ABSTRACT
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are an integral part of every manufacturing company and also a very large investment in terms of cost, maintenance and support. Every employee, at some level, interacts with the ERP system, whether to process transactions, record information, read reports or use the information in decision making. It’s best to consider transaction elimination as a series of continuous improvement activities that will occur over time, based on the effectiveness of lean controls. Most ERP systems are configured based on traditional manufacturing practices to control through transaction reporting. Actual material and labor are reported to work orders to generate variances for evaluating operating performance. These practices eliminate the need for reporting actual material and labor to work orders. Basic visual controls throughout the value stream will regulate the work between cells and create initial improvements in flow, which further mitigates the need for detailed router steps.
