TABLE OF CONTENTS Class A ERP is probably not as well recognized as a performance model as it should be. Enterprise resource planning is a business model that is all-encompassing within a manufacturing business. The differentiator for making the ERP model Class A 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 be more specifically documented.
Class A ERP did not start out in full bloom. Early thinkers in this space would certainly include people like Oliver Wight and George Plossl. I first met George at The Raymond Corporation in the 1970s. The Raymond Corporation 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 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 formal recognized process that started to link the manufacturing...
