Product Flow vs. Data Flow: A discussion of the need for harmonizing the material and data flow in a manufacturing environment

摘要

To develop an outstanding enterprise, particularly in the manufacturing sector, a company must have an equally strong understanding of both the material flow and information flow collective processes that define its operations. Often in the effort to implement Lean Six Sigma initiatives many companies have lost focus of the fact that data flow and material flow are two sides of the same coin. This short-coming starves the Six Sigma methods of the data required for its mathematical rigors which in turn causes the overall enterprise to run at a suboptimal level.