ERP, how to pick the best?

  • Thread starter Juan De los Santos Naumov
  • Start date
J

Thread Starter

Juan De los Santos Naumov

I know in most developed economies ERP, MRP, and many more are so common that this question may be not interesting.

But many companies in my country are facing the challenge to install ERP in order to improve efficiency, lower cost, etc, etc.

Once your company decide to walk this way, it is time to choose the right package. The first impulse is to choose the biggest one like SAP, JDEdwards, etc.

We are not sure to use the big ones, because they need a lot of resources, they are not flexible, too expensive, etc etc.

Someone out there have some experience with other packages?

We think if we have comments on other experiences using alternative packages this will be very helpful to us in order to search for
alternatives. And, of course we accept inputs for basic specifications of such products.

Thank you very much


Juan De los Santos
 
H

Hullsiek, William

ERP are like DCS -- they require constant feeding, manipulation, and tuning to keep the processes running properly. It is essentially, the DCS vs. PLC question, only we are monitoring business processes instead of physical processes. Only here you are concerned with dollar balances, instead of mass or energy balances.

I would recommend working with your industrial engineers first, and do TIMING studies of your basic business processes, i.e., time to enter an order, purchase orders, schedule products,
configure products, etc., Breaking the work down into standard work procedures (standard operations) is essential.

Look at your Key performance indicators for running the business, such as the your labour overhead, etc. Total throughput of order, first through time through metrics.

Select an ERP that will reduce your overhead, or keep it constant while the company is growing.


Good Luck

- Bill Hullsiek
MES guy.
 
Unquestionably, THE most important thing is to make sure that the person making the decision has a very thorough understanding of the entire
operations of that particular business, down to the very last details.

Secondly, one must understand that even the mightiest $billion ERP cannot be infinitely flexible and be not in a runaway situation.

Lastly, every authorised user must exercise utmost discipline in utilising the system and there must not be any loopholes anywhere that will enable anybody to bypass the system. Otherwise, no one will ever trust the system.

Finally, the person making the final selection must be willing to sit through a very thorough preview and Q & A sessions to understand how each
step works.

The most costly package does not necessarily mean the best solution.

ERP vendors usually ask " What is your budget ?" Don't fall into this atrocious trap.

You need to ask first " What can your system do for my operations ?"

cheers,
KS Neoh
 
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