Lean Information Processing in the Specification Process

To improve the overall efficiency, from a supply chain perspective, manufactures are focusing their activities around a limited number of coreprocesses. Consequently the internal processing degree is reduced. When the degree of internal processing is reduced, the organizational balance between manufacturing processes and cross-organizational integration processes shifts, and this is reflected in the cost drivers. The reality is that while the cost of direct manufacturing is reduced, business processes becomes major cost drivers. This is a radical shift from conventional industry where the cost drivers typically were associated with the transformation of material. This paper will argue that focusing on production optimization have become less important to the end-manufacturer because the industrial paradigm have change. Instead the ability to orchestra the manufacturing of customized products presents a significant potential for efficiency improvement. In acknowledgement of this trend manufacturing concepts such as lean are successfully being applied to administrative processes such as the product specification process.