Agile Lean Manufacturing: BECOMING LEAN AND AGILE WITH ADC AND REAL-TIME TECHNOLOGIES...
From Intermec ...The widespread movement to
lean and agile manufacturing is pulling many companies into unfamiliar territory. Customers and competition are forcing manufacturers to produce their products with less waste, inventory, personnel and resources, while simultaneously giving customers more product and configuration options, all on shorter lead times with more delivery flexibility. There are other strong signals that customers are exerting more control over their suppliers. More than half of manufacturing companies are encouraging their suppliers to implement lean manufacturing techniques, and 58 percent are specifically requesting just-in-time production, according to a 2003 study by ARC Research and Microsoft.
As customers asserting their control over terms and relationships and competition forces improve efficiency, companies must respond by gaining more control over their own processes, materials and suppliers. The techniques and processes for accomplishing these goals are often grouped together under the term “lean and agile manufacturing.” However, “lean” and “agile” are not the same. Improving business processes in response to customer or internal initiatives would be much easier if the goal was to become more lean or agile, but unfortunately such a choice is not an option.
Lean manufacturing essentially says to do more with less. Agile is often doing more for the same – for example giving more configuration and delivery options for the same price. The important differences between lean and agile can cause conflicts in how processes are established and resources are managed...
Intermec, a UNOVA Inc. (NYSE:UNA) company, is a leader in global supply chain solutions and in the development, manufacture and integration of wired and wireless automated data collection, Intellitag® RFID (radio frequency identification) and mobile computing systems. The company’s products and services are used by customers in many industries to improve productivity, quality and responsiveness of business operations, from field sales and service to supply chain management and enterprise resource planning.
Labels: arc-advisory, inventory-management, mobile, rfid, supply-chain, waste
