News | May 12, 2009

Five Proven Practices To Achieve A Lean Supply Chain

Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, announced the latest report, "Lean Manufacturing: Five Tips for Reducing Waste in the Supply Chain," that looks at how companies are reducing operational costs and meeting customer mandates through leveraging a Lean manufacturing environment. The capabilities differentiating top manufacturers today will not be enough in today's economic conditions. Consumption across the board is shrinking, forcing companies to adapt and run as efficiently as possible. In fact, the report reveals that 79% of all respondents identified operational costs as the top pressure driving companies to consider investing in a Lean manufacturing strategy.

Interestingly, Aberdeen Group uncovered that when companies consider Lean today they are more likely than ever to be considering the handoffs between manufacturing and supply chain. "Improving this handoff translates into synchronizing manufacturing execution with customer demand and improving the collaborative processes for supply chain planning and manufacturing operations, both of which were identified as the top two strategic actions by the respondents," explains Nari Viswanathan, VP/Principle Analyst, Supply Chain Management, Aberdeen Group. "To help in the execution of these strategies, this report is a roadmap for professionals looking to implement Lean principles and extend them into the supply chain," added Mathew Littlefield, Sr. Analyst, Manufacturing Practice Leader.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the following underwriters: Infor and Plex Systems. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit: http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5851.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement – Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For more information, visit Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com, for more information about Harte-Hanks, visit: http://www.harte-hanks.com.

SOURCE: Aberdeen Group