In traditional push systems,
	suppliers are left with large amount of inventory and still may not be able to fulfill the customer’s specific need. In a pull system, the parts move in small batches, by way of calculated buffers. Hence the products move fast out of the system and this means lower inventory levels and holding costs.

Today’s firms demand increasingly lean production systems to survive. To achieve this, the network of companies constituting the supply chain must become lean. This paper begins with a discussion of supply chains and lean manufacturing, continues with the elements required for a lean supply base. The paper focuses on one element that presents a challenge to lean manufacturing - the supply chain.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND LEAN MANUFACTURING

When viewing most value stream maps, the most obvious thing that will stand out is the high amount of supplier lead-time. This shows that the most important step to reduce the lead-time of a product is to reduce the lead-time in its supply chain. Both lean manufacturing and supply chain management are today’s buzzwords. A supply chain is a chain of companies linked together with the common goal of turning a particular raw material into finished product and delivering it to the end customer’s hands (Lamming, 1996). Supply chain management encompasses the various tools, methods and methodologies to optimize the supply chain. Lean manufacturing aims at reducing cost and waste, and to speed up product delivery; which satisfies customer tastes and strict quality standards. APICS defines lean manufacturing as, “A philosophy of production that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value-added activities in design, production, supply chain management, and customer service. Lean producers employ teams of multi-skilled workers at all levels of the organization and use highly flexible, increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety” (APICS, 1999). Incorporating lean principles in the supply chain is essential for optimizing the supply chain.