The Role of Continuous Improvement Process in Optimizing the Warehouse Operations: A Case study on a German Automotive Company

Abstract

Organizations are doing a huge effort to have great visibility on the real time status of their supply chain network, eliminating waste, reducing response time, simplifying the structure of both products and processes, and improving performance quality, thus, giving them the ability not only to fulfil the demand but adapting to new activities and eliminating those which add little or no value. Therefore, this study aims to improve the warehouse operations and optimize its performance through Continuous Improvement Process (CIP). To fulfil the purpose of this study, first the qualitative approach has been adopted through conducting interviews and observation in order to collect the study’s data. Second, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out to help in constructing a framework. Third, a case study was conducted on a manufacturing company in Germany to enhance the implementation of lean production and warehouse operations through CIP. The findings indicated that applying these techniques reduce the overall production cycle time and lead time, decrease errors, and lead to better performance in warehouses. The paper contributes to theory through adopting systematic literature review to identify the frame of knowledge of the study and fill the gap in the literature related to implementation and of lean methodology and CIP. Practically, organizations will find benefits, such as reducing the inventory levels, waste elimination, lead time reduction, and cycle reduction, thereby improving the warehouse operations.