Food supply chain leanness using a developed QFD model

Lean production is one of the initiatives that major businesses all around the world have been trying to adopt in order to remain competitive in the increasingly global market. The focus of this multi-dimensional approach is on cost reduction by using tools such as Just in Time (JIT). On the other hand, many researchers have focused on the food supply chain in recent years because of the high importance of this issue in the supply chain management context. By linking Lean Attributes (LAs) and Lean Enablers (LEs), this study used Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to identify viable LEs to be practically implemented in order to increase the leanness of the food chain. Furthermore, fuzzy logic is used to deal with linguistic judgments expressing relationships and correlations required in QFD. To illustrate the practical implications of the methodology, the approach is exemplified with the help of a case study in the canning industry.