Biometric Analysis on Lean Logistics: WOS Database (1994 –2022)
Handan ÖztemizLean logistics optimizes costs, making it a critical supply chain management (SCM) strategy. Avoiding unnecessary costs has been one of the most essential objectives in SCM, making it a primary field of focus for practitioners and academics. After 1990, future researchers aimed to determine how SCM, which has gained importance as a multienterprise and multiactor management style, can handle lean logistics and identify gaps and opportunities in the literature. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of academic articles published on lean logistics in 1994–2022. RStudio-Biblioshiny software was used to perform a cocitation analysis of 559 lean logistics documents retrieved from the Web of Science database, using “lean logistics” as a keyword. This research reveals the most influential lean logistics research publications/citations and their research contributions. The analysis examined the primary research themes in the field, knowledge groups, keywords, country and author productivity, author and country collaboration, and cocitation network analysis between articles and sources. The broad perspective of lean logistics is briefly summarized for future researchers.
Yalın Lojistik Üzerine Bibliyometrik Bir Analiz: WOS Veri Tabanı (1994-2022)
Handan ÖztemizYalın lojistik, maliyetleri optimize etmesi nedeniyle kritik bir tedarik zinciri yönetimi (TZY) stratejisidir. Gereksiz maliyetlerden kaçınmak, TZY’nde her zaman önemli hedeflerden biri olmuştur. Bu nedenle alanda hem uygulayıcılar hem de akademisyenler sıklıkla çalışma ve araştırma yapmaktadır. 1990 sonrası çok işletmeli ve çok aktörlü bir yönetim tarzı olarak önem kaydeden TZY’nde yalın lojistik kavramının nasıl ele alındığının belirlenmesi, literatürdeki boşlukların ve fırsatların tespit edilmesi geleceğin araştırmacıları için önemlidir. Bu çalışmada, 1994-2022 dönemi için yalın lojistik üzerine yayınlanmış akademik makalelerin kapsamlı bir bibliyometrik analizi sunulmaktadır. R Studio-Biblioshiny yazılımı, Web of Science (WoS) veri tabanından “yalın lojistik” anahtar kelimesi kullanılarak ulaşılan 559 yalın lojistik dokümanın ortak atıf analizini gerçekleştirmek için kullanılmıştır. Bu araştırma, en etkili yalın lojistik araştırma yayınlarını/alıntılarını ve bunların araştırma katkılarını ortaya koymaktadır. Analiz sonucunda, alandaki ana araştırma temaları, bilgi grupları, anahtar kelimeler, ülke ve yazar üretkenliği, yazar ve ülkeler iş birliği, makaleler ve kaynaklar arasındaki ortak atıf ağı analizi elde edilmiştir. Yalın lojistikteki büyük resim, gelecekteki araştırmacılar için kısaca özetlenmiştir.
Increasing competition with globalization requires companies to assume new roles according to the changing dynamics in internal and external environments and improve business processes. Strengthening the quality and efficiency of the necessary logistic processes of the organizations to improve the flow of added value, especially since customer satisfaction is of utmost importance at this point, can help increase satisfied customers in the long term. Strong logistics processes require eliminating idle, unnecessary processes in the value stream and ensuring easily accessible, smooth, time-efficient, safe, and least risky processes.
The “lean thinking” oriented management style, initiated by the Toyota production system in the 1940s and used in different sectors today, comes to the fore while eliminating idle and resource-wasting processes from operational processes. Leanness represents the leanest/simplest/easiest logistics activities that can create two-way added value to customers and businesses; products are available at the desired place and time and in the requested way, and flexibility in all processes ensures and maintains customer satisfaction. Lean logistics emphasizes minimum error and continuous process improvement (Bowersox et al., 2002). Lean logistics is a performance-oriented management style suitable for minimum storage, self-management of the system, extensive use of technology, delivery, and distribution in smaller quantities than traditional logistics, and extended instead of short-term contracts (Özkan et al., 2015). Lean logistics is a working philosophy to identify and remove waste in the supply chain (Alejandro-Chable et al., 2022). Many sectors include and prefer lean logistics in their production support activities due to its ongoing positive added value. Many studies have examined lean logistics in different sectors, such as automobile enterprises (Liang & Wang, 2013; Silva, 2015; Zhang, 2015), transportation enterprises (Vasiliauskas et al., 2014), hospital logistics and healthcare (Aguilar-Escobar & Garrido-Vega, 2012; Serrou et al., 2016; Khlie et al., 2016; Teng et al., 2019), logistics companies (De Haan et al., 2012; Buzdik et al., 2019; Rodrigues & Kumar, 2019), forest industry (Fallas-Valverde et al., 2018), manufacturing and production companies (Dolak & Suchanek, 2015; Nowicka-Skowron & Ulewicz, 2017), agricultural product companies (Zhang & Yang, 2010; Szabo et al., 2021), miner sector (Arango Serna et al., 2009), e-businesses (Cao, 2007), urban logistics (Escuder et al., 2020), maritime and port sector (Lyonnet, 2016; Frontoni et al., 2020; Praharsi et al., 2021), and vehicle industry (Wang et al. 2006).
Conversely, understanding the literature well to determine the conceptual framework of lean logistics as a research field and its sectoral applications is imperative (Raghuram et al., 2010). Furthermore, reviewing the extant literature to identify the most relevant and effective studies is essential (Wang et al., 2016). In this context, this study analyzes the lean logistics literature regarding bibliometrics. The Web of Science (WoS) database is one of the most critical data sources in bibliometric analysis. The research data of this study comprises 559 different studies, focusing on lean logistics, scanned by international citation indexes in the WoS database between 1994 and 2022. Bibliometric analysis was used to address the following research questions (RQs):
RQ-1: Who are the most published authors in lean logistics?
RQ-2: Which countries stand out with the number of publications in publication production?
RQ-3: What is the distribution of relevant publications by year?
RQ-4: What is the single-multiple authorship status of the publications?
RQ-5: What are the most commonly used keywords in publications?
RQ-6: What are the most frequently used keywords in cited publications?
RQ-7: What has been the trend in study topics over the years?
RQ-8: What are the main themes/topics studied in lean logistics?
RQ-9: Are the lean logistics literature and researchers’ contributions to this field sufficient?
According to the research findings, studies in the field of lean logistics were first published in the WoS database in 1994. Studies in the field increased at 8.82% annual rate, and there were 22.04 citations per study. Furthermore, 1,423 researchers and 19,359 sources were used in the field between 1994 and 2022. Additionally, 61.9% studies were articles, 26.12% papers, 4.65% reviews, and 2.5% book chapters in the field; 237 publications were made between 2015 and 2020; most studies were published in 2016, with 54 publications. After 2016, a downward trend occurred in the number of studies. Among the top 15 researchers in the field of lean logistics, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Vikas Kumar, and Guileherma Luz Tortorella were the most published ones; the top three journals are “Production Planning & Control,” “International Journal of Logistics-Research and Applications,” and the “Journal of Cleaner Production.” The most commonly used keywords are “lean,” “lean manufacturing,” and “value stream mapping.” In addition to lean logistics, “supply chain management,” “health,” “lean thinking,” “lean management,” “6 Sigma,” “agility,” and “sustainability” were frequently preferred keywords. Furthermore, most publications in the field belonged to Garza-Reyes JA and Kumar V, with 10 studies, and the most cited source locally was Womack J.P et al.’s (1990) “The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production” (n = 80). The most cited source globally was Kleindorfer and Saad’s (2005) “Managing disruption risks in supply chains” (n = 956).
Furthermore, publications in the field were analyzed regarding country collaborations. According to the results, China, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States were the leading countries in author collaboration. More than 60 studies in China and the UK found author collaboration, but most collaborations in China were intracountry, while the UK had more cross-country collaboration. In contrast, Turkey is among the top 20 countries regarding author collaboration; however, author collaboration in all Turkish studies was limited to the country. In other words, Turkish researchers did not establish international collaboration in the field. After examining the scientific production of the country, when the affiliated institutions of the published researchers were examined, the top three institutions were Cardiff Business School, Cranfield University, and Cardiff University from the UK. Furthermore, the most frequently used keywords included “thematic map,” “conceptual structure map,” and “common network analysis,” showing that author collaboration was also included in detail; thus, Lotka’s law indicates that the literature on the central theme of lean logistics is insufficient and must be developed.
