i2 launches lean lifecycle management for manufacturing supply chains

Aamer Rehman, i2’s vice president of total factory management says that its new approach gets over the limitations of ad hoc methodologies, tools and processes, while also dealing with the problems of today’s volatile supply chains. “[i2 Lean Lifecycle Management] is the only approach with the sophistication and flexibility required to deploy and sustain a successful lean manufacturing program across an extended supply chain,” says Rehman. “Customers can appreciate core lean manufacturing principles together with intelligent decision support and visual exception management to achieve the full operational and financial benefits of a sustainable lean initiative.” Detail appears scant, but i2 implies that the new toolset comprises a planning, scheduling and execution solution designed to enable lean manufacturing, even in dynamic, complex supply chains that have to deal with multiple fulfilment modes and very divers products. Rehman says that the solution tightly integrates planning and execution by automating these functions as repeatable and standardized processes. Key capabilities claimed include: level production that considers critical factory floor constraints; pacemaker heijunka scheduling and execution, visual interactive execution dashboards for problem detection and resolution, kanban management and quick ‘what-if’ scenarios.