Product News: Ultriva Electronic Kanban Implementation Improves Lean Metrics

(Ultriva: Cupertino, CA) -- Ultriva Inc., the lean leader with an electronic kanban focus, went live in 36 plants last year and is on target to double in 2009.

“Ultriva’s core message of ‘free up the capital tied in the inventory’ resonated very well with our target market. Our ability to quickly deploy the software and get our customers to go live, led to substantial revenue growth,” says Narayan Laksham, Ultriva’s founder and CEO. Laksham also notes that prior to an Ultriva solution implementation, significant time and resources were often required to audit and manage the manual kanban cards. Companies also didn't measure cycle time and other key performance indicators for continuous improvement analysis. “Often the difficulty in scaling kanban processes for expanded manufacturing operations leads to a management decision to deploy our electronic kanban solution,” he adds.

There are many common conditions before an Ultriva electronic kanban implementation including:

• Stock outs at least once a week
• Tedious and expensive weekend audits
• Expediting charges and excess inventory
• Nearly a dozen data entry screens for manufacturing resource planning (MRP) applications
• High inventory levels to manage spikes
• Manual stock checking

After an Ultriva implementation clients report:

• No stock outs in 12 months following the implementation
• No lost kanban cards
• Efficient vendor replenishment, resulting in 60 percent inventory reduction
• A single barcode scan to capture all information
• Ability to manage sudden spikes in demand
• An MRP system has more and better inventory data

Ultriva enables manufacturing companies to become customer centered by leaning their business, from distribution all the way to their global supply chain. Elimination of stock outs, reduction in lead times, increases in inventory turns, productivity improvement, and inventory reduction are the primary factors why customers choose Ultriva.

Ultriva is live at more than 120 plants across 10 countries. Companies like Emerson, BE Aerospace, Trane, Ingersoll-Rand, McKesson, AO Smith, FRANKE, and AGCO, among others are using Ultriva to collaborate with more than 4,000 suppliers and transacting $1.5 billion of purchased parts every year.

Visit www.ultriva.com for more information.

About The Author

Ultriva

Ultriva is leading the way toward more efficient lean business practices with a practical, automated approach. We are focused on helping businesses like yours to improve collaboration and drive streamlined processes through demand and supply—removing the traditional tiers that can slow down your operations. We do it with an execution platform that facilitates the flow of information and materials across boundaries to give you complete visibility while making better use of your time and resources.