A new fuzzy logic-based metric to measure lean warehousing performance

Abstract

Lean manufacturing tools have been applied for several years to improve companies' internal logistics. However, lean warehousing (LW) is a relatively new subject in logistics, and for this reason there is still a lack of academic literature and implementation experiences about it, in particular regarding the manner of selecting the right indicators tomeasure the warehouse's leanness, taking into consideration the firm's own objectives and context. This paper's objective is to identify key indicators for facilitating the objective setting, monitoring and LW implementation, and then propose a lean warehousing key performance indicator (warehouse's global leanness (WGL)) by implementing an innovative lean warehousing scorecard. The proposed aggregated multi-criteriabased approach integrates seven indicators obtained from the crossing of three elements: the seven principal lean management variables identified after a Pareto analysis of the literature review, the eight lean wastes and the four main warehousing activities. The information gathered was organised in a systematic manner thanks to a functional analysis of the WGL index. The proposed tool is strongly oriented towards its practical industrial implementation. A case study is presented, in which the tool has been successfully introduced in a French-Argentinian winery's warehouse. Findings show that the use of this tool over a period of time favours the achievement of the lean warehousing management objectives, such as waste elimination (+6%, reducing inventory and number of stock keeping units and increasing inventory accuracy) and cross-functional teams and empowerment (+12%). By analysing the results, it is possible to observe an improvement in the WGL (+11%).

Evaluation of lean practices in warehouses: an analysis of Brazilian reality

“…In the same line of reasoning, Buonamico et al (2017) proposed a fuzzy logic-based metric to evaluate lean warehousing. For the proposed Warehouse's Global Leanness, seven key performance indicators were assessed: Just in Time; Waste elimination; Perfection, zero defects and quality; Lean tools application; Cross-functional teams and empowerment; Continuous improvement; Supplier management.…”

“…By reducing existing waste in these activities, you can add value to the customer and improve the whole supply chain (Baker and Canessa, 2009). In general, storage activities represent a large percentage of logistics costs (Buonamico et al , 2017; Frazelle, 2002); thus investigations in this sector may bring promising results.…”

“…Despite the great importance and relevance of lean techniques for storage activities, few papers have been published about this topic and there are several plausible research gaps to be explored (Buonamico et al , 2017; Mustafa et al , 2013). For Bozer (2012), the use of lean in warehouses does not present the same level of maturity of the application observed in the factory environment, and there is ample possibility for researches that develop new tools, models, etc.…”

Integrating Simulation-Based Optimization for Lean Logistics: A Case Study

“…Lean logistics applies lean manufacturing thinking to control logistics activities. The implementation of lean manufacturing strategies, tools and techniques into logistic operations has brought advantages such as costs and product waste reduction, while improving productivity, efficiency, quality and delivery, as well as satisfying customers and employees [4,[12][13][14][15].…”

Integrating Simulation-Based Optimization for Lean Logistics: A Case Study

“…Lean logistics applies lean manufacturing thinking to control logistics activities. The implementation of lean manufacturing strategies, tools and techniques into logistic operations has brought advantajes such as costs and product waste reduction, while improving productivity, efficiency, quality and delivery, as well as satisfying customers and employees [4,12,13,14,15].…”