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To address the absence of Lean in transportation logistics in the digital era, this study aims to investigate the application of Lean transportation (LT) tools to reduce waste and facilitate the digital transformation of dedicated road transportation in the offshore industry.

The study adopts action research with a multimethod approach, including a scoping review, focus groups (FG) and participant observation. The research is conducted within the offshore supply chain of a major oil and gas company.

Implementing LT’s continuous improvement tools, particularly value stream mapping (VSM), reduces offshore transportation waste and provides empirical evidence about the intersection of Lean and digital technologies. Applying techniques drawn from organisational learning theory (OLT), stakeholders involved in VSM mapping and FGs engage in problem-solving and develop action plans, driving digital transformation. Waste reduction in loading and unloading stages leads to control actions, automation and process improvements, significantly reducing downtime. This results in an annual monetary gain of US$1.3m. The study also identifies waste related to human effort and underutilised digital resources.

This study contributes to theory and practice by using action research and LT techniques in a real intervention case. From the lens of OLT, it highlights the potential of LT tools for digital transformation and demonstrates the convergence of waste reduction through Lean and Industry 4.0 technologies in the offshore supply chain. Practical outputs, including a benchmarking questionnaire and a plan-do-check-act cycle, are provided for other companies in the same industry segment.

This paper proposes an integrated value stream mapping (VSM) for a complex assembly line to improve the leanness of a complex automotive component manufacturing organization.

This study depicts the application of VSM at the case organization, where top management is concerned about the challenges of higher cycle time and lower productivity. Gemba walks were conducted to establish the concept of “walk the flow, create the flow” along the assembly line. The multi-hierarchical cross-functional team developed the current value stream map to know the “as-is” state. Then, the team analysed the current VSM and proposed the future VSM for the “to-be” state.

The integrated VSM shows different processes and work cells, various wastes, non-value-added activities, cycle time, uptime and the material and information flows for both products of the assembly line on the same map. The integrated VSM reduced cycle time, non-value-added activities, work in process inventory and improved line efficiency and production per labour hour for both the products, simultaneously.

The limitation of the study is that the study focussed only on the application of VSM for one complex assembly only. Future research may be conducted using the developed integrated VSM approach in other complex production environments.

Managers can identify and reduce system waste by incorporating the concept of integrated VSM in a complex production or assembly environment where two or more products are being manufactured/assembled with low similarity.

The application of VSM for assembly lines is highly challenging because of merging flows, a large number of child parts in the lines and assembly of more than one product on the same line.

The purpose of this study is to map the research landscape on the topic of waste management in the business and management domain, with a particular emphasis on pro-environmental ethical behaviour. The objective is to evaluate publication performance, identify key stakeholders, investigate major clusters, recognise the evolution of themes and offer a research agenda for the future based on bibliometric reflection.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis procedure was used to extract and choose a total of 609 publications from the Scopus database from 1985 to 2022. The research then does bibliometric analysis with the open-source R application bibliometrics. The authors used a number of tools and techniques, including a collaboration network, word dynamics, co-occurrence network, thematic map and strategy map.

The analysis identifies most prolific stakeholders, key clusters and evolving themes in the field. The motor themes, niche themes, basic themes and emerging themes of the field were identified, and future research agenda is proposed based on such identification.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first bibliometric study in the field of waste reduction, providing a comprehensive view of the research landscape by analysing more than 50 years of literature focussing on behavioural aspects. These findings could assist policymakers in identifying waste management/reduction priority regions and developing policy guidelines for a more sustainable waste practise. In addition to providing recommendations and future directions for academic research, this report also includes these elements.

This study aims to quantify and prioritize the main causes of lean wastes and to apply reduction methods by employing better waste cause identification methodologies.

We employed fuzzy techniques for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (FTOPSIS), fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), and failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) to determine the causes of defects. To determine the current defect cause identification procedures, time studies, checklists, and process flow charts were employed. The study focuses on the sewing department of a clothing industry in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

These techniques outperform conventional techniques and offer a better solution for challenging decision-making situations. Each lean waste’s FMEA criteria, such as severity, occurrence, and detectability, were examined. A pairwise comparison revealed that defect has a larger effect than other lean wastes. Defects were mostly caused by inadequate operator training. To minimize lean waste, prioritizing their causes is crucial.

The research focuses on a case company and the result could not be generalized for the whole industry.

The study used quantitative approaches to quantify and prioritize the causes of lean waste in the garment industry and provides insight for industrialists to focus on the waste causes to improve their quality performance.

The methodology of integrating FMEA with FAHP and FTOPSIS was the new contribution to have a better solution to decision variables by considering the severity, occurrence, and detectability of the causes of wastes. The data collection approach was based on experts’ focus group discussion to rate the main causes of defects which could provide optimal values of defect cause prioritization.

The pupose of this study is to systematically review the current literature on the value stream mapping (VSM) application in the construction industry to investigate the evolution observed over time and the results obtained by adopting this tool. In addition, special attention was given to the potential of VSM in identifying loss and waste, as well as their main causes.

The study analyses papers in literature using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses research protocol. As a result, 383 papers were initially identified, and 47 papers were selected.

It was observed that the number of studies addressing this topic has been increasing over the past decade and findings related to the evolution, application and the benefits obtained from the VSM application in context of construction were presented. Additionally, the authors found that the two most cited lean wastes were waiting and defects in the production chain. The main causes of this waste and loss were also identified in this work.

This paper contributes by presenting the applicability of VSM as a tool in the construction as found in the literature. For academics, it will be possible to clearly observe research gaps and for industry managers, to identify the main sources of waste and assess the performance of the tool’s application.

The study uses a systematic review to analyze the application of the VSM tool in the construction industry and provides guidance for future research by identifying research gaps, in addition to conducting an extensive analysis of the tool’s potential in waste identification in the studied papers and their primary causes.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the integrated application of business process modeling and notation (BPMN) and value stream mapping (VSM) to improve knowledge work performance and productivity in police services. In order to explore the application of the hybrid BPMN-VSM approach in police services, this study uses the department of digital crime investigation (DCI) in one Norwegian police district as a case study.

Service process identification was the next step after selecting an appropriate organizational unit for the case study. BPMN-VSM-based current state mapping, including time and waste analyses, was used to determine cycle and lead time and identify value-adding and nonvalue-adding activities. Subsequently, improvement opportunities were identified, and the current state process was re-designed and constructed through future state mapping.

The study results indicate a 44.4% and 83.0% reduction in process cycle and lead time, respectively. This promising result suggests that the hybrid BPMN-VSM approach can support the visualization of bottlenecks and possible causes of increased lead times, followed by the systematic identification and proposals of avenues for future improvement and innovation to remedy the discovered inefficiencies in a complex knowledge-work environment.

This study focused on one department in a Norwegian police district. However, the experience gained can support researchers and practitioners in understanding lean implementation through an integrated BPMN and VSM model, offering a unique insight into the ability to investigate complex systems.

Complex knowledge work processes generally characterize police services due to a high number of activities, resources and stakeholder involvement. Implementing lean thinking in this context is significantly challenging, and the literature on this topic is limited. This study addresses the applicability of the hybrid BPMN-VSM approach in police services with an original public sector case study in Norway.

This review paper, using a systematic literature review (SLR) approach, aims to unravel the various system-wide waste in the construction industry and highlight the connectivity to construction phases, namely men, materials, machines, methods and measurement (5M) and impacting factors.

This study used an SLR approach and examined articles published since the 2000s to explore the connectivity of system-wide waste to construction phases, 5M and impacting factors. The results are given in table forms and a causal loop diagram.

Results show that the construction and demolition (CD) waste research carried out from various perspectives is standalone. The review identified ten types of system-wide waste with strong interlinks in the construction industry. The finding highlights connectivity between wastes other than material, labour and time and the wastes' impacting factors. Further, the review results highlighted the solid connectivity for construction phases, 5M, and impacting factors such as productivity (P), delay (D), accidents (A), resource utilisation (R) and cost(C).

SLR methodology limitations include not keeping in phase with the most updated field knowledge. This limitation is offset by choosing the range for literature review within the last two decades. This literature review may not have captured all published articles because the restriction of database access and search was based only on English. Also, fruitful articles hiding in less popular journals may not be included in the well-known database that was searched. Researcher bias of the authors and other researchers that authored the articles referred to is a limitation. These limitations are acknowledged.

This article unravels the construction system-wide waste and the waste's interlinks, which would aid industry understanding and focus on eliminating the waste. The article highlights the connectivity of system-wide wastes to 5M, which would help better understand the causes of the waste. Further, the paper discusses the connectivity of system-wide waste, 5M and P, D, A, R and C that would aid the organisation's overall performance. The practical and theoretical implications include a better understanding of waste types to help capture better data for waste reduction and productivity improvement. The operating managers could use the tracking of wastes to compare estimated and actual resources at every process stage. This article on system-wide waste, 5M and P, D, A, R and C, relationships and their effects can theorize that the construction industry is more likely to identify clear root causes of waste now than previously. The theoretical implications include enhanced understanding for academics on connectivity between waste, 5M and P, D, A, R and C that the academics can use and expand to provide new insights to existing knowledge.

For the first time, this article categorised and highlighted the ten types of waste in construction industries and the industries' connectivity to construction phases, 5M and impacting factors.

This article aims to focus on implementing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in steel manufacturing to enhance productivity and quality in the galvanizing process line. In recent trends, manufacturing organizations have expressed strong interest in the LSS since they attempt to enhance its overall operations without imposing significant financial burdens.

This article used lean tools and Six Sigma's DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control) with Yin's case study approach. This study tried to implement the LSS for the steel galvanizing process in order to reduce the number of defects using various LSS tools, including 5S, Value stream map (VSM), Pareto chart, cause and effect diagram, Design of experiments (DoE).

Results revealed a significant reduction in nonvalue-added time in the process, which led to improved productivity and Process cycle efficiency (PCE) attributed to applying lean-Kaizen techniques. By deploying the LSS, the overall PCE improved from 22% to 62%, and lead time was reduced from 1,347 min to 501 min. DoE results showed that the optimum process parameter levels decreased defects per unit steel sheet.

This research demonstrated how successful LSS implementation eliminates waste, improves process performance and accomplishes operational distinction in steel manufacturing.

Since low-cost/high-effect improvement initiatives have not been adequately presented, further research studies on adopting LSS in manufacturing sectors are needed. The cost-effective method of process improvement can be considered as an innovation.

The purpose of this study is to propose a new mapping tool called Circular Value Stream Mapping (C-VSM) that combines Circular Economy principles with Lean tools to enhance sustainability performance in operations.

To develop the C-VSM tool, the researchers conducted a literature review and a focus group. The tool was then applied to two real case studies in the agri-food sector, specifically analyzing an artichoke and olive oil producer, to assess its validity and effectiveness.

The study introduces the Circular Resource Box (CRB) as a key innovation in the C-VSM tool. This visual representation effectively captures resource circularity and how resources and wastes are managed, making it easy to identify circularity in the production process. By combining qualitative and quantitative information with this visual representation, companies can identify improvement opportunities aligned with the CE.

The research is limited in scope as it focuses on the application of the C-VSM tool in the agri-food sector. Further research could explore its applicability in other industries and settings to understand its broader impact.

The C-VSM tool provides practical benefits to companies seeking to transition from linear to circular production processes. It enables practitioners to identify opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and optimize production operations in line with CE.

The introduction of the C-VSM tool is a novel approach that bridges the gap between Lean Manufacturing and CE concepts, advancing the understanding of how CE thinking can be effectively implemented in operations.

This paper aims to (1) identify the different performance drivers (lead indicators) and outcome measures (lag indicators) investigated in the literature concerning the four balanced scorecard (BSC) perspectives in operations management (OM) contexts and (2) understand how performance drivers and outcome measures (and substantiated perspectives) are related.

We undertake a systematic literature review of the BSC literature in OM journals. From the final sample of 40 articles, performance drivers and outcome measures have been identified, and the relationships amongst them have been synthesised according to the system dynamics approach.

Findings show (1) the most relevant performance drivers and outcome measures within each BSC perspective, (2) their relationships, (3) how the perspectives are linked through the performance drivers and outcome measures and (4) how the different measures relate systemically. Accordingly, four causal loops amongst identified measures have been built, which – jointly considered – allowed for the creation of a dynamic strategy map for OM.

This study is the first one that provides a comprehensive and holistic view of how the different performance drivers and outcome measures within and between the four BSC perspectives in OM relate systemically, increasing the knowledge and understanding of scholars and practitioners.