A methodological proposal for inventory management process improvement

Abstract

This paper presents a methodological proposal developed from the Just in Time philosophy and the Harrington approach for continuous process improvement to solve several problems present in organizations. The proposed methodology consists in seven steps some of which are: selection  and  identification of the critical  process to  be  improved, activity descriptions, preliminary   flow   diagram design, process diagnosis (critical activities or points) and finally, the identification of improvement  opportunities  based  in  the  previous diagnosis. These imply the formulation of plans of action that solve the problems with the selected critical process. Once the previous activities are finished, a new activity description and flow diagram are postulated in order to document the process. As a complement, control indicators for the improved process are proposed and the improvement of the relations between the organization and its clients and providers is emphasized.