Application of the Lean method to warehouse management

Reaction Paper: Application of the Lean method to warehouse management: case of the Burkina Faso Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The geographical location of Burkina Faso has long been an obstacle to the movement of goods. The railway connecting Ouagadougou to Abidjan was the only reliable means of transporting goods. Development efforts have been hampered by communication networks and appropriate structures for handling cargo. Here are the few reasons which led the public authorities to encourage the Burkina Faso Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI-BF) to implement a policy of construction of warehouses, both inside the country and in the bordering coastal countries whose ports serve in Burkina Faso. outlets at sea. The questions that could be asked by the first officials of CCI-BF could be:
-What policy should be adopted to guarantee the sustainability of the operation of these warehouses?
-How to reduce expenses and increase the products related to the management of CCI-BF warehouses?
Through this analysis, the objective sought is to show how the CCI-BF manages its warehouses and to offer a more optimal alternative management solution for its warehouses.
The development of our study will cover two parts:
– A first part which will relate to the presentation of the functioning of the Chamber of Commerce warehouses;
– And we are going to show in a second part the advantages that the application of (Lean Inventory) could bring to the management of these warehouses.

Located within the ground of Ouagarinter (platform for processing international and national road traffic of goods imported by road), in the city of Ouagadougou, the warehouses (place of deposit for goods pending sale, or shipment, or the payment of customs duties.) of the Chamber of Commerce receive imported goods and transported by road, pending the completion of customs formalities.
After completing the customs formalities and the costs of the chamber of commerce, the transit agent goes to the warehouse manager with all the documents that were given to him during his formalities.
After verifying the information contained in the documents given to him by the transit agent, the store manager records in his computer all the information on the goods to be unloaded (date and time of arrival included). He then gives a note to one of his agents with the following information:
-The unloading dock
-the nature and weight of the goods
-the place where the goods must be deposited.
The warehouses are divided into three areas:
an area where goods on pallets are placed. This area is made up of four columns (from A to B) and lines (from 1 to 9).
A space reserved for bulk goods, that is to say that does not require pallets for storage;
and an area reserved for hazardous products. The warehouse manager’s note could then appear as follows: agricultural fertilizer, 2 tons, door 3, B4.
The warehouse agent then recruits handling service providers (generally a team of 8 per truck) and provides them with the equipment necessary for handling (hand trucks, pallet trucks, forklift, shears, etc.).
Once the goods have landed, the count is made in the presence of the parties (customs, forwarder, transporter,
and agent CCI-BF. In the event of damage, the warehouse worker has a written reservation declaration describing the condition in which the goods were received. In the event of missing or excess, it establishes a differential report. All these documents are signed by the parties present.
Once the owners of goods are ready to collect their goods from the warehouses, they must go to the warehouse manager for the delivery of their goods, provided with a delivery note and customs documents.
Before the owners take possession of their goods, a new account is established, in the event of damage, a statement of reserves will be established by the manager of the store and signed by the parties present. At the end of the loading, the delivery man arrives at the exit of the park and presents the delivery slip to the CCI-BF agent.
It must be recognized that the CCI-BF goods tracking procedure from entry to exit is very long and requires many documents which are not very often required. This is why we believe that this management method can be optimized by the Lean method.

Lean management is therefore an essential management technique focused on reducing losses generated within an organization, for more efficient production and yield. Based on the Lean management, we would like to suggest, firstly, that the Chamber of Commerce establish a collaboration with the customs services so that they can have a common database. All goods arriving at Ouaga-inter will be assigned a tracking number, which will serve as a means of identification. Thus, when a goods arrives at Ouaga-inter, a tracking number will be assigned to it, and the forwarder will only have to provide this number and to the chamber of commerce and customs to be able to pay the corresponding costs. the chief storekeeper will have direct access to information on the state of the formalities of the goods and may transmit the instructions to be followed to a store agent without the forwarder having to go to his office.
Additionally, we propose, if this has not yet been done, the use of warehouse management software. Indeed, nowadays, there are many software like Infoplus, SGE or warehouse management software (WMS) which would allow the CCI-BF to optimize its warehouses management. So, when the store manager will enter the tracking number of a commodity in the software, all the unloading data will be generated automatically.
Finally, given that the human factor is a key element of the Lean method, we encourage CCI-BF managers to very often motivate logistics personnel, for example by applying the four levers system.:
o Monetary: bonus, objectives, etc.
o Team building: events or days to strengthen team cohesion.
o Diversify work tasks: administrative tasks, etc.
o Corporate benevolence: care about the well-being of your staff.

Warehouse management ineluctably has very profitable effects which are, among other things: the tax spin-offs from which the State of Burkina Faso and local communities will benefit on the one hand, and on the other hand for the creation of jobs that will call with different qualifications depending on the type of activity (service providers related to distribution and production, shippers, storage). It is therefore obvious that, everything must be implemented for their operation to be optimal, in particular by the application of the Lean methods that we had suggested above.