Lean manufacturing is a set of common practices, tools, and methods that is
applied to processes within a manufacturing environment to help make it more
efficient. But the road to lean isn always smooth. So tools, such as lean
software, have been developed to help streamline lean implementation. In recent
years, this software has been used to integrate, automate, and standardize
operations of factories and plants, particularly in the automotive and aerospace
industries. LFM-SDM hosted a webcast presentation on September 5, 2003, which
focused on this trend. The presenter was Mark Graban, LFM ?9 and Senior
Consultant of Professional Services at Factory Logic, a lean manufacturing
software developer.
ean software
works in an integrative way with existing systems, such as ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning),?said Graban. ts main benefits allow for integration into
an ERP-based system, provide people with the opportunity to focus on improvement
rather than waste time on the mundane, and standardize common processes within
and between factories.?
Graban gave a
brief overview of lean manufacturing, as first conceived by Toyota in the late
1940s to early 1950s in Japan before discussing modern applications. He noted
that about 20 years later, lean manufacturing, also coined as the oyota
Production System?(TPS), finally caught on in the United States, but
industrialists could not see the relevance of a software application for a lean
manufacturing operation.
ooks and
practices on lean manufacturing reached the U.S. in the late 1970s, which
mentioned the incompatibility to lean methods,?said Graban. ut like to
think that that was based on the software that was available at the time, namely
Material Resource Planning (or MRP).?
ERP, systems
emerged right around the time that lean manufacturing came to the western world
?a period that Graban calls the œERP revolution.?ERP is based primarily on
financial practices and requirements and is focused on achieving a standardized
enterprise backbone, yet it did not strive for or attempt to incorporate a lean
manufacturing mentality. According to Graban, ERP adapted and improved upon
existing approaches, namely, the MRP system, which was designed around the push,
atch and queue,?mentality and was process-focused instead of
flow-oriented.
To fill the gaps
that resulted from an ERP-driven environment, factories invented their own
solutions for production leveling and kanban calculations, using manual
processes and customized Excel spreadsheets, thereby creating opportunities for
inconsistencies. Often, ERP and lean co-existed, however,
inharmoniously.
Lean software, as
Graban pointed out, can solve these issues by incorporating a process of
balancing (between cycle time, number of operators, demand, and factory
calendar), evaluation of staffing needs across cells, and consideration of
tradeoffs (among staffing, overtime, inventory, and changeovers). Manual labor
and numerous spreadsheets could eventually be eliminated with the use of lean
software. However, Graban said, lean software by itself is not going to increase
the level of a plant efficiency.
oftware alone
is not going make your plant lean,?said Graban. ystems or lean software is
going to be one part of your management system, supporting your success on the ourney to lean.?Lean transformation also requires cultural changes; better
management practices; motivation, dedication, and perseverance; shop floor
consulting and changes; and factory redesign and physical lean
set-up.?
The main users of
lean software are typically master schedulers, material planners, lean
manufacturing engineers and managers, plant management, supply chain management.
User benefits will include:
- Increased planner
efficiency and common processes (indirect labor)
- Faster rollout and better
sustenance of lean manufacturing practices, including:
- Reduced inventory
- Reduced cost
- Improved on-time
delivery
- Reduction in errors caused
by manual data integration, leading to over/under-production, material
shortages, etc.
- Automated alerts regarding
changes in the lean system, such as demand, production, or inventory.
