LEAN Manufacturing is a powerful approach used by manufacturing companies to drastically improve manufacturing processes by identifying and eliminating wasteful steps in products and processes. The basic goal of LEAN Manufacturing is to get more done with less by minimizing inventory at all stages of production, shortening the product cycle times from raw materials to finished goods and by eliminating waste.

In the business world, it is appropriate to ask how LEAN and ERP interact - if at all. There are some cases where LEAN and ERP can and should be mutually supportive in some situations but there are also many combinations of LEAN initiatives and ERP implementations where an attempt to put a single “umbrella” over them are inappropriate.

Read this paper for clarification on the situations where ERP supports LEAN, the benefits of this support and why it only applies to some situations.