Research about waste identification and elimination is still incipient. However, the
adoption of practices aiming at identifying non value added activities or processes
and eliminate them can improve supply chain management. An investigation of the
processes in a detailed way can produce a total redesign of their flows and lead to
optimized processes. Also, at the operations level (purchasing, stocking, handling,
etc.) some efforts could be done in order to identify redundant activities and eliminate
them. The application of this philosophy throughout the many tiers of supply chain
can deliver great results from a systemic point of view, given that the interaction
between the companies is constant and their individual results influence the overall
performance of supply chain.