Page 58 - MetalForming September 2015

Manufacturing ERP Experience
Five Guidelines for
Business-Process
Improvement
with ERP
From the plant floor to the front office, an ERP system can help you work smarter in all functional areas.
BY JEFF CARR
Modern ERP systems can play a large and valuable role in meeting performance- improvement goals, from facilitating automation to reducing cycle time to streamlining business processes. How- ever, the key driver to an ERP system being seamlessly integrated into a busi- ness’s operations and maintaining year- over-year value and return on invest- ment is an ERP project that is properly planned, justified financially and accepted by personnel.
The following five points provide guidance to manufacturing companies seeking continuous business process improvement (BPI), while embarking on an ERP selection and implementa- tion project.
Who Occupies the Driver’s Seat?
Once an organization has formed a team to lead its BPI-planning process,
Jeff Carr, managing partner, Ultra Con- sultants, Chicago, IL: www.ultracon- sultants.com.
who serves as the owner? While the makeup of core team members is important, the team must be led by a manager who serves as the chief process officer (CPO).
The CPO (often but not necessarily the chief information officer) leads the team of process owners (POs) in iden- tifying all of the business processes in the enterprise impacted by an ERP solution. He solicits input from the POs,
by function within the company. When a designated CPO directs the initiative, the ERP selection and implementation processes tend to run more smoothly— contingent on the CPO selected.
56 MetalForming/September 2015
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