LEAN Affiliates Library – “The Sirens' Song of Enterprise Software, by Mark Edmondson”
I've found some really practical and thoughtful articles on the LEAN Affiliates website, including this one on enterprise software. Has your site/factory been burned by these types of enterprise software (or “lean software“) promises? I remember a study from about five years ago that said 50% of all plant managers were disappointed with their new ERP systems.
On a slightly separate thought, is there a “siren song of lean” that some have been burned by?
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As CTO of a “lean transformation software” company, I’d have to agree with the “siren song” articles. There are very few software tools for true lean solutions. Factory Logic, Pelion and Future State Solutions all have very specific tools. I know that the enterprise apps are heading there but they start at the execution end (printing kanban, etc) and don’t really help on the design of a future state. Enterprise software is a long ways away from their rosy marketing lit.
Future State Solutions’ tool was built from the ground up to support LEI’s vision of lean and then extended for high mix, low volume (mixed model). Unfortunately, software is still very suspect in the lean community making it difficult for new tools to get established.
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