Does a big grocery retail chain have anything to learn from a leading automaker? Apparently so. Toyota, with its well-known emphasis on Lean supply-chain practices, was a key inspiration for U.K.-based Tesco, when the latter set out to overhaul its processes. In particular, Tesco was determined to align production and inventory with customer needs something virtually every company claims to do, but few have managed to achieve with any degree of success. The company's journey is told in a new book, The Lean Supply Chain: Managing the Challenge at Tesco. Its authors, Barry Evans and Robert Mason, join us on this episode to describe the initiatives that Tesco has embraced over the years to build a world-class supply chain. In the process, they challenge some conventional wisdom that has dominated traditional business practice. Evans has held multiple positions at Tesco and is a senior research associate in the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at Cardiff Business School, where Mason is a senior lecturer in the Logistics and Operations Management section. Learn how Lean Six Sigma can be applied to grocery retailing and the caveats that come with the concept.

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