Lean supply chain

Lean supply chain - taking out cost and time from all the operations that come before production and after it - needs to be today's big focus for manufacturers. "Manufacturing has had such a tough time that most of the waste and cost has already been stripped out of factory floors," insists Howard Joseph, sales director at Syspro ERP developer McGuffie Brunton. "Now lean is going into these other areas - and it's getting cheaper, easier and more pervasive." Joseph says that five years ago the spotlight was on shop floor scheduling, APS (advanced planning and scheduling), reducing inventory and WIP (work in progress). "Now, we're talking to manufacturers about getting orders in more quickly and goods out faster by working more closely with their customers and suppliers, and getting warehousing and distribution slicker." And with today's technologies there's more than one way to do that. So much so that Joseph advises manufacturers wanting to bring their supply chains into the 21st Century to prioritise possible projects, and to start by thinking about their potential for competitive advantage - the cost/benefits equation is bound to be compelling whichever you choose. He gives two examples of approaches taken by quite different organisations to make the point. Real improvements First Marshall Tufflex, which manufactures cable management, guttering and window profile systems in materials from uPVC to GRP and steel. "This company has central manufacturing and a lot of distribution through three main facilities in London, Manchester and Hastings, and we've been working with them since 2005," explains Joseph. "Their biggest area of interest now is in stocking, distribution and packaging, and the solution has been Syspro's warehouse system." Joseph says that McGuffie's experience points to integrated warehouse management becoming an increasingly common requirement, especially for companies with multi-site operations. "To act smarter they need to be able to track and monitor goods all the way from production out to the branches so they know where they are and their status at all times." For Marshall Tufflex that meant using scanning and RF technology at the sharp end to complete the picture of real-time automation and to eliminate any potential for error and wastage. And the result is that products are now always found and despatched accurately and efficiently, with no time wasted looking for material that doesn't exist or isn't where it should be. That's not to say there weren't examples of excellence before, but the point is that skills and best practice have effectively been transferred from people and cemented into the integrated system. "Also, when their sales people want to know stock, the system now shows them exactly what's available and they can make promises. It lets them plan deliveries and production and picking, automatically calculating lead times and shipping dates and routes, picking schedules and so on." Joseph's second example is quite different - Trilogy Logistics, which describes itself as an independent provider of logistics services to the video games and toy markets. Again it's about supply chain integration, but managing it rather than owning it. "For them, one of key factors for success is systems integration - but in this case linking their systems to those of their key customers, the games and toys manufacturers, and doing it simply with as much automation as possible. So, for example, customer orders come in electronically via web and FTP and are loaded straight into the Syspro sales order system." What's impressive here is that this company has around 50 different supply chain service contracts yet manages everything from receipt of orders to issuing of despatch advice and purchase orders, as well as stock movements, returns and the rest. "It's all automated, not only for Trilogy's internal processes but external transactions via web-based WAN. And that means integration with customers' systems including PeopleSoft and Microsoft Dynamics - all handled by Syspro's Document Flow Manager," says Joseph. His message to manufacturers? "Previously, you needed to make a huge investment to take advantage of supply chain systems. But the technology is now readily available and it's cheap: all your trading partners need is email and a spreadsheet, and if you have Syspro at the centre you are open to low cost e-business."