Lean production and supply chain innovation in baked foods supplier to improve performance

Abstract

PurposeService industries are currently facing an excess of over production that results in extra inventory and waste levels. With the prospect of methods such as lean production, this research seeks to investigate the impacts of lean production methods towards enhanced performance of service based industries through the study of a local baked foods supplier. Design/methodology/approach The paper highlights the first stage of research study through current world literature and a critical review as inputs of research findings. The research applies a descriptive research framework within a semi-structured questionnaire survey method which was implemented within three different companies, the baked goods manufacturer, the café purchasing the baked foods products, and the end users, hence covering the overall supply chain cycle and its entities. FindingsThe research study identified that one of the major challenges facing the baked food company when adopting the lean practices was the lack of commitment from the top management, continuous training and hence, employee engagement measures were necessary towards performance improvement of the organisation. Originality/valueThe research novelty is to develop an early understanding of lean production practices within the baked goods manufacturer and its upstream and downstream stakeholders. This paper would be considered by the food manufacturer companies in order to require their key suppliers to adopt the most common lean tools identified as Just in Time (JIT), Value Steam Mapping (VSP) and the 5S methods.

تأثیر ممارسة سلسة الإمداد الرشیق على أداء سلسة الإمداد فی قطاع التصنیع بمصر

“…Hence, it is a basis for achieving low work in progress, unit cost reduction, more profit, higher quality, and lower inventory, since JIT denotes pull system adoption that also results in lower inventory and shorter lead times (Wan, 2006). (Shah & Ganji, 2017) showed with empirical evidence the significant positive impact of JIT on speed, quality, dependability, and cost. Implementing JIT upstream from the suppliers includes small quantities of frequent deliveries from the tier suppliers to the production line (Ruiz-Benítez et al, 2018).…”

“…Also, lean production (just in time "JIT" and total quality control "TQC") enables reliability in order cycle, inventory reduction, and process control (Prajogo et al, 2016). Whilst, (Shah & Ganji, 2017) indicated that not all lean production tools have the same impact on quality, speed, dependability, and flexibility.…”

“…1. The most common metrics used in recent researches about measuring the impact of lean practice as supply chain strategy on the performance in terms of cost, time, quality, flexibility (Behrouzi & Wong, 2011;Nawanir et al, 2012;Khanchanapong et al, 2014;Arif-Uz-Zaman & Ahsan, 2014;Shah & Ganji, 2017;Chavez et al, 2013) which are the four attributes that are commonly implied to measure lean performance in supply chain. 2.…”

“…There are many researchers have discussed the relationship between lean practice and performance (e.g. operational performance and organizational performance, economic performance), these studies tested different lean practices influences on different performance dimensions, as there are an impact of lean practices on cost performance and non-cost performance (Chavez et al, 2013;Chavez et al, 2015;Taj & Morosan, 2011;Rahman et al, 2010;Harris & Cassidy, 2014;Koumanakos, 2008;Balakrishnan et al, 1996;Filho et al, 2016;Sharma et al, 2015;Shah & Ganji, 2017). In the transition to LSC performance, there are many authors discussed the impact of LSC practices on SC performance (Arif-Uz-Zaman & Ahsan, 2014; Tortorella et al, 2017;Nimeh et al, 2018;Abdallah et al, 2014).…”

“…performance measures were selected to evaluate SC performance based on the fact that these measures are the most common measures used in the majority of researches and recent in dates e.g. (Chavez et al, 2013;Taj & Morosan, 2011;Nawanir et al, 2016;Arif-Uz-Zaman & Ahsan, 2014;Ruiz-Benítez et al, 2018;Filho et al, 2016;Sharma et al, 2015;Shah & Ganji, 2017;Prajogo et al, 2016;Khanchanapong et al, 2014;Azfar et al, 2014;Dora et al, 2016;Kumar et al, 2015;Afonso & Cabrita, 2015;Droge et al, 2004, Jacobs et al, 2007Machuca et al, 2011;Rosenzweig et al, 2003;Folinas et al, 2014 ;Sangwa & Sangwan, 2018;Arif-Uz-Zaman & Ahsan, 2014;Behrouzi &Wong, 2011;Chavez et al, 2015). From which, the measures were classified into four different performance attributes (cost, time, quality, flexibility), those attributes are highly common in these researches that have discussed lean practice and performance topics.…”