Lean Process Redesign and Low-Code Digitalization for Inventory Management: An Industrial Case Study in Railway Manufacturing

Background: Industrial organizations require practical and cost-effective digital transformation approaches to improve inventory visibility, traceability, and operational efficiency. Methods: A case study design combining quantitative and descriptive approaches was applied to an outdoor dead stock zone (DSZ). The intervention integrated Lean process redesign, physical warehouse reorganization, barcode-based identification, and a low-code inventory management application developed using AppSheet. Operational performance was evaluated by comparing pre- and post-implementation conditions using inventory traceability, localization efficiency, registration feasibility, inventory accuracy confidence, overall satisfaction, and process cycle-time indicators. Results: The intervention reduced operational cycle times by 70.0% in receiving, 68.8% in sorting, 63.6% in preparation, and 71.4% in shipping. The Location Efficiency Index increased by 221.7%, while the Registration Feasibility Index, Inventory Accuracy Confidence Index, and Overall Satisfaction Index improved by 108.0%, 104.3%, and 95.9%, respectively. The system provided digital traceability for more than 150 inventory items and represented a gross recovered material and scrap value of USD 173,900. Conclusions: These findings indicate that integrating Lean process redesign and low-code digitalization improved inventory visibility, traceability, operational efficiency, and user-oriented performance in the studied outdoor industrial warehouse. In addition, the approach offers a practical, relatively low-resource strategy for manufacturing organizations seeking to accelerate logistics digitalization.