CHAPTER 3
Integrating Your Order Entry into the Information Highway
TWO OF THE MOST COMPLEX AND IMPORTANT AREAS of your IS in a lean environment are Order Entry and Order Management. Both are important because lean manufacturing does not require you to produce to forecast stocking levels or maximize the operation capacity of the facility. The premise behind lean manufacturing is that you produce to the demand level of the end customer, and there is no better way to know the demand of the customer than to shift the company’s focus to new, incoming orders.
In lean companies, the demand rate of the customer is called takt, which was defined in Chapter 2. The German word for the baton held by an orchestra conductor, takt is the tool that shows ...
