Maximize Your Fourth Shift Potential - Part 2
Maximize Your Fourth Shift Potential - Part 2

 

Last week, we began the discussion on why manufacturing leaders are left feeling frustrated with their ERP's performance and utilization. We discovered that often organizations are simply not harnessing the full capacity of their ERP. Your ERP will increase your business's efficiency, output, and overall capability when utilized to its fullest potential. However, when underutilized, it’s hard to see the rich benefits your ERP can provide. 


An ERP system's success requires organizations to take a clear and thorough look at their ERP operations. If you don't know why the ERP isn’t fitting the needs of your business, it’s hard to know where improvements need to be made. A Business System Review (BSR) provides a gap analysis between how you want your system to function and what we need to do to get it there. This process will determine the strengths and weaknesses of how your ERP performs and how it is utilized within your business. 

 

What does a Business System Review Accomplish?

In essence, a BSR involves evaluating your present state and figuring out the next steps to transition into your desired future state. Allowing a third party to perform the BSR ensures that it is executed objectively, fairly, and accurately. Processes are the secret sauces of manufacturing, and you want to make sure your sauces are made right. A properly performed BSR will accomplish several tasks: 

Discover:

Discuss your company's goals and directions to ensure we understand the current business processes. These objectives can be growth-based, sales-related, process improvements, etc. – they will be individual to your business and its needs. This step will guarantee you have the right foundation to support new solutions. 

Design:

Collaborate with key personnel to organize the required solutions into process flow, automation, and manual components. Assess all the processes within each department and note how each department interfaces with the ERP daily. This evaluation reveals the gap in your process, procedures, and capability of your ERP. From there, we will design and document the necessary solutions into the Business Systems Review and determine the appropriate processes and components to support the needs of the business. 

Plan of Action:

The goal here is to find what capabilities will help achieve your goals and derive value from your investments. We will create a plan to seamlessly integrate your ERP functions into all your business processes and, if necessary, a custom shopping list of the key ERP or distribution software to fit the business goals. We generate realistic solutions and budgeting to close the gaps in your ERP performance and utilization before determining a timeline and methodology for implementing the new solutions and streamlining transitions. 

Deliver:

Deliver our solutions and plan for your organization through Business Systems Review documentation. Schedule the projects and implement the solutions. It's that easy! 

 

Through a BSR, you uncover inefficiencies in your system and identify areas for improvement in business processes. On the flip side, it will showcase all the positive aspects of the organization as well. A BSR is the optimal method for maximizing ERP benefits while providing the organization the opportunity to enhance productivity, gain a competitive edge, and boost profitability. If you need help addressing the real issues with your system, ICG is here to help your organization make the right decisions to make your business better.

 

To schedule a Business System Review and discuss your specific ERP needs, please get in touch with us!

 

 

Fourth Shift Quick Tip: Modify these defaults so every field will have standard information when a new one is created!