The Downside of Lean

To be truly lean, manufacturers require IT strategies designed to reduce or eliminate waste-creating downtime of critical applications -- the real 'enemy of lean.'

Frank Hill is the director of
manufacturing business development
for Stratus Technologies.

 

Summary

Manufacturers are squeezing more efficiency, productivity and value out of existing resources by using lean manufacturing techniques. IT systems downtime derails these initiatives by reintroducing cost, production inefficiencies, lost customer value … i.e. waste. Preventing downtime from occurring is a more efficient, effective strategy than recovering from failure after it has occurred. Determining the cost of downtime is a necessary step to evaluating which applications require the greatest protection against downtime. Only then can appropriate availability technologies and products be chosen based on need, available resources to manage them, and ROI.


Frank Hill is the director of manufacturing business development for Stratus Technologies. Prior to joining Stratus, Mr. Hill led MES business development at Wyeth, Merck & Co., and AstraZeneca for Rockwell Automation.  He has also worked in manufacturing leadership at Merck & Company. He is a frequent speaker and commentator on technology-enabled manufacturing solutions.

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