Improving road transport operations through lean thinking: a case study

Bernardo Villarreal, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Vikas Kumar, Ming K. Lim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

51 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Traditionally, logistics and transportation problems have been addressed through mathematical modelling, operations research, and simulation, but criticism has emerged about their effectiveness to actually address real-life problems. This paper documents a case study whereby the road transport operations of a leading Mexican brewery were improved through lean thinking and waste reduction. Two lean-based principles and tools were combined: the Seven Transportation Extended Wastes and Transportation Value Stream Mapping. Three systematic steps were proposed to facilitate the implementation of improvement. Feasibility studies conducted in this research suggested that lean thinking is an effective alternative for the improvement of road transport operations. The findings of this research could be used as guidance for transport managers to improve road transport operations. This paper also expands the limited evidence of the application of lean thinking in road transport logistics and highlights the research areas where its application has been concentrated in this sector.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)163-180
Number of pages18
JournalInternational Journal of Logistics Research and Applications
Volume20
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 Mar 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Management Information Systems
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Information Systems
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Management Science and Operations Research

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