1) customer relationship management, (2) supplier relationship management, (3) just in time manufacturing, (4) waste reduction, (5) cost reduction, and (6) minimise inventory level. In manufacturing industries, LSCM is more complex. Insights on the causing issues and SP are provided. Finally, this chapter contributes to SCM and literature on sustainability and has managerial implications for companies to improve SP more effectively.

This study aims to carry out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the integration of Lean, Industry 4.0 and the supply chain or the Lean Supply Chain (LSC) 4.0. The research analyses the current research on the LSC 4.0 concept in an increasingly digitalised world. The authors present the benefits, motivations, critical success factors and challenges of integrating the LSC with Industry 4.0 technologies within this emerging area of research.

An SLR is carried out on how Lean can be integrated with Supply Chain 4.0. Using the search strings of “Lean Supply Chain 4.0,” “Lean Supply Chain Management 4.0” and “Lean Supply Chain Digitalisation,” a review of published literature was carried out via searches on academic databases.

Industry 4.0 has a synergistic effect on the LSC and, depending on the technology and sector applied in, can complement and enhance the LSC. Similarly, the LSC is a precursor for digitalisation. There are considerable implications in the LSC 4.0 for green and sustainable processes.

Organisations can use this study to understand what the LSC 4.0 means to industry, the benefits and motivating factors for implementation, the critical success factors (CSFs) to implementation and the challenges for implementation.

This study adds to state of the art around the LSC 4.0 and future directions in this nascent research area. This study will aid organisations in understanding how Lean, supply chain management and Industry 4.0 can be integrated.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing knowledge system of lean supply chain management (LSCM), i.e. by using main path analysis, and the authors extract the main development track of LSCM. It is advantageous for relevant scholars to deepen their understanding of this academic field from a bibliometrics view to grasp the future directions better.

Structuring a citation network with the processed data set containing 866 papers and relevant information collected from Web of Science (WoS). Conducting review analyses aiming at the main paths that are extracted from the above citation network.

There are two different evolution paths in LSCM field, i.e. improving corporate sustainability performance through combining lean and green practices, and seeking the balance between lean and agility to structure leagile supply chain for specific industries. LSCM research studies mainly focus on five aspects: (1) establishment and development of LSCM theory; (2) structuration of lean supply chain; (3) research studies of the relationship between LSCM and corporate performance; (4) supply chain evaluation system; and (5) review and vista of LSCM field. The intersection of two knowledge evolute routes would be Industry 4.0, which is an integrated theory system combining lean, agility, green and other supply chain thinking.

The data set collected from WoS cannot contain all the research studies about LSCM is the main research limitation. Sustainability, as represented by environmental performance, will continue to be a major pursuit of this field. Integrating LSCM in Industry 4.0 will be the next hotspot in LSCM field.

Providing the main research contents and common methods of LSCM field. It is conducive to deepening the understanding of relevant practitioners and scholars to LSCM field from a dynamic perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time to reveal the knowledge diffuse trajectories of LSCM under different view with main path analysis. This study is unique that it provides a new view to understand the field of LSCM.

This research proposes and illustrates a conditional view of lean supply chain management (LSCM) based upon the contextual contingent alignment between lean performance objectives (i.e. a contextual factor) and supply chain management challenges (i.e. a contingent condition) in the selection of lean approaches (i.e. a contingent event).

Drawing on the notions of contingency-based practices and strategic fit, the authors’ LSCM reconceptualization jointly considers contextual and contingency factors in specifying what lean approaches to adopt. The authors illustrate the practical relevance of LSCM reconceptualization for the Canadian agri-food industry using the Delphi method.

The authors highlight that LSCM is founded upon alignment associations between specific lean performance objectives and supply chain challenges as well as their influence on the selection of suitable lean approaches. The empirical illustration shows that those alignment associations do not occur at random, which supports the conditional view of LSCM.

The contextual contingent view of LSCM can inform future scholarly inquiry and can reframe practically relevant middle-range theorization on LSCM.

The Delphi method-derived descriptive model of LSCM provides guidance to managers in the Canadian agri-food sector in identifying suitable lean approaches to adopt given the specific performance objective(s) pursued and supply chain management challenge(s) encountered.

The authors advance scholarly theorization and managerial understanding of LSCM by providing a conditional conceptualization that jointly considers relevant contextual and contingency factors that hitherto have not been examined. In ascribing what lean approach(es) to adopt to the alignment associations influence between lean performance objective(s) pursued and supply chain management challenge(s) encountered, the authors provide compelling conceptual and empirical support for the joint conditional view of LSCM.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship among green, lean, and global supply chain strategies as found in the literature, with emphasis on the concurrent implementation of these three strategic initiatives, in order to develop a research agenda to guide theoretically based future research that informs managerial decision making.

An extensive literature review is conducted to examine research and practice with respect to the concurrent implementation of green, lean, and global supply chain strategies.

An in‐depth examination of the literature revealed drivers, barriers, converging, and contradictory points across the three supply chain strategies. Future research opportunities fall into four major themes: the need for theoretically grounded research, the need for a multi‐functional approach, the need for a systems approach that adds strategic insight, and the need for integrated measurement application. Managerial aspects are highlighted in the discussion of the metrics across the three strategic interfaces and integrated life cycle management is suggested as a framework for measurement application across the three supply chain strategies.

Separate literature streams have arisen to address issues in green, lean, and global supply chain management, but research has largely neglected the intersection of these three strategies practiced by multinational organizations. The current research synthesizes the literature addressing the intersections of green, lean, and global supply chain management, and suggests a research agenda to redress gaps in the literature.

Developing a lean supply chain is a continuous improvement effort, so it requires tracking the implementation progress by assessing the achieved level of leanness. However, lean supply chain practices depend on firm-to-firm relationships and an assessment method should consider these network interactions. Given the absence of such a method, this study aims to propose an alternative approach for assessing the leanness level of supply chains.

The authors extracted 18 typical lean supply chain practices from the literature, constituting the leanness assessment parameters. Then, the authors developed an assessment method based on the graph-theoretic approach due to its properties of capturing the interdependencies between elements of a system. The authors tested the proposed method in an automotive supply chain, selecting the focal firm and three of its first-tier suppliers.

The authors positioned partial and overall results in a visual classification scale and the supply chain presented a moderate leanness level. After empirical testing, the proposed method demonstrated its practical feasibility.

This paper contributes to the literature with a novel approach for supply chain leanness assessment. However, to increase its generalizability, it would be beneficial to test the method in non-automotive supply chains, extending the assessment scope to downstream firms and second-tier customers and suppliers.

For practitioners, this paper provides a self-assessment tool to monitor the supply chain leanness and set priorities for improvement.

Besides tackling the interrelationships between firms, the proposed method considers the interdependencies between lean practices, providing partial and overall feedback to enable a systemic assessment.

The aim of this paper is to review metrics and develop a framework for measuring leagile supply chain. Metrics that are applicable in the lean, agile and leagile strategies are identified in the literature and are then combined into a framework that can reflect both agile and lean strategies – the leagile supply strategy.

This work is based on the systematic literature review. Literature was collected, then lean and agile metrics were extracted, analysed, counted and grouped into the framework. Findings are compared against literature on leagile supply chain.

Findings indicate that there are sets of metrics specific to lean strategy, such as are process-focused, cost, productivity, inventory and delivery-based metrics, and specific to agile such as flexibility, responsiveness, information sharing and cooperation. There are also metrics common for both strategies; they are related to time, quality and customer satisfaction. Lean measures are tangible and focused on internal processes and products, while agile measures are targeted at external environment.

The framework could be used by practitioners as a starting point for performance system design.

There is a need to stop looking at lean and agile as separate and distinct supply strategies. Results of this research indicate that lean and agile are interlinked, both are focusing on customer satisfaction and quality. Applying a proposed set of metrics enables to design supply chain measurement system that reflects both strategies to measure leagile supply chain. The framework could be used by practitioners as a starting point for performance system design.

Given the need to simultaneously implement lean and agile (LeAgile) paradigms in supply chain, managers do not know which of these paradigms practices should be given priority. Not knowing this, not only will they fail to apply these paradigms properly, but they will also waste significant financial resources. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the practices of LeAgile paradigms and their effects on the supply chain performance.

Because the military products play a key role in national security enhancement, this research is done in the military product supply chain. Research methodology is an exploratory, mixed and descriptive one. In terms of its purpose, it is an applied research based on identifying and searching for practices and the use of interpretive equations. First, the authors identify the most important and implementable LeAgile practices in the form of importance feasibility analysis matrices. Then, using fuzzy interpretative structural modeling, a model is presented to show the logical relationships and hierarchy between paradigms, practices and their impact on supply chain performance. The research tool in both main stages of the research was the questionnaire completed by industrial and academic experts. The selection of experts was done purposefully.

The results show that of total 100 practices introduced in the previous research for LeAgile supply chain, 21 practices in the lean and agility of the supply chain of military industries are important and implementable. The final model of this study illustrates the hierarchical relationships between 21 practices and its effect on supply chain performance key measures. This model shows that LeAgile paradigms are intertwined and their simultaneous implementation leads to improved supply chain performance. In this model, supplier-related practices play a driving and fundamental role and become a top priority for implementation.

Military products variation in land, air and sea areas and the large number of industries in each sectors, forced us to select the only land area. Although the results of this research can be used in the air and sea areas, one cannot say that Implementation of this study by its presented model will fully lead to the military industries supply chain (SC) lean and agility in air and sea sectors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research on the SC legality in Iran’s military industry which tries to apply these two paradigms simultaneously in the SC and bridge the gap between theory and practice. Clustering LeAgile practices, based on two measures of importance and feasibility, and defining four strategies for implementing these measures, is a new approach to focus on deploying practices that are currently more feasible. Identifying a significant number of SC LeAgile practices (100 practices) and demonstrating the interactions between important and feasible practices in the military products SC are another innovation in this research.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically assess the impact of integrated lean and green practices on the sustainable (environmental, economic and social) performance of a hotel supply chain.

Literature review and previous exploratory studies were used to develop a hypothesized model that characterizes the integrated lean and green (LeGreen) impact on supply chain sustainability. A case study of a large sample of the UAE hotels is used to collect and analyze empirical data, validate the measurement model and test study hypotheses using structural equation modeling (SEM).

The results showed that three major lean techniques (Kaizen, quality and productive maintenance) and three green techniques (health and safety, waste disposal and green certifications) have substantial impact on the sustainable performance of hotel supply chains. Further results revealed that LeGreen impacts are complementary. Lean techniques have the highest impact on the economic performance of the hotel supply chain and the least impact on the environmental performance. Green practices, on the other hand, have opposite impacts.

Although the study findings may vary in different contexts, study methodology and measurement model can be adapted to assess the LeGreen impact on the sustainable performance of hotel supply chains, as well as other service industries such as banking and health care.

The proposed assessment model is expected to be of great value toward the effective implementation of LeGreen practices across hotel supply chains in the UAE and globally. The study findings also provide guidelines for practitioners within the hospitality sector to undertake the proposed model and to adapt it for assessing and enhancing sustainable performance in other sectors of the service industry.

There is a growing emphasis by practitioners and academics on measuring the impact of LeGreen on the sustainable performance of service supply chains. However, the assessment of LeGreen impacts within the context of a hotel supply chain remains unexplored with a scarcity of comprehensive assessment frameworks. This study aims to fulfill this gap in literature and provide directions for researchers to expand the proposed model and to further analyze the integrated lean-green impact on the sustainability of supply chains of hotels and the service industry.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for identification, categorization and prioritization of lean techniques adopted in a hotel supply chain.

A survey tool is used for the identification of lean techniques that are relevant to a hotel supply chain. The targeted sample includes experts from 50 four- and five-star hotels in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that confirmed experience in implementing lean practices across hotels supply chain. A Supplier-Inputs-Process-Outputs-Customers (SIPOC) chart and experts’ opinion are used to allocate and categorize the identified lean techniques across the construct of the hotel supply chain. Finally, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is used to prioritize the criteria and sub-criteria of adopted lean techniques.

Study results have identified six main categories of lean practices and 19 specific lean techniques as relevant to a hotel supply chain. The identified categories include JIT, Kaizen, Quality, Inventory, Maintenance and Standardization. The study found that JIT and Kaizen take the top priority among the identified categories of lean practices. In line with that, on-time service to customers, effective improvement system and on-time delivery from suppliers were found to be the three most relevant lean techniques to a hotel supply chain.

The study has targeted a representative sample of hotels with experience in implementing lean practices. Study findings have several implications to researchers and practitioners for effective adoption of lean techniques within a hotel supply chain. However, the accuracy and credibility of results obtained from this research including SIPOC allocation and lean categorization are highly dependent on the accuracy and credibility of collected empirical data from surveyed hotels within the study context. Results of AHP prioritization also depend on the credibility of judgements made by the hotels’ supply chain experts.

The study provides the hospitality industry with a structured approach that can help in a prioritized adoption of most relevant lean techniques across the hotel supply chain to reduce wastes, create value, increase efficiency and improve the service level. Study findings can be used by hotel management to direct and focus the effort of lean capacity building, resources allocation and implementation plans.

Limited research is available on lean management in the context of a hotel supply chain. Also, most of the previous research is focused on lean impacts, while academics and practitioners agree that the identification and prioritization of most relevant lean techniques is crucial to the successful implementation of lean management for waste reduction and value creation. This research addresses this important issue in hotel supply chains and proposes a structured approach for effective lean adoption.