What is lean manufacturing?
Summary
Companies that use enterprise resource planning (ERP) can also benefit from using a lean production system. This principle involves recording and analyzing the flow of information or materials required to produce a specific product or service with the intent of identifying waste and methods of improvement. However, forecasts are typically inaccurate, which can result in swings between too much inventory and not enough, as well as subsequent disrupted schedules and poor customer service. In contrast to MRP, lean manufacturing is based on a pull system in which nothing is bought or made until there is demand. Lean manufacturing rests on the concept of continually striving for perfection, which entails targeting the root causes of quality issues and ferreting out and eliminating waste across the value stream.