Lean supply chain planning : simulation analysis of a multi-product multi-resource supply chain

Nowadays the competitive business arena is characterized by strong turbulences, demand uncertainty, product life-cycle reduction and globalization which bring competition from the business organization level to the supply chain. In this context, the Supply Chain Management’s objective shifts from the physical distribution to the capability of the network to satisfy its final customers and provide them with personalized service, and at the same time reduce the overall supply chain costs. Furthermore, the modern dynamic environment forces companies and supply chains to be flexible and to be able to quickly re-design their systems in order to face both external and internal changes. Thanks to its principles, the Lean Supply Chain Management (LSCM) has become the strategic tool that allows supply chains to satisfy customer’s expectations efficiently and effectively and, at the same time, making the system responsive. This concept has found rapid and wide diffusion among supply chains because it improves their performances and guarantees the achievement of a competitive advantage. This study aims at evaluating how the implementation of Lean Supply Chain Planning (LSCP) techniques and lean principles in a multi-level multi-resource multi-product supply chain impacts the whole network’s performances, as well as the one on each single business organizations’ performances and the benefits deriving from a better exploitation of productive resources. To analyse it, a simulation model with three different variants have been developed by using the Arena software, in order to test the techniques and analyse the supply chain behaviour. The KPI used in this study to analyse the supply chain’s performances is the inventories level variation. The results achieved demonstrate that LSCP techniques and lean principles implementation have a positive impact on the inventories levels, in particular this is true only if the complete set of principles or techniques is applied: its partial application can lead the supply chain to worsened performances.