Lean manufacturing demands highly configurable manufacturing software and manufacturing execution systems (MES) for the shop floor. Industrial software with browser based thin client .net technology makes management of MRP, MES and ERP functions easy and quick even across a large enterprise.

Lean manufacturing is about boosting production and distribution efficiency. Manufacturers who can better match production to demand, reduce inventories, raw material usage and finished goods lower their costs and are better able to respond more quickly to market changes. The key focus is to eliminate waste.

What is waste? Overproduction, inventory or WIP (work-in-process), transportation, processing waste, motion, waiting and defects are some examples. The principle goals of a lean enterprise include zero waiting time, zero inventory scheduling, internal customer pull instead of a push system, cutting batch sizes, line balancing, and cutting actual process times.

Deploying lean manufacturing software solutions can allow you to become more profitable and competitive, even if your process does not lend itself to a "kanban" or "kaizen" overhaul. It will shorten your lead times, reduce inventory, operating costs, free resources and more.

One of the big goals of going lean is to identify your biggest constraint or constraints to production and maximize work flow through the constraint. This allows for maximize throughput for your plant. The objective then is to continuously analyze production efficiencies and improve performance.