Success in manufacturing is often determined by a businesses’ ability to reduce waste. One of the biggest contributors to solving this problem has been the rise of lean manufacturing and ERP. With these tools, a manufacturer can identify areas of concern and avoid common mistakes.

By incorporating lean manufacturing principles into your ERP software, you can begin to streamline your processes, cut out the waste and drive better value for your business.

In this article, we run through some of the key benefits of ERP and lean manufacturing in eliminating waste. Read on to find out how to reduce manufacturing waste with ERP.

 

Reduce waste in transport

Transport waste happens when you move items, parts, or materials from one area to another without adding value to the product customers eventually receive. In this scenario, you are investing time and money into operator skills, equipment and vehicles while holding them back from productive work.

With a combination of lean manufacturing principles and ERP software you can help time production and logistics so you don’t move goods from one location to another needlessly. This also allows you to schedule and track the use and performance of your transportation machinery and rolling stock.

 

Reduce manufacturing waste with ERP inventory

Inventory of parts and materials, along with complete or in-process products, incur costs to make, while tying up your warehouse space. It also contributes to transport waste and poses risks when it spoils, breaks, or becomes obsolete. The most common causes of inventory waste are ineffective forecasting, production planning, or distribution.

ERP software can help you avoid inventory waste with planning and modelling tools that support just-in-time production. Whether you mass-produce static items or perform engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturing, you should be able to use ERP to eliminate unproductive inventory

 

Reduce waste in movement

Motion turns into waste when people and machinery in the production process have to move in such a way that it causes injuries, stress, damage, and wear-and-tear. Motion-induced waste can be the result of poor workstation design, miscalculation of takt times, and obsolete or flawed production line configuration.

Today’s powerful ERP solutions for manufacturing let you design your processes to incorporate optimal takt times. They also can provide you with the data context you can use to collaborate with the maker of your machinery to make sure it is built and installed to work in the most efficient way.

 

Reduce waste through continuous workflows

Delays can happen anywhere in the organisation for many reasons, but it’s always wasteful. People wait for information, decisions, approvals, other parties’ actions, materials, and more. Generally, waiting happens whenever employees lack the ability to act and decide, departments are not in sync, and bottlenecks stop or slow production.

You can eliminate the miseries of waiting with manufacturing operations software that gives people access to the information they need and streamlines decisions and approvals with automation. The same ERP solutions also make it possible to coordinate cross-departmental handoffs and set up supply chain and production processes where nobody is forced

 

Reduce waste by focusing on value

Over-processing makes waste, for instance, when you produce in excess of quality specifications without creating any customer value. Enforcing the use of machinery with advanced, but not always needed capabilities often results in over-processing waste plus delays and bottlenecks. Overly complex workflows can also lead to over-processing.

Today’s ERP for manufacturing helps you steer your operation away from over-processing and toward the actions that truly create value. From the first customer quote to creating a bill-of-materials (BOM) and turning out the finished product, you can use manufacturing ERP to ensure that production performs to the right KPIs and customer goals.

 

Make products that people want, when they want them

Overproduction waste means you manufacture more of a certain item than your customers need right now, or do it too soon, before it’s time to make delivery. This might happen because of poor supply chain management, inefficient procurement, unreliable demand planning, and many other reasons. Overproduction often results in transport waste as well.

Modern ERP solutions for manufacturing, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, minimize overproduction by giving you the visibility and control to align production, purchasing, and warehousing dependably with actual

 

Meeting quality commitments

Defects waste resources and materials on products that don’t meet quality standards. Defects can lead to negative customer experiences and cost you customer relationships.

In discrete as well as in process manufacturing, ERP designed for production operations provides you with the transparency and control to pinpoint quality deviations as soon as they become apparent and stop them from ruining your production.

Interested in learning to reduce waste in manufacturing with ERP? Get in touch with an ERP expert today by clicking here.

 

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