Warehouses considered as having a strategic role in supporting the overall competitiveness of the supply chain through achieving improved efficiency. Accordingly, lean thinking have recently found its way in the warehouse operations. The aim of this paper is to propose and test a model to assess the level of waste reduction practices and its impact on warehouse and business performance, and to encourage scholars to develop models to assess lean thinking and waste reduction in warehouse operations. A Delphi technique used in order to develop related questionnaires to measure the degree of waste reduction in the different warehouse activities. The results suggested the existence of a positive relationship between waste reduction activities and business performance and warehouse operational performance. Finally, this paper provides practical implications for warehouse and supply chains managers and directions for future researchers in this field.

Inventory management is crucial for organizational performance, yet a significant gap exists between theoretical models and practical applications. This study explores the inventory management practices and challenges among Jordanian companies across various industries. Given the limited empirical research on this topic in Jordan, a qualitative approach was adopted using semi-structured interviews with representatives from 45 manufacturing, retail, and service companies. The findings reveal a significant gap between theoretical inventory management models and their practical application among participating companies. The common challenges of inventory management were also identified and found to include the lack of formal cost calculation methods, limited technological adoption, supply chain disruptions, and reliance on managerial intuition over data-driven decision-making. The study underscores the need to develop flexible, context-specific inventory models and enhance technological integration, particularly for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The study also found that company size significantly affects inventory management, where smaller companies lacked specialized personnel and relied on informal approaches using basic tools like spreadsheets, leading to inefficiencies and limited responsiveness to demand fluctuations. A set of recommendations for practitioners was provided, including adopting adaptable inventory strategies, investing in technology, improving demand forecasting, and strengthening supplier relationships. The study also highlights the importance of bridging the gap between inventory theory and practice, offering valuable insights for academics and practitioners aiming to optimize inventory management in developing economies like Jordan.

Purchasing portfolio models, particularly the Kraljic matrix, are widely used to support sourcing decisions under supply risk. Yet, they are often criticized for relying on subjective assessments and focusing mainly on upstream uncertainty while neglecting downstream demand volatility. This study develops a quantitatively grounded purchasing portfolio framework that integrates demand volatility and lead-time volatility into a unified measure of supply risk to support more sustainable sourcing decisions. Using transactional data for 876 stock-keeping units (SKUs) from a pharmaceutical distribution company, demand and lead-time volatility are measured through coefficients of variation and combined using an adjusted multifactor model that accounts for their interdependence. Financial importance is measured objectively through gross profit and classified according to the 80–20 Pareto principle. These metrics are incorporated into a revised purchasing portfolio matrix that classifies items into strategic, leverage, bottleneck, and routine categories. The findings reveal substantial variation in combined volatility across SKUs and show that incorporating demand uncertainty significantly changes portfolio positioning compared with traditional approaches. By linking purchasing and marketing perspectives, the proposed model reduces subjectivity, improves risk visibility, and supports sustainable sourcing and inventory decisions in volatile environments.