No matter how prepared a company is, materials will not be fully utilized, ultimately leading to waste. According to the Lean Enterprise Research Center (LERC), 60% of activities through production is waste, which has a loss of value to the consumers. Manufacturing waste is a hurdle to overcome and holds facilities back from reaching their goal: maximum efficiency.
What is Lean Manufacturing?
Lean manufacturing has spoken for itself through companies such as Toyota. It is a systematic approach of waste minimization without surrendering efficiency and productivity. This method of reducing waste was developed for two reasons; consumer gratification and profitability. After all, the consumers are the deciding factor in what will be bought, therefore making a durable product that they choose out of all competitors only makes sense. With lean, anything that is not providing value to the consumer is considered waste. There is no value in an item that is not being made money off of, so what is the point of ramping up inventory cost for an unwanted product?
Advanced planning and scheduling systems (APS) are a great way to implement lean manufacturing into a manufacturing facility. Companies of any size can utilize lean manufacturing and improve their production process. Along with being compatible with any size company, there are various other benefits pertaining to APS and lean manufacturing such as the following areas where waste is minimized:
As an operation is beginning to need production on a much larger scale, lean manufacturing may be the solution, and advanced planning and scheduling systems reduce the headache of dealing with complex waste minimization methods such as lean manufacturing. APS decreases the workload and enables manufacturing companies to focus their attention on the facility as a whole. With lean and APS, there is a guaranteed overall facility improvement, waste minimization, and production efficiency.
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