ERP In The Lean Enterprise
Posted on Mon, May 10, 2010
In this week's Operational Excellence Insight, Lean Consultant Mike Donovan writes about the appropriate use of ERP in a Lean Manufacturing Enterprise. Mike points out some of the problems with ERP/MRP as a shop floor control execution tool although he strongly support ERP for other business purposes.
The value of ERP in manufacturing has long been a subject of debate. The anti-computer crowd tends to be those narrowly and totally focused on Lean Enterprise techniques such as Kanban, one piece flow, and building to customer demand among other applications from the tool box for creating a Lean Supply Chain. The extremists in that camp preach that ERP is totally non-value added and it should be eliminated. This is not a very informed view point.
Clearly, there are some logic problems in ERP systems especially in scheduling functionality that is driven by fixed lead times, predetermined queue times and backward planning to create schedules for execution. Furthermore, many ERP advocates are not aware that the scheduling of dependent demand with MRP shop floor control logic is more or less illogical once orders are released...
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