Leading and Managing the Lean Management Process

CHAPTER 8

Knowledge Disconnection: The Future of Lean

A noted study of the U.S. food industry estimated that poor coordination among supply chain partners was wasting $30 billion annually.¹ This study further noted that supply chains in many other industries suffer from an excess of some products and a shortage of others owing to an inability to predict demand accurately and in a timely fashion. In all likelihood, this is a conservative estimate today, given that supply chains have become more complex and global, which exacerbates the costs of poor supply chain coordination.

Needless to say, the disconnection of knowledge and lack of information sharing between supply chain trading partners represents the economic frontier to extend Lean Management ...