Application Of Lean Principles Along with Internet of Things (Iot) To Improve Supply Chain Efficiencies

Abstract

Today’s markets are becoming more and more competitive and volatile where the demand of products are varying at a highly unpredictable manner and companies are finding it difficult to cater to the exact market demand on time thus reducing the efficiencies of the value chain. The global operations of companies today are highly complex where the products are manufactured elsewhere and sold in various countries across the globe. It has become very tough for managers to integrate the flow of information, products and funds across the value chain efficiently as the levels of value chain increases. Few very successful Fortune 500 companies had been highly profitable because of implementing the lean principles like JIT, close co-operation with suppliers, zero defect, 5s, kaizen, etc thus helping the company to maintain low inventories, high productivity and thereby producing high quality products at the right cost. IoT had been a buzzword in today’s digital world and the World Economic Forum in 2015 described IoT as one of the enablers in the 4th Industrial revolution that has taken off this decade which is about to transform the business models of many industries. This paper aims to integrate lean principles with the emerging technology enablers of the present decade and implement it by carrying out value stream mapping of the supply chain in an OEM company to arrive at a conclusion that lean operations with IoT technology innovations will lead to higher supply chain efficiencies