The Factory Logic Lean Operations Suite has been developed to help manufacturers accelerate and sustain their transformation to lean, demand-driven organizations. It addresses two of the most critical requirements for success with lean manufacturing:

• Production leveling at pacemaker operations
• Synchronization to create stability
  in the upstream supply chain

Factory Logic supports an integrated approach that directly links production to actual customer demand, while maintaining the stability required for consistent, reliable, waste-free factory and supply chain operations.

The Importance of Production Leveling

Leveling the volume and mix of production over a fixed period of time – known as heijunka in the Toyota Production System (TPS) – is one of the primary concepts of TPS. Production leveling is what makes just-in-time manufacturing (continuous flow, takt time, pull system) practical. Without it, the necessary stability is virtually impossible. Yet, effective leveling is one of the most challenging lean methods to achieve in today’s world of high product variety and demand volatility.

An Approach Well Beyond Spreadsheets

The Factory Logic Lean Operations Suite provides a standardized, integrated, and scalable approach to production leveling and supply synchronization that goes well beyond the capabilities of spreadsheets and point solutions. It can be applied to just about any manufacturing environment to help accelerate early stage transformations and broad-scale deployment beyond pilots, and to help sustain performance improvements at all levels.

Factory Logic fills the gap between enterprise level systems and visual factory controls to enable factory personnel to level-load production to the rate of demand more effectively. It does this by providing the tools to:

• Establish pacemaker production schedules that are leveled over the shift, day and week with lot sizes as small as possible (EPEI)
• Properly size and monitor inventory buffers, kanban loops, and supermarkets that absorb demand variability, minimize carrying costs, and enable 100% customer order fulfillment capability
• Send level, stable requirement projections and buffer replenishment signals (kanban) to upstream operations and suppliers
• Monitor actual production and changes to underlying demand volatility to adjust finished goods, WIP, and safety stock target levels as needed

Strategic Benefits

Together, these tools enable manufacturing personnel to:

• Reduce lead times
• Improve efficiency (i.e. reduce overtime, premium freight, etc.)
• Drive down inventories throughout the supply chain

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