Chuck Easley

Lean manufacturing is all about reducing waste and increasing efficiency. Manufacturers have been implementing lean practices for decades and have stood the test of time. Now, with technological advancements, lean methodologies can be more transformative than ever before. “Integrating automation into lean manufacturing is a powerful strategy. Unlike traditional automation, which often aims to increase production capacity without considering real needs, lean automation focuses on the smart and selective application of technologies to meet specific continuous improvement goals and eliminate inefficiencies,” the Kaizen Institute said. “Digital transformation provides an unprecedented opportunity for implementing lean,” it continued. “When applied within lean, tools like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics can revolutionize how organizations detect and eliminate waste.” What is Lean Manufacturing? In “The Machine That Changed The World,” published in 1990, lean production is hailed as “Toyota’s secret weapon in the global car wars.” The Toyota Production System was developed following World War II from “a series of simple innovations … to provide both continuity in process flow and a wide variety in product offerings,” according to the Lean Enterprise Institute. In “Lean Thinking,” a 1996 follow-up to “The Machine That Changed The World,” authors James…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Mark Holmes with InterSystems   Top 10 Ways a Data Gateway Improves Time to Value Across End-to-End Supply Chains Supply chain practitioners seeking the best way to speed decision intelligence, unify supply chain data, increase operational efficiency, and improve supply chain resilience can benefit from a supply chain data gateway. A data gateway provides unified access to supply chain data from various sources, including enterprise systems, supply chain applications, data feeds, data warehouses, data lakes, data marts, and business entities. Here are the top 10 ways a supply chain data gateway can improve your supply chain performance. Enables You to Identify Inefficiencies and Make Better and Informed Decisions A unified view of your data accelerates informed decision making and provides you with a comprehensive understanding of your supply chain. For example, a supply planner gains accelerated access to customer orders, inventory levels, and transportation schedules, all in one place, to identify inefficiencies and make better informed decisions. Reduces Implementation Times Enterprises and supply chain software providers strive to reduce application implementation times. A data gateway can serve as a front-end for a range of supply chain software applications, speeding and simplifying data ingestion, integration,…