Managing with more data
By Rick Bushnell -- Modern Materials Handling, 9/1/1998
This month I'm tackling two more questions on corporate computerization and system implementation; they are:- What does enterprise computing really mean? Is a huge system and massive change the only way to get there?
- How do I balance and even leverage improvements to work flow (paperwork) and materials flow?
Enterprise computing is really about visibility into information to do a more effective job of management. "Enterprise thinking" managers are those who know how to use new kinds of information and are really at the heart of an enterprise system. (When enterprise systems are preceded by million dollar consulting contracts, what one pays for is a redesign of the company. And the redesign is based on the ability to use information to make decisions resulting in quantum changes in operating efficiencies.)
The size of the system you may need and the amount of change you will have to undergo have more to do with your starting point than anything else. If your company is very departmentalized and management is only interested in optimizing the efficiency of a single operation without regard for what goes on upstream or downstream, you will need huge changes.
On the other hand, if the company is already integrated and various activities like buying, building, and selling product are really done as a team, then the deeper synergy will not involve as big a change.
I can just hear some saying, "Well, we are departmentalized and we want to work more closely together, but you're scaring us with this talk of redesign and million dollar consulting."
The truth is that integrating the information contained in your information systems and getting the management team to share and use more information is a more gradual, less painful, and a more practical approach. But then it comes with less than quantum improvements. Many, many companies will use real-time client server based computer systems to first integrate operations that were highly departmentalized and then move into "enterprise thinking" and finally into true enterprise computing.
The first thing to realize about leveraging improvements in work flow with materials flow is that such a relationship exists. Things like shorter manufacturing runs and more inventory turns have to result in more replenishment orders and manufacturing set-up time.
In other words, more work and more transactions. This is what enterprise resource planning (ERP) is all about. If a company is going to streamline the flow of jobs, everything from order entry to scheduling production or setting the numbers of pickers, packers, and shippers has to be done based on information gathered and distributed through the system.
Enterprise computing's "leverage"
Consider this analogy of a lever as it relates to enterprise computing: mechanical advantage is set by the lever's length. A short lever has batch entered, departmental information. A longer lever makes that information available in real time. But when we add visibility we get an even more powerful lever. In enterprise systems not only do you see information from all aspects but you also see the results of your activity up- and downstream. The way to work the "lever" is to get everyone in the company to understand that they are directly related to products that are produced or distributed. So information about consumption, for example, should be of interest to everyone: The people who are trying to sell product, those who are trying to maintain and improve quality, and those who need to order raw material or parts for those who build or blend the product.
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