Applying Lean Manufacturing Techniques to Distribution Requirements Planning in Ecuadorian Flour Industry

Abstract

This research proposes to use Lean Manufacturing techniques to get Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP). The paper describes a case study at a major Ecuadorian flour industry, with lean manufacturing techniques the aim is improve and optimize the production system, reducing delivery times, wasteful action and inventories generated by work in process. Value stream mapping is used to identify wasteful action as opportunities for improvement and through the DRP matrix the inventory rotation and the distribution operation were improvement allowing a greater flow of money for the company. The results allow to demonstrate the successful application of the model in the flour industry with a reduction in nonvalue-added time and an improvement of 13.8% in the production process time, based on this, a improved production plan based on the distribution requirements can be elaborated.