Lean Operations in a Foundry through a Manufacturing Oriented ERP Software

摘要

One of the ways for foundries to gain competitive advantage in the market is to reduce costs by focus onrnwaste less or lean production. However, lean manufacturing is not yet widely adopted in foundries. An ERP can support andrndrive Lean Production and work as an enabler; but, only manufacturing oriented ERP software is suitable for this purpose.rnBut an ERP cannot design a "lean system" . Typical types of wastes encountered in foundry operations are: wastage of a)rncapacity (due to overproduction and unnecessary transportation of materials) b) manpower c) time ( due to waiting byrnmachine or men) d) capacity and e) money (due to idle material & defective production) etc. Features of an ERP thatrnsupports lean practices have been described in this paper. A number of screen shots have been provided to enable clearrnunderstanding of the concepts and functioning of this ERP.