Manufacturing Journalist Tr Cutler Profiles Digital Kanban By Datacraft Solutions

Datacraft Solutions (www.datacraftsolutions.com) has experienced significant growth in the past twelve months by eliminating complicated, expensive, time-intensive software implementations as well as extensive training regiments and the need for internal support. The Datacraft Solutions' replenishment supply chain digital kanban lean system allows customers access and fully utilize powerful lean benefits immediately for a low, predictable monthly fee. Services are scalable so manufacturers can design a Demand Driven Supply Chain Network.

Datacraft Solutions specializes in providing their clients with the tools they need to rapidly replace outdated manual systems with technology that speeds process flow and improves accuracy. Datacraft's premier product, Signum has been developed around the Kanban concept of replenishment, and provides an invaluable tool for manufacturing companies to monitor process flow, lower administrative transaction costs, and improve decision-making ability.

Thomas R. Cutler, manufacturing journalist of the feature article suggests that, "Supply chain functionality involves:
Connecting and integrating large and small companies electronically with all trading partners;
Managing and synchronizing product information to improve time-to-market, reducing cost and increasing revenue;
Providing a common platform and tools for companies to view, monitor and manage any type of data transaction, or sharing entire business processes anywhere in the world;
Providing industry processes and process management tools supporting collaborative demand planning in real time.

A lean and flexible supply chain structure saves a company from the embarrassment of a wildly inaccurate forecast and the potential for huge sales and profit losses a problem that the electronics industry still experiences despite years of intense focus on accurate demand and supply planning.

While forecasts are still necessary for capacity planning, more intelligent, collaborative methods are being employed to increase visibility down the supply chain. Where electronics companies once relied largely on sales goals or hindsight to generate forecasts, they are now moving toward a demand-driven model that uses more immediate data from sales channels to provide a clearer picture of what customers actually want, and an agile supply chain to execute rapidly when inevitable, sometimes daily, changes in demand occur. A piece of lean manufacturing in the supply chain often includes Kanban which, loosely translated from Japanese, means 'card' or 'sign'. It is a method that uses standard units or lot sizes with a single card attached to each during storage. Kanban is a pull system used at a stock point in which a supply batch is ordered only when a previous batch is withdrawn. Kanban manages finished goods and components where the manufacturer keeps safety stock on hand at all times for each stage in the manufacturing process. A subcontractor will have safety stock for relevant components, a vendor will have safety stock for sub-assemblies, and finally there will be safety stock for finished goods. Typically, the customer will draw from the inventory, which is then replenished within an agreed-upon time frame.

The scope of Kanban has grown to e-Kanban and now digital Kanban. Demand-driven supply chain networks, by default, incorporate the Kanban process. Enabling companies to sign up with a software as a service (SaaS) model creates immediate realized value and visibility in the supply chain.

Datacraft Solutions' Demand Driven Supply Chain Network was profiled in the recent issue of Material Management & Distribution magazine; the article may be read in its entirety at http://www.mmd.rogers.dgtlpub.com/data/issuePDF/MMD/8500000541-MMD.pdf#page=59.