The current context of Lean and Six Sigma Logistics applications in literature: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Originated in the Toyota Production System, the concept of lean production has become widely disseminated and broadly applied in the industry. When considering lean and six sigma principles in logistics, companies have obtained advantages in terms of cost and quality, which encouraged scientific researches for improvements in the topic. To study the current state of the art on Lean Logistics (LL) and Six Sigma Logistics (SSL), in the national and international level, a systematic review of lean and six sigma logistics were performed, aiming to evaluate theoretical and practical applications, in order to classify the current literature and propose studies to address research opportunities. For this purpose, a review protocol was created to guide and structure the review. As results, it was identified that Transportation has been the main logistic operational drive component in which LL has being applied. The most frequent type of waste considered was Motion and most of the studies were practical applications. Finally, this study found considerable research opportunities for future studies.