A lean manufacturing system is a system that meets high throughput or service demands with very little inventory. The lean manufacturing system contains several important principles as well as a collection of tactical methods for achieving them. The key principles of lean manufacturing are discussed below.

Value Streams: Let customers pull value through the enterprise by understanding what they want and then produce to meet real demand.

Stretch for Perfection: Pursue perfection by continually identifying and eliminating non-value-added activities from all processes.

Employee contribution: Involve employees in continual improvement and problem-solving activities.

Quick Implementation: Implement a rapid plan-do-check-act improvement framework to achieve results fast.

Performance Measurement: Use metrics and rapid performance feedback to improve real-time decision-making and problem-solving.

Organizational Approach: Approach improvement activities from a whole enterprise or system perspective.

There are several lean manufacturing systems (software solutions), which are primarily based on the above principles. Some of these are standardized for a wide range of operations and end-products while others are customizable as per specific requirements.

One of the modules used in such systems is the factory designer, which analyzes process throughput, defines mixed-model product families, calculates process time, documents standard work instructions, defines and balances operations, determines resource requirements and simulates factory designs.

Another module is a Kanban Management System (KMS), which supports the design and management of a Kanban system for a lean facility. KMS calculates the quantities and provides an effective method of maintaining quantities and containers as business variables change. Yet another module is a resource planning system to validate the daily production plan. This module allows lean production managers to calculate necessary staffing to meet the daily production schedule and to optimize productivity by re-assigning resources to constraints.

Thus, lean manufacturing systems prove to be good investments, not just automating but also for properly implementing the lean manufacturing initiatives.