TASKS TO BE COMPLETED IN MONTH 3 Complete Task Yes No 3-1. Series of business meetings conducted for steering committee. ______ ______ 3-2. Series of business meetings conducted by project team people for all other persons involved with the slice. ______ ______ 3-3. Enthusiasm, teamwork, and a sense of ownership becoming visible throughout all groups involved in the slice. ______ ______ 3-4. Inventory record accuracy, including scheduled receipts and allocations, at 95 percent or better for all slice items. ______ ______ 3-5. All slice bills of material at least 98 per- cent accurate, properly structured, and sufficiently complete for ERP. ______ ______ 3-6. All item data for slice products and com- ponents, plus any necessary work center data, complete and verified for reason- ableness. ______ ______ TASKS TO BE COMPLETED IN MONTH 4 Complete Task Yes No 4-1. Executive steering committee authoriza- tion to implement master scheduling (MS) and Material Requirements Plan- ning (MRP) on the slice products and components. ______ ______ 4-2. Master scheduling and MRP operating properly. ______ ______ 300 ERP: M I H Complete Task Yes No 4-3. Plant schedules, and kanban where ap- propriate, in place and operating prop- erly for the slice items. ______ ______ 4-4. Feedback links (anticipated delay report- ing) in place for both plant and purchas- ing. ______ ______ TASKS TO BE COMPLETED IN MONTH 5 Complete Task Yes No 5-1. Suppliers cut over to supplier scheduling as practical. ______ ______ 5-2. Performance measurements in place and being reviewed carefully by the steering committee and project team. ______ ______ 5-3. Audit/assessment II completed; next Quick Slice or other improvement initia- tive now underway. ______ ______ Quick-Slice ERP—Implementation 301 [...]... each position in the company, and written into its job specification New incumbents should be required to meet these standards within a short time on the job How can ongoing ERP education be woven into the operational fabric of the company? Perhaps it can best be done by involving the folks in human resources In the H.R office, there are files for each employee Checklists are maintained there to help... seem to share a creative discontent with the status quo Their attitude is: “We’re doing great, but we’re going to be even better next year We’re going to raise the high bar another six inches, and go for it. ” There are few companies today who are as good as they could be There are few companies today who even have any idea how good they could be In general, the excellent companies are populated with. .. answer to connecting your customers and suppliers Typically, we are supportive since the Internet offers such great capability to link dis- The Strategic Future (Phase III) 325 parate operations and companies with real time connections However, without the knowledge and time offered via ERP, the high speed of the Internet can simply raise expectations with limited ability to satisfy those expectations With. .. correction By the time that customers report a problem with a product, there may be weeks of inventory of the same product sitting in a warehouse waiting to be scrapped With lower inventories, product quality problems will become visible—and fixable—sooner The same thing is true for new products If your product line has periodic additions, improvements, or changes, then you’re no doubt familiar with dumping... but the true cost and flexibility of the total supply chain will probably not have changed The opportunity now is to attack the current supply chain logic and move well past the inventory savings used to justify ERP and ES If zero inventory is too scary or appears to be too expensive for your operation, at least start with a big concept such as a 50 percent reduction Think big about this because it will... life within the company No Chapter 16 The Strategic Future (Phase III) SEE THE FUTURE The fortune teller sings the familiar refrain—“Come and see the future.” Are you tempted? Do you think that anyone can see the future or do you want to really know? Well, relax We are not going to tell your fortune or your future However, we are going to tell you that, with the tools provided by Enterprise Resource. .. knowledge of the supply chain, the Internet is like using a high-speed race car to deliver the mail—lots of wasteful starts and stops that nullify the speed between stops Far too many companies have pinned their hopes on an oversimplified view of the Internet as the short cut to make sense of their supply chain There is no question that the Internet offers real potential to change the way that the supply... change It s necessary periodically to match up the tools (ERP) to today’s business environment and objectives These may be quite different from what they were a few years ago when ERP was implemented What’s needed is an ongoing process That is, one where people can review the tools they’re using to do their jobs, match that up against today’s requirements, and ask themselves, “Are we still doing the right... major customer base However, this DC should be largely a cross docking facility where the product never stops but simply moves from a supply truck to a delivery truck for a specific customer or customers Every time you see a DC that is full of inventory, it is badly named DC’s need to be distribution points and not storage facilities Can companies with seasonal business ever operate without inventories?... unattainable to many companies today this sounds like nirvana However, it s not good enough Are all Class A companies perfect? Nope Are there things these companies could do better? Certainly The message is clear Companies should not rest on their laurels after reaching Class A with ERP Don’t be content with the status quo It s more important than ever to go after those additional productivity tools, those . means running the business with the ERP set of tools, which tends not to change. However, business conditions do change. It s necessary periodi- cally to match up the tools (ERP) to today’s business. No one of these tools—Lean Manufacturing, Total Quality, Enterprise Resource Planning, De- sign for Manufacturability, CAD/CAM, Activity Based Costing, and all the others—is sufficient. They’re. level is much the same. A company needs to understand that: • Today’s success is no guarantee of tomorrow’s. • People are the key. • The name of the game is to win, to be better than the competi- Operating