1. Introduction
The Board of Investment of Thailand promotes the investment policy by inviting foreign investors. Thus, a number of foreign companies are located in Thailand under the responsibility of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand.
Foreign electronics companies have played a vital role in the Thai economic structure. Various researches have been also proposed for improving in electronics operation efficiency. Wanitwattanakosol and Sopadang [1] developed a conceptual framework to perform a value chain approach for the electronics sector. It was found that the lean concept was employed to develop the framework.
The problem of setting appropriate lead times is a classical problem in a context of an inventory management system. ABC analysis is often a useful first step for managing multiple items in inventory [2]. ABC analysis consists of separating the inventory items into three groupings, by considering their annual cost volume usage. A items, B items and C items are a high, an intermediate and a low dollar usage, respectively. Each categorized-item is controlled using different efforts. Hopp and Spearman [3] summarized that A items are ordered only when imminently needed.
Reorder point in a continuously-monitored approach is used for B items. A two-bin system is typically adopted for C items. This simple system has two bins which an empty bin signals the need for a replenishment order and the other
bin is used to satisfy the demand [4]. The two-bin system is often used in the lean concept. Lean production is a management philosophy based on the elimination of non-value added (NVA) activities. This philosophy has been implemented in various industries for evaluating the real applicability. The redundancy program
and a lack of employee education were found to be the main stumbling blocks in a traditional aerospace manufacturing company [5]. Moreover, Serrano et al. [6] extracted the results obtained from the real-world practices in six industrial
companies. Information technology (IT) plays an essential role for facilitating the lean implementation. Lean manufacturing practices and IT have been taken to reduce lead times. IT has also an impact on the efficiency and quality of manufacturing, especially in the manufacturing process control, production control level and business
function support [7]. Ward and Zhou [8] affirmed that integration between lean practices and IT could reduce lead times in manufacturing.
This research presents the implementation of IT by adopting lean perspective in a real case study from an electronic company confronting with an inventory problem. The objective is to implement a lean concept for eliminating wastes
arising in the case study. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, research methodology is described. Results and discussion are mentioned in Section 3. Conclusions and further research directions are provided in the final section.