ABSTRACT
People now have very sophisticated material requirement planning (MRP) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems to help manage purchases of goods and services and tie all our plants and suppliers together worldwide. The Achilles heel of MRP is managing lead-time offsets and keeping the data in the system accurate to a class "A" level. Consigned inventory is in the manufacturers or customer's facility but still owned by the supplier. Sometimes the inventory is owned by the customer but in their supplier's plant, normally fenced in. Breadman system is applied to parts consigned or vendor managed and centralized in one or several locations within the plant and taken to the lines by operators, supervisors, or material handlers. Kanban system controls the flow of material by providing inventory as a buffer to synchronize two disconnected processes. Labeling is an important part of visual controls and is a critical component when implementing Lean initiatives to help eliminate the waste of searching.
