A decision-focused knowledge management framework to support collaborative decision making for lean supply chain management

Lean supply chain management is a relatively new concept resulting from the integration of lean philosophy into supply chain management. Decision making in a lean supply chain context is challenging because of the complexity, dynamics, and uncertainty inherent to both supply networks and the types of waste (defined as any processes, including use of resources, which do not add value to customers). Efficient knowledge management has been identified as one of the key requirements to achieve integrated support for lean supply chain decisions. This paper proposes a decision-focused knowledge framework including a multi-layer knowledge model (to capture the know-why and know-with together with the know-what and know-how), a knowledge matrix for knowledge elicitation, and a decision tree for the design of the knowledge base. A knowledge system for lean supply chain management (KSLSCM) has been developed using artificial intelligence system shells VisiRule and Flex. The KSLSCM has five core components: a supply chain decision network manager, a waste elimination knowledge base, a knowledge refinement module, an inference engine, and a decision justifier. The knowledge framework and the KSLSCM have been evaluated through an industrial decision case. It has been demonstrated through the KSLSCM that the decision-focused knowledge framework can provide efficient and effective support for collaborative decision making in supply chain waste elimination.