Impact of Lean Supply Chain Management Practices and Organizational Performance in the UK

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE IN THE UK 1
Impact of Lean Supply Chain Management Practices and Organizational
Performance in the UK
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Introduction

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE IN THE UK 2
In the current competitive business environment, numerous businesses fail to collect good
revenue as a result of poor product supply and distribution channel. Unlike in the past years
when business focused on the high-quality products, variety of products and low-priced products
as strategies of attracting customers, currently, business organizations focus more on providing
the correct product, to the right customer at the precise time as the only way to remain relevant in
the competitive market (Reimann & Ketchen 2017). The competition has created much interest
in supply chain management. Numerous studies indicate that effective supply chain management
has the capability of enhancing the performance of an organization (Connelly, Ketchen & Hult
2013). Therefore, with good understanding and implementation of good supply chain
management in the global business environment has the capability of improving the performance
aiming organizations that desire to command large market share. However, with all organizations
now focusing on the supply chain, the entire network needs to be agile to ensure security to an
organization. Reimann and Ketchen (2017) indicate that the adoption of the lean supply chain
enables an organization to modify various supply chain process towards the lean supply chain
principles that offer the greatest chance of survival. Organizations practicing lean supply chain
have the capability of responding more efficiently to their customer needs as well as predict their
need before the potential customers think of making orders of the products. Thus the current
paper is focused on exploring the impact of lean
Background and Rationale
In the product manufacturing and distribution process, there are different kinds of wastes
that are translated into the loss of the organizations resulting in market failure of some firms.

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE IN THE UK 3
Over the past years, managers, professionals, directors, and researchers have considerably
developed interest on lean philosophy on addressing the issues that are incurred during the
supply process to achieve a better organizational performance in the United Kingdom(Aaronson,
Abrahamsson, and Spens 2011). The United Kingdom is one of the developed regions in the
world, with advanced technologies. Numerous UK companies are currently facing stiff
competition from both within and abroad, an aspect that is attributed to the free trade agreements
made b even the government and other states. Thus lean supply chain acts as the best strategy for
the UK companies to enhance their efficiency and flexibility in an attempt to continue
commanding a considerable size of the global market. Although the existing literature provides
sufficient knowledge of supply chain management, there is insufficient information on the best
practices of LSCM.
Research Statement
Over the last decades, customer flexibility and responsiveness have developed since the
industrial revolutions in the 18th century. However, the excessive developments led to unwanted
productions that ended up into waste in both production and flow of the products from
manufacture to the end user (Kreider 2016). Kumar, Kumar & Singh 2014) defines SC as an
activity that has no worth to the end product. Thus the lean application is a sensible solution to
the waste products in the manufacturing and supply chain process. For example, more than $300
billion are wasted annually in North America due to supply chain inefficiencies.
Consequently, supply chain insufficiencies cost the UK more than $1.5 billion per year.
Detailed analysis of the UK supply chain reports that averagely more than 3 hours are wasted per

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE IN THE UK 4
individual shipment, thus costing both the customer and the organization much money (Colubi &
Denoeux 2014). This loss is attributed to employees spending more time on phones; Brexit
affects the communication and documentation of shipments among many others. Thus lean
supply chain and innovation is the best solution to the problems faced by UK companies.
Research objectives and Questions
The current study aims to identify the impacts of lean supply chain management on the
performance of UK organizations. To explore the objective, the researcher thus has to find the
answer to the following research questions:
a) What are the supply chain management practices among UK companies?
b) What factors affect supply chain management in UK companies?
c) What is the extent of implementation of lean supply chain practices in the UK?
d) What is the impact of lean supply chain practices on organizational performance in the
UK?
Literature review:
Supply chain management
Supply chain management refers to the synchronized activities that ensure efficient
integration of all stakeholders such as manufacturers, suppliers, transporters, warehouses,
retailers and customers to ensure that the correct product gets to the right customer at the precise

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE IN THE UK 5
time with good quality to menace satisfaction of the end user (Singh & Pandey 2015). From the
definition, it is evidential that SCM is a multi-dimensional model that entails Excellent
Intelligence Sharing, Client Relationship Management, Suppliers Management, and Internal
Lean Management. Quality Information Sharing entails both the quality and quantity of
information that is essential among the stakeholders especially the suppliers.
The organization needs to deliver to suppliers on the market status to enable the provision
of raw material that can fulfill customer needs and enhance experiences too. Customer
Relationship entails the practices that focus on managing the relationship between the
organization and the customers to results in long-term loyalty. Through the customer relationship
management, organizations can develop customized products and personalized services thus
resulting in improved performance of an organization.
Lean management
Lean has been defined as a philosophy that focuses on shortening product delivery time,
between the customer order and shipment by eliminating the sources of wastes and focusing on
various activates such as cost inventory (Campos & Vazquez 2016). Many organizations are
currently applying the lean philosophy in enacting their performance. LM is as a result of the
practices that were adopted in the textile and automotive industries in Japan after the world war.
The organization adopted the system as a way of creating visionary improvement through the
collaboration of all organizational stakeholders. Lean philosophy can obtain cost leadership as
well as improved responsiveness in the supply chain management of numerous organizations.
Lean supply chain management

LEAN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL
PERFORMANCE IN THE UK 6
Lean supply chain management refers to the implementation of the lean philosophy through
the entire product distribution from the supplier to the end user. Hadrawi (2019) defends LSCM
as the collection of activities that are linked directly to the upstream and downstream product
flow, information and activities that work collaboratively to eliminate water and increase
efficiency by pulling all that is required to meet customer needs. In the current world, customers
are more agile towards the product delivery time, strong relationship with the organizations, the
flexibility of an organization towards some natural effects on the supply chain, quality of
products and price of the products.
Javaid & Siddiqui (2018) found out that organizations that apply different practices on the
supply chain management have positively received improved performance. Zokaeï and Manikas,
(2014) state that LSCM entails: demand management, waste and production cost reduction,
process standardization and organizational cultural change. Wiengarten, Fynes, and Onofrei
(2013) identify eight sources of wastes in supply chain management. Thus various lean tools
should be employed to enhance the effective performance of organizations. Some of the
identified lean tools are:
a) Value streaming mapping
b) Continuous improvement
c) Supplier development
d) Eight waste eliminations
Advantages of Lean Supply Chain Management