MES Support for Lean Production

Abstract

In the traditional sense, IT has often been viewed as a contributor to waste within lean production. However, as the business world changes and competition from low-cost countries increases, new models must be developed which deliver competitive advantage by combining contemporary technological advances with the lean paradigm. In order to make a contribution within this field of research, we evaluate the support functionality of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) for lean production. We address the fundamental principles of lean production and compare them to the functionality offered by MES, and by combining existing theoretical contributions with practical insights we develop a five-stage capability maturity model for MES support for lean production.

Investigating the Challenges and Opportunities for Production Planning and Control in Digital Lean Manufacturing

“…[17] posed the question as to whether lean and information technology (IT) were complementary or contradictory in nature. Exploring this challenging issue, [18,19] explored the support functionality of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems for Lean Production, respectively. Exploring the concurrent application of lean and ERP through action research, [5] proposed an ERP-based Lean implementation process -suggesting that the ERP implementation acted as a catalyst for the case-company's lean transformation.…”

Implementation of Quality Tools in Mechanical Engineering Piece Production

“…Since its launch in manufacturing, Lean has been widely recognized as a powerful management system to improve the overall performance of an organization [8,9]. As such, Lean production is based on the principles and working processes of the Toyota Production System and has been defined as doing more with less [10]. In its simplest terms, lean production can be described as the elimination of waste [11].…”

The Role of Manufacturing Execution Systems in Supporting Lean Manufacturing

“…For several years, Lean Manufacturing has been considered as opposed to the deployment of IT tools and their integration within and between firms [2,3]. On one side, the philosophy of lean is "less is better": inventory, variability, material handling, options and choices must be reduced as much as possible to improve the performance of a company.…”