ERP systems in lean production: new insights from a review of lean and ERP literature

Abstract

Purpose – Faced with increasing global competition and growing customer expectations, manufacturers looking for significant performance improvements often look to one of the two choices: implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, or applying the tools and techniques associated with lean production. In fact, many companies are today applying both approaches in an attempt to realise competitive advantage in the global marketplace. However, there seems to be an ongoing debate within the academic literature as to whether lean and ERP are complimentary or contradictory technologies. This paper aims to present a thorough and critical review of literature with the objective of bringing out pertinent factors and useful insights into the role and implications of ERP systems in lean production and to develop a research framework that can be used by researchers and practitioners for studying the value of integrating ERP with lean. Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology employed is literature survey. Literature has been collected primarily through journals within the area of operations management. For rigorousness, textbooks, conference papers, white papers and dissertations have been excluded from the subsequent analysis. Though older literature has been considered to define the scope of this investigation, only literature published after the year 2000 has been considered in the analysis in order to be current in the research field. Findings – The paper proposes a classification scheme for the current research on ERP and lean production, which identifies six major areas in the extant literature. The literature survey is used to find existing research gaps and provides a research framework for future research directions regarding applications and implications of ERP systems in lean production. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need to study the interactions between ERP systems and lean production.

Performance management practices in lean manufacturing organizations: a systematic review of research evidence

“…or 'What are the determinants of the use of flexible organisational structures in LMOs in different countries?' Finally, the study also suggests that integrating PM practices into IT infrastructure (Powell 2013;Ghobakhloo and Hong 2014), may play an important role in supporting lean operations. This calls for more detailed investigation into the way operational and financial information may be integrated in these systems.…”

“…• Other: roi; growth of market share; growth of sales; profit margin on sales; EBit/sales; earning per share; current ratio; profit after interexts and tax; % of sales for new products; net profit; roa; roE; break-even Integrated IT solutions (Cottyn et al 2011;Chiarini and Vagnoni 2015) and particularly ERP systems (Powell 2013;Powell, Riezebos, and Strandhagen 2013;Powell, Alfnes, et al 2013;Ghobakhloo and Hong 2014) connect different areas of operations, support the alignment of strategy with operations, and provide real time information, enabling the optimisation of the flow of materials and lead times. Specific practices involved in the implementation of lean information management include information visualisation, performance indicators for demonstrating the impact of information management, horizontal decision-making procedures, and the reliance on lean experts for co-ordinating the delivery of information management initiatives (Bevilacqua, Ciarapica, and Paciarotti 2015).…”

Business process management and supply chain collaboration: effects on performance and competitiveness

“…It can be developed as part of the design-implementation-analysis and improvement of business processes (Chang, 2006), used not only within an organisation but also involving external IT interfaces and SC engagements (Poirier et al, 2004;Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2014). For instance, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can integrate all relevant information such as planning, resource allocation and control activities for all the different departments within a firm and its SC partners (Powell, 2013).…”

A Framework of Sustainable Service Supply Chain Management: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

“…Since the 1990s, the previous enterprise-centric strategy has been replaced by a customer-centric strategy, which derived a series of emerging production and operation management techniques and methods, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Supply Chain Management (SCM). For instance, Gartner Group Inc. (Stamford, CT, USA), a renowned computer technology consulting and evaluation company in the United States, has summarized the development trend at 1990s, put forward a set of standards for enterprise management systems, and proposed ERP, which has been widely used all around the world (Powell, 2013 [1]; Beheshti et al, 2014 [2]). PLM is an important method to deal with the global product competition and uncertain market demand (Vezzetti and Alemanni, 2015 [3]).…”