Eliminating road transportation waste: A case study

Evidence suggests that road transportation has become an important factor of international trade and supply chains performance, and that it is generally considered an inefficient operational activity. In the last decade, a new movement to improve road transport operations has emerged. This movement represents an extension of the lean production approach that advocates the application of its principles and tools to road transport operations. Previous works related to transportation waste have focused on the elimination of efficiency wastes. These types of wastes are related to the improvement of the Operational Vehicle Effectiveness (OVE) and Total Operational Vehicle Effectiveness (TOVE). Recently, a new waste scheme for improving road transport operations based on the elimination of the Seven Transportation Extended Wastes (STEW) has emerged. It will be of interest to conduct a preliminary exploration about the possible inter-relationships between both waste schemes and explore the possibility of using them for building more effective improvement procedures. This paper is intended to carry out such study and provide a scheme that considers the simultaneous identification and elimination of both type of wastes.