A Lean-Kaizen Implementation: A Case Study in the Food Retail Industry

Introduction

In a very short period of time, the global pandemic triggered by the new coronavirus has caused severe limitations to the daily life of people and companies. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world to impose lockdown measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus and which has nearly brought the entire world economy to a standstill (Lin, Li, Luo, & Benitez, 2020), affecting a huge number of companies (Kraus, Clauss, Breier, Zardini, & Tiberius, 2020).

Besides the current hostile context, the globalization phenomenon and the consequent search for competitiveness have led companies to revamp their strategies and invest on evolving their working methods to foster better services and cost-benefit optimization to their customers. Globalization expands markets and facilitates trade, but it also leads to higher competition. Now consumers have at their disposal a greater variety of products and services, which generates a greater, and more sophisticated, demand. As a consequence, in the last decade, due to growing global competition, companies have been forced to rethink their manufacturing practices (Modarress, Ansari, & Lockwood, 2005). These facts, combined with technological advances, lead companies to face difficulties and seek solutions to avoid that their products lose value during the production process.

Sustainable development is not only one of the hottest topics of the last decade (Broman & Robèrt, 2017; Patzelt & Shepherd, 2011), but also a possible path, and it will probably be one of the most important topics for our generation and future ones, forcing society to continuously challenge and overcome itself. Sustainable development can be considered a proposal of development at a global scale, promoting equal chance of justice and thus leading to global cohesion both in social, economic and ecological sphere (Płachciak, 2009). Broman and Robèrt (2017) state that sustainable development allows companies to gradually reduce their negative impact on ecological and social systems by strengthening their organization through the creation of innovation opportunities and new business models, by exploring new markets, winning new market shares and reducing operational risks and costs.

Faced with this need to invest in new methodologies, many companies are currently using Kaizen-Lean methodologies. These methodologies aim at the continuous improvement of all processes, via a constant effort of waste reduction, methods of space organization and definition of operating standards, so Lean tools are used to improve quality, increase productivity, speed and reliability, while reducing inventories and costs (Belekoukias, Garza-Reyes, & Kumar, 2014). In our industrial world, continuous improvement of production processes has become necessary for companies to remain competitive and retain their share of the global market. As such, the implementation of the Kaizen methodology fosters this enhancement of the performance of activities, cost reduction and quality (Singh & Singh, 2009). According to Glover, Farris, Van Aken e Doolen (2011), Kaizen events have produced positive changes in business and human resources. According to Thessaloniki (2006), Kaizen is a management philosophy that forces higher standards at all levels of the organization, encouraging continuous improvement in all processes. This approach is based on the premise that there is no perfection in any process, because no structure, product or system reaches the ideal point. The Kaizen methodology stresses the importance of organizations optimizing each process to avoid being outdone by their competitors and thus remain active in the market, ensuring the satisfaction of their customers' needs and retaining them as their business partners, for they are central for the company’s survival.

Our chapter worked a case study, a specific branch inside the food retailing industry, a strategic industry and one of the largest and oldest in the world, able to thrive even in the face of substantial adversity. We systematized our case study in three different stages through a research-action intervention. Firstly, we identified the most sensitive areas; secondly, we implemented and monitored several actions supported by Kaizen and Lean methodologies; and finally, after the implementation of tools, a survey was carried out to the employees whose work areas had changed, in order to analyze and evaluate the impact of the implemented activities.