ERP systems are a strategic investment in the future

In an era where the manufacturing mid-sized sector is grappling with supply chain issues, skilled labor shortages, and dynamic markets, a tailored ERP software that meets exact requirements is essential. Planat, with its ERP system FEPA, has been supporting manufacturing companies for over 40 years in optimizing their processes and securing competitive advantages.

The trap of short-term compromises

Implementing an ERP system is a major project that binds significant internal resources. It is only human that during the course of the project, the desire arises to speed up the process or reduce costs by deviating from the original plans. Typical examples of such short-term compromises are:

• Requirements are only superficially clarified: Instead of precisely analyzing the actual needs of all departments and determining what the system must accomplish, one limits oneself to a rough overview.
• The system choice is primarily determined by price: The decision is made for the cheapest solution instead of the one that best fits the specific company processes and future goals.
• Test runs are shortened or omitted: To save time, detailed tests of individual functions or complete process chains with real data are omitted.
• Old data is not thoroughly cleaned: Instead of preparing faulty or incomplete data from legacy systems, they are adopted one-to-one.
• Employee training is treated as secondary: Training for future users is reduced to a minimum or planned too late in the project.
• Integration with other systems is not consistently implemented: Important interfaces to systems like CAD/PDM or specialized software are only rudimentarily or not at all realized.

Such compromises may seem attractive at first glance to save time or money. In the long run, however, they almost always lead to problems that are significantly more expensive and laborious to solve than a careful approach from the beginning.

Critical areas for uncompromising implementation

1. Comprehensive requirements analysis and process design: A detailed analysis of the current processes and the careful definition of the target processes involving all relevant stakeholders form the indispensable foundation. A clear understanding must be developed of which functions the system must represent to support business objectives.
2. Strategic system and partner selection: The decision for an ERP system and its provider should be based on a comprehensive evaluation that considers not only the functional requirements but also the technical architecture, integration possibilities, scalability, total costs of ownership (TCO) over the entire lifecycle, as well as the industry expertise and reliability of the partner.
3. Establishment of high data quality and careful migration: Data integrity is critical for the usability of the information managed in the ERP system. This requires comprehensive cleansing and preparation of legacy data as well as the implementation of robust processes and standards for future master data management.
4. Comprehensive test management: A dedicated test strategy with adequately sized test phases is mandatory. Systematic testing of functionalities, processes, and integrations under realistic conditions is the best way to identify and fix errors before going live.
5. Investment in user empowerment and change management: The success of an ERP system largely depends on its acceptance and correct use by end users. Proactive communication of change, targeted role-based training, and continuous support are essential to ensure high user adoption and productivity.
6. Consistent implementation of security and compliance standards: ERP systems manage highly sensitive company data. Strict adherence to internal and external security policies, implementation of differentiated access controls, and ensuring compliance with relevant legal and regulatory requirements (e.g., data protection regulations) are fundamental prerequisites.
7. Integration into the system landscape: A smooth and reliable integration of the ERP system with other specialized applications such as CAD, CAQ, or other expert systems via defined interfaces is necessary to enable seamless processes and ensure a consistent data basis across the entire company.

Significant negative impacts of compromises

Making compromises in the aforementioned critical domains typically leads to significant negative impacts. These include, for example, increased operating costs due to manual rework and error corrections or a lack of reliability of the data basis, which can lead to suboptimal or incorrect business decisions. Other possible consequences are low user acceptance and inefficient system usage, additional costs and delays, potential compliance violations, as well as limited scalability and future viability of the system.

Source: Planat