Dear fellow colleagues,
As we all know our first attempt to institute an ERP system in 2000 was a failure. Strategic and Structural factors were the leading cause of our downfall. Our main concern was to attack our problems related with technology that included process delays, lack of integration, multiple bills of material, sequential activities. The ERP integration the first time around did not incorporate the new business focuses we took on after ERP was employed. The ERP system was not fully relevant to those needs and unaligned with those objectives we were concerned with. This project ended up costing us nearly $130 Million. Our friends over at Prestige IT Solutions have come to show us what we did wrong in the first roll out and provided us with some future suggestions to help with our successful second rollout. I urge you to consider some of the suggestions and take the necessary measures to implement any changes to your department accordingly.
They say 3rd times a charm but in our case, it’s more like the 2nd times a charm. I guess we should all see our mistakes as a lesson and learn from them. That is why I felt it was a good idea to hire consultants to further dissect our implementation and give their opinion. The main reason we were successful the second time around was the amount of effort and initiative that was given from all levels of the ladder. We made sure that the strategy we had was in line with what the corporate direction was. Involvement from all functions and departments was crucial and we took the training sessions more seriously. Thanks to our successful implementation we are now leaders in market share for turboprop manufacturing and rank the highest in profitability with an approximate 6-8% EBIT margin.
Two things I would like to consider for our follow-up meeting is the areas of improvement mentioned by P.I.S:
- Knowledge transfer among team members
- Expand scope of future projects.
In maximizing full use of any technology, its benefit is only as good as the performance, or knowledge, of the user. I like the suggestion from PIS for us to consider cross training sessions or mentoring. We could have quarterly or semi-annually meetings with appropriate departments to exchange knowledge between us to help improve performance and also save time by eliminating the need to track down certain information which could waste time. This is something we need to really look into because I feel this improvement can lead to even greater future success. Yes, we might have to close the office for a half-day or a full day every few months to get the training done. Or we might need to write a check to an off-site venue where we will send employees for additional training. But the benefits are numerous. We can save thousands a year because we won't use temp agencies for example. Most importantly, it boosts a team-orientated environment.The other suggestion works off of our failure the first time around. We need to concentrate on having large blue-prints that will incorporate many aspects of the business functions in order to limit any possible gaps that would allow failure.
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