Saratoga, CA ? Mar.31st, 2016 ? LEAN PLANNER?, our flagship planning solution for demand-driven supply chains is successfully validated by?SAP? today.??As a proud member of SAP? startup focus program (SFP), Lean Axis successfully developed, released and validated its planning solution LEAN PLANNER? on HANA. The system allows customers to assess ROI on PULL using their own live operational data, and move away from their MRP based PUSH system to a LEAN based PULL system. This approach optimizes inventories as much as 50% and improves service levels close to 100%. ?Our customers always wanted?to quit chasing forecast and start building what their customers want. They can now achieve this dream step-by-step with minimal risk using our on-demand suite of solutions on HANA in cloud” said Ranjan Choudhary, Founding Director, Lean Axis. About Lean Axis: Based out of Silicon Valley, California, Lean Axis is a leading provider of LEAN solutions and services that help companies of all sizes enable LEAN on their SAP? enterprise software. For more information, please visit www.LeanXis.com.

How Much Inventory Do You Really Need? A few years ago, I implemented an SAP? ERP system for a subsidiary of an Australian arms manufacturer. The company was setting up a manufacturing plant in Tucson, AZ. The Iraq war was at its peak. It was mandatory that the company manufacture their product in America, and they needed to ramp up production fast to produce enough to support our forces in Iraq. During a requirements-gathering workshop, the plant manager told me that companies producing similar products turn their inventories at three. He wanted to turn his at six. What processes did he need to make that a reality? (As you probably know, a ?turn? is a technical term in inventory management that measures how fast you convert raw materials into finished products. The larger this number, the lower the inventory; e.g., a turn of four means that the raw materials procured today will get converted into a finished product in three months because the inventory turns four times a year). I had spent over a decade consulting on various ERP solutions for manufacturing enterprises, and I had hands-on experience implementing supply chain solutions for enterprises large and small that employed a