Product category:
Plant and shopfloor scheduling software
News Release from: Infor | Subject: VISUAL Easy Lean scheduling module
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 February 2004
Scheduling tool supports lean
manufacturing
To support the principles of lean manufacturing, a new scheduling tool incorporates pull-oriented scheduling techniques and is claimed to offer rapid implementation.
Lilly Software Associates has announced a new scheduling module to support lean manufacturing and increase production flow through a manufacturing plant VISUAL Easy Lean works in conjunction with the company's existing VISUAL Enterprise ERP system and in a lean environment will better connect production planning and execution processes
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 21 Sep 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The new module incorporates pull-oriented scheduling techniques and is claimed to offer rapid implementation and delivery of significant results within 30-90 days.
Designed to increase productivity, the system features Lilly Software's completely configurable, full-colour graphical interface that is simple to use and act upon.
Advanced features include the generation of electronic kanban cards for production reporting and work cell messaging that lets management accurately track what is happening on the shopfloor.
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"Unlike traditional products that are either too complex or inflexible and are forecast-based, VISUAL Easy Lean focuses on pulling materials through the production area.
This helps keep inventory low and improves the ability to respond quickly to customer demands," said Clive Mattson, Managing Director of Lilly Software's European headquarters.
"By making a few small changes to existing business practices, users can gain better visibility of shopfloor performance.
The new module provides critical information to help shorten lead times, overcome market constraints and increase business profits." Protection using buffers - Lilly Software's VISUAL Easy Lean allows the user to build shipping and inventory buffers into scheduling and thus protect from risk customer due dates, constrained resource schedules, raw materials, purchased parts, common sub-assemblies, replacement parts and finished goods.
For make-to-order businesses, shipping buffers protect customer promise dates.
The system uses buffer levels to determine when work should be released to production, thus supporting lean principles of minimum Work In Progress.
Graphical displays keep managers informed of WIP.
They can maintain a flexible resource primed for handling any emergency orders.
Replenishment buffers are used by VISUAL Easy Lean to protect against stock-outs and to allow manufacturing-to-demand rather than forecast.
Accurate information about inventory levels, claims Lilly Software, will help identify trends such as high consumption items and to maintain lean inventory without experiencing stock outs.
Visibility to win more business - Mattson explained that better visibility of activity on the shopfloor is crucial in lean manufacturing: "When trying to win new business, many companies still consider profit margin wrongly.
They quote prices that are too high and so fail to win an order, particularly when the competition is from a developing economy where overheads are generally lower." "In many instances, these companies could have quoted a lower price and still have made a good profit margin.
They fail to recognise that unit margin calculations assume that labour and overhead costs will not be incurred if they don't accept the order.
This is blatantly false.
Businesses will pay the labour and overhead charges anyway." VISUAL Easy Lean addresses this problem by giving visibility of spare capacity on the shop floor where potential new orders could be accommodated without disruption to existing work.
As long as the selling price of this new business is greater than the cost of materials and outside services, the work would represent profit to the organisation.
In this way, VISUAL Easy Lean can help manufacturers increase customer service, quote more competitively and therefore make more profit.
About Lilly Software Associates - Lilly Software Associates (LSA) provides a complete line of enterprise and supply chain management solutions for manufacturers and distributors.
With its easy-to-use graphical nature, the VISUAL suite of products helps companies capture accurate, real-time data about their business processes using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Quality Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), E-Business and Warehouse Management System (WMS) capabilities.
Most VISUAL applications run on Windows NT, UNIX, LINUX, VMS, Novell or OS400.
They can use SQLBase, Microsoft SQLServer, ORACLE or IBM DB2/400 relational databases and are certified for both IBM iSeries and Netfinity servers.
Lilly Software's European headquarters are based in Royston, Hertfordshire, from where the company manages a full range of sales and technical support services throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe.
The supplier is a founding member of the ERP Forum, a group of leading software vendors that address the needs of the manufacturing industry in the UK.
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