Supporting collaboration in the development and management of lean supply networks

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the appropriate information and communication technology can act as a catalyst in the development and operations management of lean supply networks; not by automating tasks and procedures, but by providing the enabling infrastructure required for structuring difficult problems and issues arising at inter-organisational boundaries and for taming the social complexity of their resolution processes. Towards this end, we present the design rationale and the functionalities of Co-LEAN, which is an integrated suite of software tools developed by the authors for the design and management of lean supply networks. In addition to providing full operational support in the planning and execution of the lean supply network, Co-LEAN supports internet-based collaboration in the specification of value, the identification and optimisation of value-streams, the alignment of supply-chain strategy with the overall operations strategy, and the supply-chain improvement tasks. The paper discusses the knowledge and information management requirements of lean supply networks, and presents the main components and functionalities of Co-LEAN in the context of a use case in a supply network formed around a stainless steel tanks’ manufacturer.