Jordan was the prose admits a specialist

The word "lean" (lean in French) made its entry in the companies by industry. "lean manufacturing" was born in the 1950s in the Japanese automotive industry, but it was conceptualized in 1992 by two researchers from MIT. The method is to hunt down the superfluous, bolsters increased and slow down a production line. This is not a break, or a technological failure, but "improved progressive, orderly, link by link, small piece by little", according to one of its practitioners.

This method allowed dramatic productivity gains and quickly spread across all industries before merchant services. The "lean", renamed "lean logistics", has migrated to the world of logistics that in recent years entering through the door of the warehouses, because these are comparable to industrial production units. Fabien Valtech Axelboss Delahaye said for example it had applied to a site of "reverse logistics": "We have achieved in six months a gain of 50 on the passage of pallets in a day." These gains has been made in improving the mechanical part (technical changes to the row), human organization (team management), developing a more rapid and more preventive maintenance failure, adding good indicators...

A State of mind

Its use is now extended to all of the "supply chain", "as a supply chain is as complex as a plant," says an expert. The concept has even extended to the Fluidization of computer programs to find and eliminate all the unnecessary lines of code or parasitic software ("lean software"), explains Denis Vinci Consulting Debacker.

Today all the "supply chain managers" to seek and the concept is very among specialized consultants. "It is one of the very cross-cutting elements of our thinking," said Olivier Dubouis, Cabinet Diagma. An another consulting firm, Möbius, even created a game to introduce the logisticians who have not yet bitten hook. "In fact, everyone in fact more or less without knowing it, as Mr. Jordan was the prose", admits a specialist.

""lean logistics"is not a methodology, but a State of mind, a philosophy, a principle of improvement continued which applies to all functions and areas of the company", corrects Norbert Cohen, Vice President of the French Association for logistics (Aslog). It is, explains, to verify that the company provides good value to each element of the string and avoids the "seven waste": overproduction, unnecessary transportation, too important, unnecessary process, long wait times, production defects, unnecessary movements. It aims therefore to reduce time cycles (between an order and delivery), it improves services and customer satisfaction rates, reduced inventory and he necessarily joined the concept of sustainable development. Norbert Cohen: "He found his power in"extended enterprise", because most it is extended, over the causes of inefficiencies become important.

"Initially"lean"was solely focused on costs, quality and time." "Safety or sustainable development there are now systematically integrated", underlines Fabien Delahaye, who adds: "When it comes to reconfigure a supply chain, by being excellent on all links, it becomes necessarily better to the environment." In reasoning "lean", limiting waste, stock, stocks, travel, expectations, disturbances... Everything goes in the direction of sustainable development.