Toward a global approach for value chain optimization, based on Lean management concept

Nowadays, we can see that the industry has a major focus on the value chain, as it aims continuously to optimize it, reduce or even eliminate every source of waste. Most successful companies are the ones that went beyond local improvement, and are expanding and linking their internal improvement processes with external customers and suppliers. From here the idea of creating a global approach for optimization. The purpose of this paper is to study the existing approaches for value chain optimization, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each one. We mainly, want to guide our focus on the principle that the sum of local optima does not correspond to a global optimum. For this scientific research, we have chosen to start by defining the state of art. We have identified two major approaches that converge to the same target and have that global aspect, the first one is the Lean Supply Chain Management, and the second one is Monozukuri. The next step to do is to review them and try to identify the point of weaknesses. Then try to propose an improved approach for value chain optimization and finally apply it in a real study case to measure the effectiveness of this methodology.