Pacing production. Synchronizing supply. Even in traditional lean settings, these two pillars of demand-driven production are difficult to manage. So how do you enable lean manufacturing when you're dealing with demand volatility and variable volumes and mixes? Or when you're looking to move from an early-stage lean transformation to a corporate-wide deployment?

Acquired in 2006 from Factory Logic, the SAP Lean Planning and Operations (SAP LPO) application extends the value of SAP manufacturing solutions by providing lean planning and scheduling capability for plant execution. Combined with SAP ERP lean functionality, SAP LPO offers an end-to-end platform for lean implementations across the enterprise.

With SAP LPO as your real-time production management and scheduling system, you can address the two critical requirements of lean manufacturing:

• Production leveling at pacemaker operations
• Synchronization to create stability in the upstream supply chain

SAP LPO supports an integrated approach to lean production management that directly links production to actual customer demand, while maintaining the stability required for consistent, reliable, waste-free factory and supply chain operations. SAP LPO fills the gap between enterprise-level systems and visual factory controls – enabling factory personnel to:

• Establish pacemaker production schedules that are leveled over the shift, day, and week with lot sizes as small as possible (small EPEI)
• Properly size and monitor inventory buffers, Kanban loops, and supermarkets that absorb demand variability, minimize carrying costs, and enable 100% customer order fulfillment capability
• Send level, stable requirement projections and buffer replenishment signals to upstream operations and suppliers
• Monitor actual production and changes to underlying demand volatility to adjust finished goods, WIP, and safety stock target levels as needed

SAP LPO helps create and monitor demand-driven production schedules that are "as level as possible," and "as mixed as possible" given your production process at any point in time. Enabling you to maximize responsiveness and minimize waste at all stages of transformation and operation.