The Erp in Manufactring Benchmark Report

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and their MRP (Material Requirements

Planning) predecessors have been around for almost three decades now. As a result,

many aging implementations, based on outdated technology, are limiting the business

process evolution necessary to any company who wants to thrive and grow amidst the

pressures of globalization and increasingly demanding customers. Conversely manufacturers

demand more value from ERP implementations, not only as their systems age, but

as enterprise applications proliferate, raising questions concerning upgrade, replacement,

consolidation and rationalization.

Key Business Value Findings

The chief ERP implementation challenges cited by respondents were associated with the

alignment of business processes with software capabilities. Customization related challenges

arise where software has been adapted to fit the business. Business process redesign

challenges arise where processes are

adapted to the software. Companies

struggle to balance the two amidst costs

associated with upgrades and latent integration

costs where point solutions or

custom applications have been used to

fill the gaps in functionality.

Implications & Analysis

As a result, enterprises are struggling to

derive more and better business value

from their ERP implementations. That

often means driving the use of ERP

deeper into their organizations or broader

across more of the enterprise. It means extending the footprint beyond the core ERP

functionality and making decisions between ERP vendors and pure play or “best of

breed” solutions. For this to be successful, business processes must be streamlined and

standardized throughout and in many cases outdated technology just doesn’t cut it.

Recommendations for Action

Companies should evaluate current ERP implementations to ensure they effectively accomplish

the following:

• Balance aligning business processes to software capabilities against aligning

software capabilities to business processes to maximize benefit and allow your

business to evolve

• Consolidation decisions must weigh carefully the business value brought to the

enterprise.

“In implementing enterprise applications

many organizations neglect to assess the

technology platform, only to discover-after

the fact-that the hardware and networking

infrastructure is insufficient to support the

software.”

-Jim Moore, Business System Manager,

R&M Energy Systems

he evolution of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) has been an interesting