Within any manufacturing environment there are methods of ‘leaning’ the supply chain, focusing on a holistic view of procurement, distribution and sales processing. However, perceiving the enterprise holistically requires suitable enterprise applications.
Lean manufacturing is a process of removing waste that was developed by the Toyota Production System. The concept behind lean manufacturing is defined by three different forms of waste: "muda" or non-value-added work, "muri" or overburden, and "mura" or unevenness.
Large-scale Lean and Six Sigma transformation projects are notoriously difficult to make work. With boards still wary of a fragile economic recovery and therefore less likely to sign off on major expenditure, the situation remains challenging.
In early August, Paul Davidson of the USA Today put a little grease on the wheels of a once great manufacturing nation. According to Davidson’s report, General Electric is moving the manufacturing of a new energy-efficient water heater from China to the United States.
Six Sigma was introduced by GE in the 1980s and has changed the DNA of the organization. Today it is a major part of the way GE works. Six Sigma processes are part of nearly all of GE’s products and services.
In their landmark book, “Lean Thinking” (2006), authors James Womack and Daniel Jones identified four key principles: value, flow, pull, and perfection. The origins of flow processing date back to the 1500s with Venetian shipbuilding.
