The Implementation Challenge

CATCH-22
There’s an apparent catch-22 involved in implementing Enterprise
Resource Planning successfully. It goes like this:
1. It’s a lot of work.
Implementing ERP as a new set of decision-making processes is a
major undertaking involving many people throughout the company,
including general management. In essence, the entire company must
learn how to deal with demand and supply issues in a new way. The
speed of information flow with enterprise software combined with
ERP’s new approach to all of the planning and execution systems
represents a major shift in company thinking—and that means a lot
of work.
2. It’s a do-it-yourself project.
Successful implementations are done internally. In other words, virtually
all of the work involved must be done by the company’s own
people. The responsibility can’t be turned over to outsiders, such as
consultants or software suppliers. That’s been tried repeatedly, and
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hasn’t worked well at all. Consultants can have a real role in providing
expertise but only company people know the company well
enough and have the authority to change how things are done.
When implementation responsibility is de-coupled from operational
responsibility, who can be legitimately accountable for results?
If results aren’t forthcoming, the implementers can claim the users
aren’t operating it properly, while the users can say that it wasn’t implemented
correctly. Almost without exception, the companies who
have become Class A or B and have achieved the greatest bottomline
benefits are the ones where the users implemented ERP themselves.
Therefore, a key principle of implementation is:
IMPLEMENTERS = USERS
The people who implement the various tools within Enterprise Resource
Planning need to be the same folks who will operate those
tools after they’re implemented.
3. It’s not priority number one.
The problem is, the people who need to do it are already very busy
with their first priority: getting customer orders, making shipments,
meeting payroll, keeping the equipment operating, running the business.
All other activities must be subordinate. Implementing ERP
can’t be priority number one, but it does need to be pegged as a high
priority within the company, preferably the number two priority,
right below running the business.
Well, who runs the business? People do. People starting with general
managers1 as well as department leaders in sales, manufacturing,
finance, and marketing. Virtually everyone in the company has a
stake, including those who plan, produce, and sell the product at
every level in the business.
24 ERP: M I H
1 Throughout this book, we’ll use the term General Manager to refer to the senior
executive in charge of the business unit. In this context, general manager can be
synonymous with President, Chief Executive Officer, or Managing Director. It is the
person to whom all the major disciplines report: Sales & Marketing, Operations,
Product Development, Finance.