Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Tools for Material Management in a Warehouse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26439/ing.ind2025.n049.7976Keywords:
inventory control, business logistics, warehouses, lean manufacturing, 5S, kaizen, kanbanAbstract
This article presents a case of a company dedicated to the sale, installation, and service of air conditioning and heating. The company has no internal inventory control in its warehouses. In the period 2022-2023, a total of 3 043 problems related to warehouse management were recorded, with an average of 84,53 problems/month. These deficiencies have led to economic setbacks, project delays, inadequate delivery times and the impossibility of guaranteeing their quality certification objectives in the short term. The objective of this study is to reduce these problems. As a methodology, lean manufacturing tools such as 5S, kaizen and kanban are implemented. After the implementation of the improvement, the problems in the warehouses were reduced to 79, with an average of 26,3 problems/month by the end of June and beginning of November 2023. It is concluded that the application of lean manufacturing tools improves efficiency rates in warehouse management.
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Author Biographies
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Arturo Realyvásquez Vargas, Tecnológico Nacional de México/I.T. Tijuana, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial
Arturo Realyvásquez-Vargas is a full-time professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana in Mexico. He received a master's degree in Industrial Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. His research areas are industrial process optimization, lean manufacturing and ergonomics. He is member of the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) as a level I researcher. He is author/co-author of articles in different indexed journals. He has attended international conferences and congresses, directed bachelor's and master's theses, and co-directed doctoral theses. He is author and editor of books published in IGI Global, Springer and CRC Press.
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Guadalupe Hernández-Escobedo, Tecnológico Nacional de México/I.T. Tijuana, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial
Guadalupe Hernández-Escobedo has a Ph.D. in Information Behaviour and Cognitive Engineering at The University of Leeds, UK; National Researcher Candidate by CONACYT and Perfil Deseable by PRODEP; and more than 23 years of experience in teaching, research and application of Industrial Engineering at Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana.
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Brenda Michelle Castillo Ramírez, Tecnológico Nacional de México/I.T. Tijuana, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial
Brenda Michelle Castillo-Ramírez is a Logistics Engineer, graduated from Tecnológico Nacional de México/ Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana. She has a c Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering at the same institution.
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Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial y Manufactura
Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial Engineering, the Ph.D. degree in Innovation in Product Engineering and Industrial Process, and the Ph.D. degree in Sciences and Industrial Technologies. He was a Posdoctoral Researcher in Production Systems. He is currently a full-time Researcher with the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez. He is the national Researcher in Mexico. He has been the author/coauthor in more than 150 papers, conferences and congress, author/coauthor/editor of ten books, and academic editor in some JCR journals. His main research interests include manufacturing, production, process modeling, and supply chain.
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José Roberto Díaz-Reza, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial y Manufactura
José Roberto Díaz-Reza has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, a master's degree in Industrial Engineering with a specialty in Quality, a Ph.D. in Innovation in Product Engineering and Industrial Processes and a PhD in Advanced Engineering Sciences. He has published a book about Total Productive Maintenance with Springer and he has published some articles in indexed journals related to lean manufacturing tools. Also, he has participated in soe international congresses and his current research areas are the industrial oricesses optimization using Lean Manufacturing tools.
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