Lean Supply Chain Management Analysis of 8 Types of Wastes: Cause - Effect & Solution

A supply chain is a chain of supplies - is the network of all the individuals, organizations, resources, activities and technology involved in the creation and supply of a product, from the delivery of source materials from the Supplier to Manufacturer to Distributer to Wholesaler to Retailer and Eventually Delivery to the End User or Consumer. Lean is the concept of efficient manufacturing/operations that grew out of the Toyota Production System in the middle of the 20th century. Since then, “lean” which was started as an important concept, in the world of manufacturing first, has thrived in to other fields such as Supply Chain Management (SCM). Lean management is an approach to managing an organization that supports the concept of continuous improvement; a long-term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in the processes in order to improve efficiency and quality by eliminating or minimizing the process waste and maximizing the value of the product or service to the customer. In this article we shall discuss 8 types of wastes in the entire value stream of supply chain and analyze Cause - Effect & Solution for improving Supply Chain Efficacy.