Digital Kanban is Intelligent Supply Chain Management According to Fabricating and Metalworking

-link">the chaos that this created on the shop floor. Sales
According to Fabricating and Metalworkinghave increased because the company no longer uses
Magazine,Digital Kanban is Intelligent Supply Chaincapacity to build parts without an order to buy now.
ManagementOne-hundred percent of production capacity is used
The February issue of Fabricating and Metalworkingto build parts that are already sold as soon as they
Magazine ( in the “online exclusives” sectionhit the shipping dock.
includes a feature article regarding digital kanbanThe hosted solution provides the customer with their
featuring Datacraft Solutions. Cutler provided aown set of servers which are maintained offsite by
detailed understanding of how digital kanban solutionsand outsourced set of administrators. All of the
are critical to an effective lean manufacturing initiativeadministration fees, equipment, support teams and
and provided a case study that featured Datacraftsoftware updates are all included in the monthly
Solutions ( According to Matthew Marotta, Founderservice fee which is less then the cost of hiring an
of Datacraft Solutions, “We do not charge forinternal system administrator. The value of an ASP is
upgrades to the system as we learn about new bestthat manufacturers can buy “by the drink”, low
practices that clients ask us to incorporate. Beforerisk, and a see a rapid ROI. Only internet access is
Datacraft incorporates the request, it is reviewedrequired.
buy a lean advisory board to validate the value ofAccording to North America’s leading
the best practices and the value added impact uponmanufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler (
our partner community. Once it is passed, they“Recent estimates suggest that more than a third
develop, test, and implement.”of all metalworking and fabricating manufacturers
With digital kanban, all production is now initiatedengage in some type of lean-manufacturing initiative.
based on the immediate needs of customers.There are many variables that drive the goal of
Inventory turns for digital kanban parts are now atwaste elimination, none as keen as the need to be
62 turns per year. Time spent by customer servicecompetitive in a global economy. As manufacturers
communicating on expedited parts issues hasimplement these lean programs, they are bringing a
practically been eliminated. They estimated thatkey element of lean—kanban—into the fray in a
customer-service staff was spending 40 percent ofseamless way: online.
their time on just expediting part orders, as well as