Ronnie Sarkar

With the downturn in the economy, most manufacturers are looking to adopt lean manufacturing practices. While traditional manufacturing methods were developed for mass production focused on economies of scale, lean manufacturing is a concept which is based on producing what the customer wants and manufacturing it in the fastest possible time.

This has a tremendous advantage over other traditional systems that use pre-determined schedules for understanding how much to manufacture. As companies adopting lean manufacturing practices use actual consumption and replenishment signals to get an answer that is more accurate, there is an increase in productivity and almost 50 percent reduction in overhead costs. Just like global companies, Indian companies too are increasingly adopting lean manufacturing practices.

But adopting these practices is not as easy as it sounds, because an organisation needs to change its business processes.

To address this issue, Softbrands Manufacturing India, an enterprise applications player, is looking at tapping the Indian market with its product, DemandStream. The product is a lean manufacturing solution and executes manufacturing based on actual demand and supply replenishment, instead of pre-calculated scheduling.

Ronnie Sarkar, sales manager for SoftBrand Manufacturing India said, “While lean manufacturing as a concept is gaining ground, there is no product in the market other than DemandStream, which allows manufacturers to protect their investments in ERP systems and at the same time embrace lean manufacturing methods. DemandStream is the first true lean manufacturing software developed for mid-sized manufacturers and executes manufacturing and purchasing activity based upon actual demand. The result is an optimisation throughout the entire supply chain which leads to reduced cycle times, inventory and operational expenses.”

Every organisation following a lean manufacturing approach has always faced a challenge in maintaining optimum levels of quantity in a high-mix, low volume environment. Further, while lean manufacturing would ideally build only what the customer needs exactly when they need it, in reality customer demand is not constant.

This makes it difficult for manufacturers to manage a multi-product environment where uneven demand makes continuous flow difficult. This is where a lean manufacturing software like DemandStream can be advantageous as it ensures that optimal inventory levels are maintained across all product segments in a multi-product environment.

Additionally, as Demand-Stream can integrate with an ERP system easily, manufacturing companies can transform their ERP systems from push systems into a pull system where the system manufactures as per real requirements.
Looking at the current trend of Indian manufacturers interested in adopting lean manufacturing practices, SoftBrands is making an aggressive pitch for its lean manufacturing solutions.