Title: Lean Six Sigma for fulfilling value-added services in the post-pandemic logistics industry

Authors: Hokey Min; William Sawaya

Addresses: James R. Good Chair in Global Supply Chain Strategy, Global Supply Chain Strategy, Maurer Center 312, Allen and Carol Schmidthorst College of Business, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, 43403 Ohio, USA ' Department of Management, Maurer Center 241D, Allen and Carol Schmidthorst College of Business, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, 43403 Ohio, USA

Abstract: The lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war have created unprecedented supply chain turmoil that has swept the world. Repeated supply chain disruptions put enormous pressure on the logistics industry to reassess how it conducts business. Such reassessment includes the assurance of timely and error-free order fulfilment of value-added logistics services. This paper proposes a Lean Six Sigma program that utilises a broader array of tools and methods to ensure superior value-added logistics services. The proposed Lean Six Sigma program aims to identify various sources of logistics fulfilment mistakes or inconsistencies and eliminate them by reducing the variability within logistics fulfilment services. To demonstrate the usefulness and practicality of the proposed Lean Six Sigma program, we discuss the application to a typical third-party logistics setting where value-added services are rendered to a global marketplace.

Keywords: Lean Six Sigma; third-party logistics; 3PL; value-added services; VAS; DMAIC approach; process map; supply chain resilience.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2026.152958

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2026 Vol.53 No.4, pp.458 - 472

Received: 21 Dec 2023
Accepted: 25 Dec 2023
Published online: 17 Apr 2026 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article