Implementation of Lean Warehousing to reduce food waste of a Distribution Company

Abstract

According to recent research, the application of engineering approaches in distributors in the commercial sector needs to be improved. Likewise, there is evidence of a growing need for the analysis of processes in warehouses in order to reduce activities that do not generate value to increase profitability in companies. In the current study, a food distribution company was examined and a distribution system model focused on solving problems in the warehouse due to waste generated in each process was suggested. The main problem was identified as food losses in the storage area and a suitable solution was suggested to address it. For this, cross contamination must be reduced in the storage process and thus reduce the amount of products lost due to contamination of moisture products and reduce products lost due to improper location of products. Likewise, the amount of expired products in the picking process must be reduced. Finally, errors in the packing process must be reduced with standardized packing and stacking methods. Using the Lean Warehousing methodology, an improvement model was presented based on the integration of tools such as Slotting for Warehouse Control, Kanban, FEFO for perishables control, PokaYoke and Standard work for method error control. Currently, the company proposes a 6.65% reduction in losses in warehouse management and 3% is considered a limitation according to the literature.