What is Lean Inventory Management?

When we talk about the Inventory Management system, there are a lot of sub-topics to be understood and applied.

In this article, we will have a look at what is Lean Inventory Management and some of the important things related to the inventory system.

First of all, we need to understand the meaning of the term ‘Lean’. The term lean means a systematic approach to enhancing a company’s inventory by identifying and eliminating wastes.

In simple words, we can say that lean management is a long term approach towards continuous improvement in order to achieve efficiency and quality.

What is Lean Inventory Management?

As we discussed above, Lean Inventory Management is a systematic approach to improve the efficiency of the company by eliminating wastes, effort and time through a continuous improvement process.

The Lean Inventory Management works on five principles –

• Value
• Flow
• Pull
• Responsiveness
• Perfection     

Value – here you need to define the value your company will get by including Lean Inventory management.

Flow – here you need to understand the inventory flow and try to apply the 5S rule to overcome any obstacles.

Pull – This is commonly known as the Pull System in the industry. This means that you should have the production only when there is demand for the said product in the market or you can say, as per customer need. The same thing is also applicable in inventory management, where you move your inventory only when needed.

Responsiveness – Responsiveness is the most important factor in any business, as you should be able to adapt quickly to the changes happening in the market. When considering responsiveness in Lean Inventory Management, you should be able to improve your inventory flow continuously according to the market situation.

Perfection – This refers to improving quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness by refining the inventory management process.

Attributes of Lean Inventory Management

Having an efficient Lean Inventory Management have six important attributes to make it perform better for your company. Let us have a look at these attributes –

Demand Management – This is nearly the same as the Pull system, which caters the market demand. For this, the companies need to analyze their sales and operations to match the market needs by effectively managing the inventory system.

Costs /Waste Reduction – Lean Inventory management focuses more on reducing the cost and waste-related of the organization, but it should not have any negative impact on the already setup customer base.

Process Standardization – By standardizing the Inventory flow, promises smooth and efficient inventory management and can eliminate slowing factors like transportation, lead time, etc.

Industry Standardization – Always keep your products and services updated according to the industry you are serving. Updating the Inventory according to the updated industry norms will lead to profits and cost-effectiveness of the company.

Cultural Change – Cultural change means a team formation including all the important persons like inventory partners, suppliers, etc. to produce value to the end-user, there must be efficient teamwork with great work culture.

Cross-enterprise collaboration – to maximize the value delivered to the end-user or customer cross-enterprise collaboration is very important, as it eliminates any delay or product failures, resulting in positive reviews by the customer.

Conclusion

These attributes of Lean Inventory management can really help an organization to eliminate the risk factors and help the organization to grow.

There are many aspects of Inventory management to be learned and implemented in the business, but the above-discussed things can make the way for you towards good inventory management.