Lean Management

The introduction of Lean Management System and their continuous improvement regularly poses challenges for companies. In the face of advancing digitalisation, new opportunities for analysis are opening up that also support the continuous improvement process. The article shows how process orientation, digitalisation and operational activities can be systematically applied for the development and integration of a data-based continuous improvement process in manufacturing companies. (Only in German)

There is a variety of empirically validated methods for implementing pull-systems in the manufacturing industry, but pull-based replenishment for the process industry remains a research gap. This article describes the development of a model for implementing a pull-system for an intracompany production network in the process industry and its validation in a case company.

Volatility in market demand leads to temporary over- and under utilization of productive assets. Heijunka aims at de-coupling the production system from market volatility. The production program is spread as even as possible over time. This achieves high asset utilization, short lead times, and low inventories. There are validated Heijunka methods for the manufacturing industry, but for the process industry this remains a research gap. This article describes the development of a Heijunka model for the process industry in order to close that gap.

The sustainable implementation of efficient processes requires a corporate culture that ensures continuous optimization. In order to achieve this level of operational excellence employees’ capabilities must be developed with regard to the identification and active pursuit of improvements. For this purpose, lean management principles and tools have to be implemented at all hierarchy levels (lean thinking). In many instances, learning factories have proved to be an appropriate platform to support this process of transformation. For the first time in Germany, this concept has now been transferred to the process industry with its special requirements by realizing a learning factory within a pharmaceutical company. The procedure of planning and deploying this industry-specific learning environment with the identified success factors are discussed in this paper.

Achieving lean structures and principles in a company means taking care that a cultural change takes place through all the parties everyone, including the leaders and employees, should be convinced that it is sensible, necessary and the correct thing to establish Lean. Lean should not be considered to be a foreign object in an environment where old habits persist. Cultural changes can be brought when thoughts about Lean are internalized by the people in the company, which become a part of the corporate philosophy. This article shows which measures the decision makers in management can take to develop Lean and make it an everyday practice.

The successful combination of the advantages of an ERP system with the benefits of the lean approach may lead to considerable potentials for improvement and thus to significant competitive advantages for an enterprise. As this approach is often criticized in practice, this paper aims to present an innovative solution which is not only theoretical, but also shows empirically, with the example of an ERP implementation project in a SME, that Lean and ERP can and should be profitably linked.