Lean ERP Implementations for Industrial Manufacturing companies

Posted on: May 19, 2011 | By: SuperUser Account | Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Much as “lean” concepts have helped drive costs and improve operations at certain industrial manufacturing plants, similar lean concepts can be deployed to drive costs out of ERP implementation projects while improving how the ERP supports the business operations. We believe it takes an internal project team dedicated to using ERP to support the business without getting enamored with the technology. We also understand the ERP consulting partner needs to adhere to these principles as well. Finally, industrial manufacturing leadership, from the executives through operations, must be willing to support the necessary operational changes to support the strategy.

Lean industrial manufacturers attempt to run operations with the minimum necessary inventory and working capital by reducing raw materials and work in process through more effective operational policies. Certainly one part of this effort involves simplifying operations. Similarly, we believe that the ERP implementation to support the operations must also be kept as simple as possible. It is often tempting to look at all the fancy functionality of today’s ERP systems and get bogged down in the complexity of their extensive functionality.

We would suggest you resist this temptation. Evaluate your business strategy. Identify where your business processes should be standard best practices and where they should be unique to provide your customer-driven competitive advantage. Where the business processes are standard, simplify and implement simplified ERP solutions. Where they are unique, determine how to support them with the ERP in the most streamlined manner possible.

At Logan Consulting, we believe we have served our industrial manufacturing customers well in this regard. We offer industrial manufacturers our nearly 20 years of experience in selecting and implementing ERP, like QAD and Microsoft Dynamics, among others. While the ERP package must fit the needs of the specific industrial manufacturing company, we believe the business process definition and adherence to “lean” implementation techniques can help ensure success.

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