Manufacturing industry analyst Bob Parker predicted in InformationWeek magazine that more manufacturing companies will combine lean and Six Sigma to improve efficiency and quality in 2005.Parker, vice president of the Manufacturing Insights group at the market research and advisory firm IDC, also made the following predictions:

• There will be a renewed interest in supply chain applications. Manufacturers will examine traditional application categories—global manufacturing execution, supply chain event management and visibility, and supplier relationship management—to find a solution.
• On-demand information management will emerge as a high priority, along with a renewed interest in customer relationship management.
• Companies will have to do more with less in their product development processes. A market will emerge for product lifecycle management analytics, led by product portfolio management.
• Lean Six Sigma enterprise initiatives will grow.
• Information technology spending will shift to projects that add business functions. Leading manufacturers will have more than 75 percent of their internal developers working on new business function projects.
• The compliance burden will increase, creating incentives to produce higher-quality products and cut costs.

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