February Fabricating and Metalworking on-line Exclusive: Digital
Kanban
The February issue of Fabricating and Metalworking Magazine
(www.fandmmag.com) in the "online exclusives" section includes a
feature article regarding digital kanban authored by North
America's leading manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler
(www.trcutlerinc.com).
With digital kanban, all production is now initiated based on
the immediate needs of customers. Inventory turns for digital
kanban parts are now at 62 turns per year. Time spent by
customer service communicating on expedited parts issues has
practically been eliminated. They estimated that
customer-service staff was spending 40 percent of their time on
just expediting part orders, as well as the chaos that this
created on the shop floor. Sales have increased because the
company no longer uses capacity to build parts without an order
to buy now. One-hundred percent of production capacity is used
to build parts that are already sold as soon as they hit the
shipping dock.
Cutler provided a detailed understanding of how digital kanban
solutions are critical to an effective lean manufacturing
initiative and provided a case study that featured Datacraft
Solutions (www.datacraftsolutions.com). According to Matthew
Marotta, Founder of Datacraft Solutions, "We do not charge for
upgrades to the system as we learn about new best practices that
clients ask us to incorporate. Before Datacraft incorporates the
request, it is reviewed buy a lean advisory board to validate
the value of the best practices and the value added impact upon
our partner community. Once it is passed, they develop, test,
and implement."
According to Cutler, "Recent estimates suggest that more than a
third of all metalworking and fabricating manufacturers engage
in some type of lean-manufacturing initiative. There are many
variables that drive the goal of waste elimination, none as keen
as the need to be competitive in a global economy. As
manufacturers implement these lean programs, they are bringing a
key element of lean--kanban--into the fray in a seamless way:
online."
The hosted solution provides the customer with their own set of
servers which are maintained offsite by and outsourced set of
administrators. All of the administration fees, equipment,
support teams and software updates are all included in the
monthly service fee which is less then the cost of hiring an
internal system administrator.
The value of an ASP is that manufacturers can buy "by the
drink", low risk, and a see a rapid ROI. Only internet access is
required.
Datacraft Solutions www.datacraftsolutions.com Kelly Pryor
800-819-5326