Why Data-Driven Manufacturing is Not Enough

Occasionally, someone will mix up DDM (Demand-Driven Manufacturing) with another DDM acronym in our industry: Data-Driven Manufacturing. There are similarities. For example, executing demand-driven principles relies heavily on data and shop floor visibility. However, it doesn’t stop there. In this post, we’ll take a look at Data-Driven Manufacturing and why it’s useful but not enough to help you reach your goals.   Data: It Is What It Is One of

Going Lean: Should You Replace Your ERP System?

By Trey Jordan, Senior Software Consultant Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been around for decades. You’d think, by now, the industry would have it figured out. Yet, every year, we hear news about ERP implementations that fail. For every one of these high-profile flops, there are many, many more implementations that simply fail to live up to expectations. At some point in their Lean journey, nearly every manufacturer faces the

The Pros and Cons of Consolidating Manufacturing ERP Systems

Managing operations through multiple manufacturing systems can be challenging, but it’s a daily reality for many manufacturers. In this post, we’ll look at the pros and cons of consolidating ERP systems – and propose an alternative.   When Two Worlds Collide Whenever two or more organizations merge, they are almost always using different ERP systems. As anyone who’s ever tried to consolidate an ERP systems knows, it’s not easy. Each

Guest Blog: Real-world Advice for Getting Started on eKanban

by Jim Shore Through this guest blog series, I’d like to share some of my experiences implementing supplier quality and Lean manufacturing initiatives by focusing on eKanban systems. This first entry offers advice for planning an eKanban rollout – suggestions that can also be applied across any Lean manufacturing project. As a result, my hope is that you, too, will experience successful Lean results. Leadership matters My training as a