TABLE OF CONTENTS The enterprise resource planning (ERP) business model described in Chapter 1 is consistent with the definition of Class A ERP. The differentiator is performance within that business model. Class A ERP is the performance standard that defines high-performance discipline, accuracy, and customer service in the ERP process linkage. These criteria are defined by metric definitions and performance levels within those measures, roles of process owners, project management, accountability infrastructure, and customer service levels. As we get deeper into this topic, the details will become more obvious to the reader.
Class A ERP did not start out in full bloom. Early thinkers in this space would certainly include people like Oli Wight and George Plossl. I first met George Plossl at The Raymond Corporation in the 1970s. The Raymond Corporation was and is a major player in the manufacturing of narrow-aisle material handling equipment and also the company where I "grew up." George had been a previous associate of Jim Harty, who was the CEO of Raymond at the time. All three of these gentlemen (Oli Wight, George Plossl, and Jim Harty) worked together years before at the Stanley Works. Oli and George, who both leveraged their thought leadership into consulting businesses, are usually included in descriptions of the "fathers" of inventory and production control. Mr. Harty continued to stay in the practitioner side of business.
Material requirements planning (MRP) was the first formally recognized process that started to link the manufacturing planning processes. At the time,...
