TABLE OF CONTENTS It has been a few years now since many companies implemented their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. For many organizations, this is a topic they would rather not talk about, because of their prior Y2K implementation experiences. However, we need to revisit this area in the context of the Lean Extended Enterprise. For the most part, organizations were successful in integrating core business processes and achieving Y2K compliance, including:
Sharing common data and practices across the organization
Producing and accessing information in real time
Leveraging best practices available within the ERP package
Avoiding and eliminating costly legacy system development, customization, and maintenance
Speeding up consolidation of financial and operating information in a multiple-site business environment
Although ERP has received bad press, many organizations have been working diligently to make their ERP experience a success. Unfortunately, the great expectations of ERP were tempered by the desire to minimize the cost and time associated with getting the new system up and running. When an organization lives for many years with a poorly implemented ERP system, the hidden costs of poor quality continue to escalate and the benefits get further away. The good news is that there are hundreds of "quick-strike" improvements that we can make in this arena. Like everything else we've discussed, the money is still on the table.
Technology is the easy part of improvement. Information technology (IT) solutions do not solve strategic and organizational problems, and they are not plug-and-play solutions to achieve the company's mission. Like any...
