Lean warehousing (LW) has emerged as a prominent approach for identifying and eliminating waste to enhance warehousing operational efficiency and performance. While researchers have developed systematic evaluation frameworks for LW, concerns persist regarding measurement alignment and validity, necessitating a more cohesive evaluation methodology. This study presents a comprehensive thematic analysis of 33 scholarly articles published between 2015 and 2025, identifying an increasing application of 29 multidimensional metrics that provide quantifiable evidence of LW process effectiveness. These metrics were systematically organized into nine functional categories, further consolidated into five key performance components: services quality, operational efficiency, inventory management, financial investment, and supplier relationships. Our findings reveal 2 dominant performance evaluation dimensions and provide compelling evidence that contemporary LW assessment should adopt integrated approaches that recognize the interdependence between operational efficiency and service quality metrics. This integration represents a significant evolution in LW evaluation, moving beyond siloed measurement toward holistic frameworks that better capture the systemic nature of warehouse performance.
Osman et al. (Wed,) studied this question.