ERP Mentoring

Ask anyone anywhere who has accomplished anything, the proof is there, if you know what you are looking for.  Ask a professional sports player how they perform at such a high level.  Ask a professional sports player why they have a coach, after all they typically have been doing the same sport since they were a young child.  What more is there to learn?  At some point don’t they know it all?

What is it that you want to accomplish and is it realistic in the time frame and budget you have set?

If you want to achieve more, then you need to associate with someone who has fruit on their tree in the area of your need.  Someone who has succeeded and has experience with the challenges you expect to have and the hurdles you are not even aware of.

When settlers started expanding west (here in the United States for my foreign readers) they looked for guides that knew the territory they would travel, the challenges they would likely encounter and knew which resources they would need.  How long would the trip take?  What would they experience?  Had anyone else been successful?  How would they know when they were “there”?  It was a big land and easy to get lost.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions have similar challenges for businesses and equally challenging objectives for the solution providers.

• What is working now?  What is not working?  Why? 
• Have you mapped out your processes?
• Do you know what makes money and what increases overhead?
• What amount of budget have you allocated to an ERP project?
• Who are the stakeholders?  Who makes the final decision?
• What would it cost you if you did nothing?

How long can you remain competitive if you continued doing what you always have done in the way you have always done it?

One of the biggest challenges businesses find themselves having to navigate when they make a decision to start looking for a new solution or upgrade, is what is it exactly that they do and how do they do it.

It really is a necessity to map out the existing business process.

Customers.

How are customers found and serviced?  You know, the people or organizations that actually buy the “stuff” you provide.  Where are they located?  What do they buy and when?

How do you manage their credit?  You are their supplier.  How do they communicate with you and how do you keep them up to date? 

What tools do your customer service people have available to answer the questions from your customers?  What tools do you provide to let them self-serve their needs? 

Products and Services (Stuff).

How do you stock and deliver that stuff?  How do you know how much stuff to keep on hand and how do you find it?  Do you know how much stuff you have now and where it is located?  How do your people find it, pick it, and ship the right stuff?  What does it cost if you ship the wrong stuff or the right stuff to the wrong customer?

What tools do your procurement people (buyers) have to identify what needs to be ordered and when?  Do you buy based on supplier deals or customer demand?  Do they guess what is needed?  Do they walk around and use an educated guess?

Suppliers and Vendors.

Where do you get your stuff or the material to make your stuff?  How do you know what to purchase and when?  How much is too much?  How long does it take to get more stuff?  Do you drop ship any of your products?  Are you being billed the right amount?

How do you generate a forecast and keep in touch with the organizations that ultimately enable you to deliver your solution or finished product to your customers?  How do they need to get paid?  How do you manage your credit?

Employees and Labor.

How many people does it take to service customers?  How many to pick, pack and ship orders?  How many people to run your finance department?  Procurement?  Warehousing?  Production?  How often are you on-time or late on customer deliveries?  Do you have sales people on the road?  How many locations do you need to coordinate?

A big clue that you should be looking for a new solution is when you start adding people and you do not gain an equivalent amount of productivity.  For example, you have 10 people in your warehouse.  You add two more.  You might expect 20% more productivity and you do not even come close to that return. 

In fact the inefficiencies in your operations just absorbs the extra labor capacity.

There is no magic pill.

No simple article is going to solve your challenges.  Likewise, no volumes of information are going to transform your operations.  There is too much information and too little experience to sort through it all to find the pieces you need, that relate and fit your organization.

A sales person is not the first one you should start with.  It is not that they are not intelligent.  It is not that they do not know about the solution they represent.  It is not that they do not know about competitive solutions. 

The issue with sales people is that their goal is sales.  After all is that not what you want your sales people to do?  They are needed and there is a time and place for them.

What you need most is a mentor and coach, often referred to a Trusted Advisor.  What is their goal? Is it your solution that addresses your critical business needs?  First and foremost the trusted advisor’s responsibility is to help you identify your business process, how you operate and what options are available within your budget and most of all what is reasonable and achievable.  You may want to have 100% accurate inventory, but that might not be possible.  You may want to ship more products with less people, but what investment would be necessary to make that happen?

A note of caution regarding people involved in the decision process.  When taking inventory of the stakeholders in your operations, the more people that are involved in the decision the less consensus there will be.  It is not linear, the lack of consensus will be exponential in growth with more people involved.

MaaS – Mentoring as a Service.  It is what we do.

Your challenges are important to you and your business.  More than likely they are not unique in your industry.  Dolvin Consulting provides business consultation services that can be used to help you navigate the sea of change.  We leverage our industry and business relationships to help you identify your challenges so that we can find a solution together.  Please contact us today to see how we can help.

Information is Cheap

Information, once highly valued, has become a very cheap commodity. 

Thanks to the interconnected world and web browsers, just about anyone with an Internet connection can find out just about anything at any time.  Connection is provided in so many ways today with so many devices providing access.  Information resources often number in the thousands or hundreds of thousands or even millions. 

“ERP Software Solutions” returned 4,850,000 results during the writing of this posting.  If you really wanted valuable information, it is available.  This information is available for the most part at no-charge or the dreaded word “Free”.  Each and every day the time equivalent of more than eight years of video information is uploaded to YouTube.

What information will be of value?  Which piece of information helps solve your problem?  Do you even know where your problem lays?

Anyone who has been around a while knows the true value of free.  Either it is worth what it costs or it is of little value. 

With so many resources available much pressure exists for the suppliers of information to position their resources high on search engines creating a potential conflict of interest of genuine information of value and the quest for income.  Everyone screaming look at me, look at me.

In general we love having choices and having so much information available, but how can we apply it to our decision making?  What happens if we really need the information to transform our businesses?  We seek more and more of it, not less.  How can we filter what we need with what we have available?

This information quest applies both in external resources and internal management of business operations.  Information is key.  Not knowing where you are going leaves you nowhere.

We are now at the point where Internet Librarians have become the valued resource.  It is not enough to know the answer to a question.  The Internet is full of answers. 

The key is knowing the questions and how to apply the answers to your real world challenges.  

Business Technology consultants have become that well needed resource.  It is important to understand the difference between Managed Service Providers (MSP) which provide the resources, monitoring and support to keep your business operating versus Business Technology Providers which consult as trusted advisors to guide you into the future.

At their core all Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions for Manufacturing and Distribution are designed to help companies manage inventory more efficiently.  All of the modules and add-ons have that imbedded in their design, either directly or via a supporting functional role, such as Finance. 

The Supply Chain’s needs have not changed since the beginning of distribution services.

Wikipedia defines Supply Chain Management (SCM) as "the systemic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole”.  It has also been defined as the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally."

If the challenges of the supply chain have not changed significantly over time and there is ever more information available, then what is the problem?  The answers exists.  In fact the ratio of answers to question have exponentially increased.  Every business should be running great.

What we now need is help with our questions. 

Action is the answer to the question you are asking now.  That is where opportunity to advance lays. 

What actions can I take now that will help me run and operate my business more efficiently, lower my costs and be more competitive? How do we learn what questions to ask to get the answers we need?  How do we incorporate this new philosophy?   How do we get the best information to the people who need it most?

How do we deliver on the promise of results?

Dolvin Consulting has the experience, resources and contacts to help you find the right questions to the answers you need.  Contact us today for help, which is why we are here.

Inventory Balances

If you are in the food industry you already know that one of the primary challenges is your inventory level.  You need enough supplies to satisfy customer demand, but not too much due to obvious reasons of expiration dates and potential spoilage. 

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions are designed to streamline operations and provide a central repository of information to effectively manage inventory processing.

A case study - VAI S2K Food: Hillcrest Foods, Inc.

Do you walk around and “look” at inventory to guess and gauge usage and need?

Many food distributors do just that.  They have been in business a long time and there is built in knowledge of customer and seasonal demand.  What moves, what does not and what to do with surpluses or not having sufficient supply and cost expense of expediting replacement inventory?

How does your organization handle recalls and FDA requirements (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act - FSMA)?  Do you have the ability to include all lot numbers on products and paperwork?  How much time and effort does it take you to process a recall?  What about the paperwork and certificates of origin?  Where are these documents found and how are they linked to your inventory?

If you are processing food inventory manually, then your ability to meet the FSMA requirements will be limited and expose your business to great risk and regulatory nightmare.

How efficiently do you process your distribution, truck loading and routing?  What tools does your ERP solution provide to ensure your customer needs are met?  How long does it take to train your workforce?  Is the equipment and process intuitive?  How many times during the day do they have to look up information and how much time does it take?

Handling inventory is a primary focus of food distributors as is financial processing.  You need to service your customers, yet also manage their credit usage on the Accounts Receivable (AR) side and expenditures via Accounts Payable (AP) on the vendor/supplier side.  The General Ledger (GL) ties all the various aspects of the financial reporting and forecasting together.

If these topics strike a nerve with your organization and you are curious if you are doing everything reasonably possible to empower your workforce and drive efficiency in your operations, then it is time to contact Dolvin Consulting.  We work with industry experts to help you look at and evaluate your organization from a fresh perspective.

We look forward to serving your needs.

Will Analytics help Forecasting?

One definition of Analytics is “Information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics”.

   

In a recent conversation I had with a contact he said his inventory was 99.8% accurate and that his firm used cycle counting to ensure accuracy.  He shared information with me about the business he obviously cares very much about and has invested a good portion of his life to as we talked about his operations, inventory and growth projections.

We discussed his Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution and he is satisfied with it, in fact his company is planning on an upgrade.  I mentioned that I worked with another company and they asked if bin locations worked.  And I said, yes, if you let the system do what it is designed to do. He agreed that ERP systems can be rigid, but they do work if you let them do what they are designed to do.

I then asked him based on what he shared where his bottleneck was.  Every business has a bottleneck.  They occur at different points at different times.  If a company is growing, then bottlenecks are enviable.  What works at one level of business often does not at a higher level.

He said Forecasting was his biggest challenge at this point in time.  I asked if he meant receiving forecasts from his suppliers.  He said, no, it was sales forecasting.  This company has been growing steadily for some time and one of their product lines is really moving. 

Inventory is key and managing it is much like a dominos effect and is why companies invest in ERP solutions. 

How much raw inventory and finished goods you keep on hand is dependent on your sales projections.  Too little and you may become late, too much and you end up wasting space and paying taxes on what is left hanging around.  You need to fulfill customer orders in a timely manner and you also need to plan. 

In addition to the accuracy level, an indicator many firms use to judge their inventory level is called Inventory Turns or Turnover.  It is a measure of number of times inventory is sold or used in a given time period.  It is usually calculated as a ratio of the cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory.

Back to point.  Would a robust analytics solution that was used to analyze past and current sales to identify trends, be helpful in forecasting future sales and thus predict better inventory levels?

At its core Analytics is used to provide insight into customers and products.

Speed and efficiency are critical in businesses that operate at high volume.  These businesses have a need for real-time visibility into sales and inventories.  Their management has needs for ad-hoc as well as standardized reporting and analytics helps fill that need.

The key to Analytics and ERP in general is data integrity.  The old saying in computer technology is “Garbage In, Garbage Out”.  It means that the value of the information the system generates is only as good as the quality of the information taken in.  One of the goals of implementing these types of solutions is for people to concentrate on the results of the information analyzed and not worry about how they were achieved.

New data engines and tools speed up reporting that once took hours to produce and distribute to just minutes.  Dashboards, once built, provide management with top level overview and drill-down capability that business need to make better decisions more quickly.

Management can determine when they see customer sales dropping off if the problem is related to inventory, usage or a period of inactivity.  Increased awareness allows insight into greater margin awareness.

Greater awareness allows for more accurate forecasting and the ability to identify variances and make adjustments as demands change.  Reacting quickly to issues can make the difference in customer retention.  Knowing why a customer is purchasing less is important so that corrective action can be taken.

Forecasting not only allows users to spot global trends, but also identify specific issues that might otherwise have been missed.  Today’s systems generate and collect a large amount of information.  Tools like Analytics applications give insight.

What are your systems designed to do?  Do you use Analytics to forecast sales and inventory levels?  What successes and pitfalls have you encountered implementing your systems?  How long did it take?  How much did you budget?  Was the Analytics solution part of your ERP solution or was it a third party solution?

Dolvin Consulting works with industry experts to help your organization identify bottlenecks and streamline operations.  Contact us to learn how we can help your business.

Customer Service Matters

Through hardware, software and service offerings, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can provide a portfolio of solutions to help manufacturers and distributors streamline production, operate more efficiently, improve planning and scheduling and implement more fine-grained and flexible decision-making processes.  Solution providers are helping businesses optimize their technology and make the most of their ERP and supply chain applications by extending analytic capabilities, making better decisions, improving order management and purchasing, plus many other capabilities.

 

The driving factor for many organizations often starts with “there ought to be a better way”, “our overhead is too high”, “we have too many errors”, “there is no observability”, “it takes too long” to name but a few.  There are also some that rationalize not addressing the issues by saying “that’s the way we have always done ‘it’”.  Find any challenge and add “too much” or “too little” to it and it will become the seed to change when someone tacks a price tag on it.

 

What type of benefits should a solution have?

 

Ultimately manufacturers, distributors, retailers and others need to make better, quicker decisions and act faster in complex markets. They need solutions that deliver powerful advantages which includes the ability to find the right information, from the right place, at the right time.  This includes workflow tools and notifications. 

 

Higher productivity. 

 

When you can help your employees avoid the clutter and overload of increasingly complex solutions to be able to focus on the information they need to make decisions and move their workload forward.  You empower your employees to attend to more important tasks first.

 

Easy Access to systems.

 

The definition of mobility has evolved in recent years to mean any device, any time, any where.  While this is the evolving definition for the mobile sales force, many companies are single location based and their devices are desktop computers.  What they find with newer solutions is that they can take advantage of mobile solutions at client meetings or when they count, receive, or pick-pack-ship inventory.  The theme of the ivory tower and dished-out information no longer works in competitive industries.  Businesses must improve the efficiency of the way they collect and deliver information to their employees, suppliers and customers.

 

Collaboration.
 

Newer solutions must increasingly bridge the gap between the traditional ERP solution and other web based solutions such as social media.  This integration creates new opportunities for employees to collaborate in real time with colleagues, suppliers, and most importantly customers.  Empowering employees to answer questions more quickly is a key component in customer service.  Meetings can be planned and coordinated more quickly.  Complex tasks can be divided and delegated with greater efficiency.

 

Customer Service.

 

Overall we should be investing a lot more time and energy in solutions that drive customer service.  Whether that is an updated ERP solution, integration with social media, contact management, or other solution.   It does not matter if the solutions are on premise or hosted in the cloud as long as the integration is tight and does not increase errors.  ERP Vendor integrated solutions potentially have the greatest Return on Investment (ROI).  Sometimes the upfront costs seem higher, but when you look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) fully integrated solutions, that you did not have to integrate, are the best buy.

 

Your organization needs the tools and applications that empower them.  Solutions that give them access to the information that your customers need, like how long until I receive my order, or being confident when you tell them what they want is in stock and doubly sure they will actually receive what they ordered.

 

Your customers have questions.  They want to know you care. 

Your suppliers need information.  They want to serve you better.

Your employees need to bridge the gap between the internal and external worlds.

 

What is your organization doing to empower your employees?  Our readers would like to know.  Please share your ideas and what changes you have or are in the process of implementing.  Are you considering a new or upgrade to your ERP solution?  What new modules are you considering?  What third party solutions would you like to integrate and why?  Are you planning on small incremental steps or a major overhaul?

 

At Dolvin Consulting we work with industry experts to find the right solutions that will fulfill your goals to drive your efficiency in your operations.  Share your ideas here with our readers and then contact us to see how we can help you serve your customers better.

 

More Efficient Operational Processes

More efficient warehouse operations.  If only.  Is it possible?  If it were, there would likely be less labor costs relative to increased production.  Less costs and less production is clearly a down cycle in the business as is more costs and less production.  Ideally you want less costs and more production. 

Automation is the key.  But, automate what, how?

For most manufacturers and wholesale distributors the key often revolves around inventory levels, processing and handling.  Inventory tends to have the greatest Return On Investment (ROI).  Inventory management is somewhat like upgrading your kitchen in your house remodel.  The kitchen remodel generally returns the most on investment.  Other upgrades make living more comfortable, but Kitchens have one of the better paybacks.

Increased accuracy in order and pick/pack/ship processing due to warehouse layout optimization, receiving efficiencies including barcoding and scanning, automated put-aways and cycle counting are just a few examples that can contribute to more efficient operations.

Most businesses that have survived the economic fluctuations are running fairly well and have probably automated at least some and likely much of their facilities.  Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) are the key to the automation.  Unfortunately these systems are not always fully implemented.  Sometimes the implementation plan was a phased approach, but never completed.  Sometimes the organization had a loss of faith in the promised return.  The causes are many, a bad match between sales and purchasing, lack of education, or lack of funds to fully implement the solution. 

WMS systems are great, but they do have to match the business model.  Typically the greatest efficiency in WMS comes from a fully integrated solution that is part of the native Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution.  However, if the ERP solution is not a good match, the WMS module will tend to exacerbate the problems.

A thorough review of business operations makes sense before purchasing or upgrading your WMS solution. 

Are there plans and budget available to outfit workers with wireless equipment, barcode scanners, printers, and other tools?  The benefits of WMS will be limited without the corresponding equipment.  Automating labor collection and reporting is another benefit of WMS systems.  A phased-in approach is a valid model as long as the implementation is completed.

How much paper is involved with the current processing of orders, receiving and counting?  How will a WMS system reduce this overhead?  Will your people be convinced?  What is the baseline and what metrics are needed to gauge the project success?  Without an electronic system how can workloads be optimized?  How much time and effort is needed to check orders? 

How much does the administrative overhead affect your profitability?

Achievable goals include year over year decreases in labor costs relative to production, order, pick and shipment rates of 99% accuracy.  To enable these accuracy levels organizations will typically need to implement bin management in their WMS system, real-time paperless receiving and put-aways, automated picking and cycle counting.  Manual systems require a significant amount of administrative overhead and paperwork which contributes to inaccuracies. These inaccuracies increase if batch, lot or serial number processing is involved. 

High accuracy rates are not the end goal, efficiency is.  High accuracy rates are what enables business to concentrate on real operational efficiency improvements. 

To get started, businesses need to conduct a business process review including evaluation of the incumbent and competitive ERP software including WMS systems, including any upgrades to their current systems.  This is only a start, but it is an important an unavoidable step in the right direction.

Buy-in at all levels in the organization is an important component to not be forgotten. 

Owners and/or management cannot just decide one day to push out a whole new way of doing business without proper training and education.  From the shop floor, warehouse, to the back office, management and top level personnel, everyone needs to understand that the change will help them to do what they do more efficiently and productively.  Set the expectations and gain consensus on the outcome. 

This is a real test for the leadership in the organization.  

How is your organization dealing with change, leadership and inventory challenges? 

Dolvin Consulting works with your team to identify and remediate the causes of inefficiency in your organization.  Contact us today to see how we can help. 

Two Signs ERP Changes are Needed

Most know that manufacturers, distributors and other midmarket organizations depend on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to increase productivity and deliver great customer support via an integrated information repository.  You know the analogy, the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, less errors, better performance, and faster access to business metrics.

 

There are many signs that you may have outgrown your ERP solution.  Every organization struggles at some point in time.  The struggles are equal during periods of growth and decline.  The economy is cyclical and so are business operations.

 

Below are two signs.  How many more affect you personally? 

 

Sign-One:  You increase your labor force and you do not get an equivalent increase in productivity.  The extra personnel just seem to be less productive. 

 

When your business grows it makes sense that you may need more people to interact with customers, process orders, handle procurement and finances.  It makes sense, doesn’t it?  Perhaps it does, but how many are necessary and how many are too much?  How many actually just increase overhead?  How many more do you need to manage the workforce?  Are you creating the need for an extra level of management?

 

If you double your warehouse work force, should you be able to pick, pack and ship twice the number of orders?  Should you be able to triple the number of orders?  What is the ratio of people to orders processed in your organization? 

 

If you actually ship twice the number of orders, how many customer service people does that translate to?  How many people do you need to add to the Finance department to handle billing and reporting needs?  How many more supervisors and managers are needed to address the increase in workforce. 

 

It might make sense to take a look at how your business is physically organized before you add people.  Not that you do not need more people, the real question is how many and where? 

 

For example, would arranging your inventory locations in a more efficient way for stocking and picking make more sense?  Would conveyors or barcoding or other form of automation increase productivity enough so that you can minimize hiring? 

 

In contrast suppose business has shrunk, how many roles can be consolidated?  How can you empower the remaining personnel with the right tools so that their productivity increases and you can maintain business operations and then prepare for the next growth cycle?

 

How efficient is the software you use to process information?  How many separate systems do you use?  How many steps does it take to enter an order?  How much time does it take?

 

 

Sign-Two:  You increase your inventory level and still have troubles meeting customer demand.

 

How much is too much inventory?  What are your customer’s expectations?  What does on-time delivery mean?  What delivery does your competition actually deliver?  Is there anything real about Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory?  Who do you know personally that can make that type of system work?

 

Manufacturers have lead-times for the products they produce.  Distributors need systems that build that lead time into their procurement process so that customer demand and sales history can be balanced to ensure that you have enough inventory on hand to meet expected levels with a reasonable amount of safety stock.  In other words, you can meet customer demand without overstocking your warehouse.

 

A purchase “deal” is not a deal if that inventory sits in your warehouse too long.  A special price so one business can basically dump their inventory is not a deal for anyone, if that inventory sits and takes up space.  Physical space, overhead, taxes all add up and can easily out-cost any purchase savings.  A deal is not a deal unless you have a customer ready and willing (and has the monetary resources) to buy the product.

 

Can you find your inventory?  Do you purchase more, because you cannot find what you thought you had?  How accurate is your current system?  What tools and processes does your current system have that helps to keep your inventory accurate?  How often do you have to count your inventory to know what you have on hand?  Is the only time you feel confident on your inventory levels is immediately after the counts have been posted?

 

There are numerous indicators of inventory inefficiency and tools and software to address the challenges and problems.  Most businesses struggle in determining just where the bottleneck is occurring.  Otherwise, they would have fixed it already.  The problem often lies deeper than the observable symptoms.  The alternative is equally pressing.  A business knows where the problem is, but lacks the resources to properly address the problem. 

 

Either way short term patches and fixes designed to address the problem will inevitably make the situation worse when a decision is made to make these fixes permanent without addressing the underlying issues.  Until you get to and address the heart of the problem, the problems will repeat.

 

 

So many questions and too few answers.

 

 

These two signs are just the tip of the iceberg.  What keeps you up at night?  You have questions and we have answers.  You may agree with some of these statements and disagree with others.  Why not share those thoughts here for your fellow readers.  I would love to hear what you think.

 

Dolvin Consulting works with industry experts to help your business identify and remediate the obstacles that are holding you back today.  Contact us to see how we can help.  Only you know how great the pain is and the impact it has on your operations.  We understand and can help.

 

Distribution Success Essentials

Manufacturers and Distributors need to embrace, implement and utilize Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions in order to grow and thrive.   ERP solutions earn their place by primarily streamlining inventory and warehouse management operations.  ERP also incorporates customer service, procurement, sales analytics and forecasting for and from all of the users in an organization.

 

Yes, these concepts apply to manufacturing too.  Manufacturers have challenges in their manufacturing processing which ERP solutions can help to manage, but they must also distribute their products, they have customers and the same challenges as Distributors.

 

Inventory handling has to be streamlined. 

 

Inventory is the core of any organization that distributes products regardless if they are manufactured or purchased.  ERP solutions need to integrate the entire organization, but grew out of MRP systems that were designed to optimize inventory handling.  Technologies are continuously evolving to address new integration and handling challenges. 

 

The challenges are basically the same as they have always been.  It is the way we interact with inventory that has changed. 

 

Companies need inventory to process, they need orders to create planning, and they need customers.  Companies need to maintain supplier relationships.  They need to determine the right levels of inventory to meet demand, but not just take up space.  ERP Solutions need to address these challenges and provide observability to management, customer service, sales team, procurement and production departments.

 

Everyone needs to know their part of the puzzle.

 

Other areas that today’s ERP solutions must address include compliance regulations.  Your system must have the capability to record transactions and interactions, particularly in industries like food and pharmaceutical.  Business processing must be tracked and traceable.  Who touched it, for how long, what areas processed the inventory, what was the source and where did it go and how did it get there.

 

Customers, suppliers, and internal representatives are all interacting in different ways with the same goal.  Efficiency drives your organization.  They need real-time information and they need it now and are turning to Social media forums and mobile platforms.  Cloud or hosted solutions should be evaluated for fit and function.  Special caution should be evaluated to ensure that they do not introduce synchronization or compliance issues.  The feature and functions sound promising, but the integration can introduce errors and compliance complications.

 

When tying into social, mobile and cloud platforms the need for traceability increases, not decreases.  Just because another organization manages a platform, does not resolve your responsibility to meet compliance mandates, security issues increase and do not go away.  Plus you are adding integration challenges. 

 

This is not to say there is not value in these technologies, it is saying that they have to be approached with caution and due diligence.

 

Automation is certainly the key to streamlining operations and reducing and controlling costs. 

 

A good-fit ERP solution will have the tools and feature needed to automate your processes.  The more the better, but critical ones like inventory must come first and foremost.  Automation reduces the labor associated with data collection and analysis, reduces errors by eliminating manual processing, and frees up time for personnel to concentrate more on core business functions.

 

Ultimately any changes should have the end customer in mind. 

 

Nothing happens that is worthwhile if it does not increase efficiency both internally and externally, especially for your customers.  The customer is the one who writes the check for you product.   It is generally easier to keep an existing customer happy than to acquire a new one.  However, both are critical and your ERP solution must provide the means to service your customers better.  Whether that is done by implementing and Ecommerce solution for self service needs or better tools for your customer service department to answer their questions and concerns or the procurement department to better use forecasting to meet production and delivery demands.

 

Business needs change and evolve in the way we handle information even thought the challenges of the supply chain and customer service are fundamentally the same.  The way we collect and deliver the information is constantly changing.  An effective ERP solution must address your current needs and provide the forum to grow with you and your customers.

 

Organizations must endorse, embrace and incorporate new technologies in order to compete effectively. 

 

Solutions exist, but the challenge increases in selecting a solution that meets your needs, addresses current challenges, and will enable faster growth and grow with you.  There must be buy-in at all levels of your organization from top C-Level, Board members, and to all departments that comprise your organization.

 

Dolvin Consulting works with you and industry experts to help you examine your operations so that you find the right solution to address your specific challenges.  Due diligence and some hard work now will pay off in the future with streamlined operations, reduced costs and greater profits.  Contact us today to see how we can help. 

 

Your comments and suggestions are welcome.  Tell us what you think.

Customer Commitment

Customer commitment is often associated with customer service and vice versa.  Whatever business service or product your company provides, whatever product or service your company purchases, customer service and the relationships surrounding those offerings are paramount to success. 

 

How do you like to be treated?  Many organizations make statements on their web sites and brochures about customer service being their priority.  They most certainly expect equal or better service on their purchases.  But, how well do they actually deliver? 

 

Does your organization give as well as it gets?

 

Customers and those serving them need access to accurate real-time information.

Product and stock status availability.

Delivery time frames.

Invoice status.

Sales history.

Buying patterns.

Sales force automation toolset.

Contact Relationship Management (CRM) database.

 

In regards to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, what tools are in place to track and measure service levels?  Is your organization investing in your own infrastructure so that your staff will have the tools and resources necessary to answer customer inquiries and solve issues?

 

Are you getting the following from your ERP supplier?

 

Totally committed to your needs.

Providing the best possible support.

Maintaining technological superiority.

Will work to keep your company on the leading edge with the latest advancements.

Continue to offer real value, now and for the future.

Offer each client personalized, world-class service.

 

ERP solutions work when they are embraced and allowed to work. 

 

ERP software is organized into modules.  These modules are designed around departmental and/or functional company roles.  For example, Finance department consisting of General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable.  A functional role might include Procurement which overlaps Purchasing, Inventory, Warehouse Management and Sales Analysis.

 

All ERP application modules are designed to work together to enable better customer service.  Not all departments have direct customer contact, but all contribute to the overall operational efficiency of the organization. The customer service department and sales force are examples of two departments that do have direct customer contact and highlight the need for real time information.  Purchasing and procurement also have direct contact with the supply chain and also need quick access to accurate information.

 

ERP solutions work better when you trust them to do the jobs they are intended to do. 

 

Trouble can creep in a number of different ways, like when too many modifications are made.  Modifications can be an indication that the particular solution selected is not the right solution.  It does not mean that it is not a good solution, it just means that it is not a good fit for a particular business model.

 

Different business types need different solutions. 

 

Businesses need solutions that are tailored for their particular method of operation.  Just like automobiles, some need a fuel efficient model, some need luxury and comfort, while others need the ability to haul big loads.  They are all good vehicles, it is just each is designed and optimized for a different primary purpose. 

 

Whatever solution your company utilizes now or is considering, the one underlying principal that must be considered is how well will the solution enables your organization to deliver great customer service.  In what way will that improve with a replacement or upgrade?  A lot of effort goes into selecting and implementing a new solution.  Customer service and the tools associated with the collection, analysis and delivery of that information in a useful format must be first and foremost.

 

What changes are you considering?  What features and functions are important to your organization?  How are you preparing for change?  In what way do you measure improvement and success?

 

We would like you to share your thoughts and suggestions.  For additional help, contact Dolvin Consulting.  We team with industry experts to provide you with great customer service.

 

Warehouse Management

There is a difference between inventory control and a Warehouse Management System (WMS).  Inventory systems keep track of product information, locations, and quantities.  WMS systems keep track of the movement of inventory.  An inclusive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution incorporates both. 

 

ERP is designed to integrate the entire organization.   That is where the drive to efficiency is able to achieve its Return on Investment (ROI).  It is the way the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.  The brain of the system like the brain in your body is right in the middle, top front.  It collects and coordinates the information it receives from its various sources, analyzes that information and provides feedback. 

 

Warehouse management systems help in managing the supply chain and tracking the movement of inventory from receipt, put-away, movement and replenishment, to pick pack and ship operations and cycle and inventory counting.  Technology is the backbone that, when implemented with the right strategy, delivers the efficiency needed to compete and ultimately deliver better customer satisfaction.

 

Monitoring warehouse activity in real-time, minimizing entry errors through automation, collecting data to measure efficiency of operations and labor are important aspects of any WMS system.

 

In order to make intelligent decisions, management needs access to as real-time information as possible.  Too much happens too quickly to have to wait hours, days or weeks to get critical information and decipher that information.  ERP systems when properly implemented are able to furnish this information in a format that makes sense.  Managers need to know what their employees are doing, where there are bottlenecks and how to address those issues.

 

Some of the benefits of WMS systems include (in real-time):

• Verifying receipts against purchase orders at the time of receipt. 
• Verifying picked items and quantities against customer orders before shipment.
• Keeping track of batches, lots and serial numbers. 
• Bar-coded inventory. 
• Tracking inventory by the piece, case or pallet. 
• Measuring employee productivity.
• Optimizing picking for single or multiple orders.
• Integration with common carrier systems to capture box information and tracking numbers.
• Customer returns tracking.
• Work-in-progress tracking.
• Production posting.
• Replenishment activities.
• Count-back verification.

WMS information can be used to properly organize the physical locations and pick order to increase employee productivity and accuracy.

 

More efficiency opportunities. 

 

More accuracy opportunities.

 

At first glance it might seem that implementing a WMS system would be too complicated for your workforce and if it could be implemented, the processing would slow down.  Do not underestimate your workforce when you enable them with the proper tools to get their jobs done.

 

For example, count back systems generate confidence in picking operations, because workers learn that they can trust the system to identify where the inventory is located and that the right quantities exist.  They learn the system recommends the right product placement so the do not have to waste time going back and forth to pick orders.  Compare that with an order that was picked and shipped incorrectly.  What happens to customer confidence in your operations?  How will management look at employee productivity?  What costs are incurred by the customer service and finance department, because they have to take care of upset or disappointed customers?  How much time does it take away from their other tasks? How much time does it take to create the return authorization, process the credit, create a new priority replacement order and absorb the associated and expedited return and replacement shipping costs?

 

Greater, more accurate throughput, inventory turns and employee productivity.

 

How is your organization taking advantage of WMS?  What efficiencies did you discover that you did not realize that you would have before implementing your WMS solution?  What solution works for your environment?   Is it a separate system or a fully integrated solution?

 

Contact us today to share your knowledge.  Your fellow readers would like to know.  We are here to help.  Dolvin Consulting works with industry leaders to help you help your organization with knowledge and industry resources.

 

ERP Leaders

 

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."   John Quincy Adams (6th U.S. President).

 

Can Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions themselves be leaders?  Is it even possible for software to be a leader or are the companies that provide the solution leaders? 

 

Should ERP solution providers be leaders?  Do they need to be or do they just need to provide workable solutions?

 

People generally want to be on a winning team.  But, after you peel away the layers, if the solution works, then does it matter if you are working with number one or two or some other ranking? 

 

The solution has to be a solution.

 

Call it what you want, rate it however you like, but the bottom line is: it has to work.  The solution needs to provide a platform to generate a positive Return on Investment (ROI).  Without that you would need to have a specialized need or operation to choose a solution that did not provide a basis to generate a good return.

 

What does a “Leader” mean to you, the purchaser?

 

One thing a leader in the software industry offers are direct relationships with hardware providers to ensure their applications take full advantage of available resources, that their software handles upgrades and operating systems updates seamlessly without interruption to business operations. 

 

Another leader quality is a commitment to development, research and support.  Taking feedback from their user base to build better solutions that fulfill their needs (customer service).   Research and development into new technologies to keep current with evolving supply chain demands.

 

What are you paying for?

 

With ERP solutions you typically pay in initial license fee and then an annual maintenance fee.  I had a conversation with a business owner a little while back about these fees.  He thought they did not make sense since the software had already been written.  He understood the hardware costs, but not the software fees.  Conversion and implementation estimates were another discussion.  We discussed that the fees are not really to pay for the software that has already been developed; it is to support the organization that supports your business operations.  It pays for continued improvements, bug fixes, and error/message handling. 

 

Granted the proposed software did have some significant costs associated with its development and the initial fee offsets those costs to the developer.  The annual fee is reasonable when you consider that you need the efforts of a leading developer to keep you current with your industry. 

 

You need a leader in the industry in order to provide training and support. 

 

There are plenty of solutions available and you need to select a solution provider that will be able to help you train, prepare, convert and support you as you transition and grow.  If the supplier it too small, then what happens if the economy turns, or they get really busy or they get hit by a bus?  If the organization is too large, then you can end up being just a number and lose any personal contact.  Most people like to be known to their supplier and have a relationship. 

 

Technology is continuing to develop at a faster and faster pace.  You need a partner that understands your business and is committed to continue growth efforts to both your business and theirs.  You have a mutually vested interest in both succeeding.

 

What do you think of leaders in ERP solutions?  How important is it to your business?  Do you just prefer a low cost solution and are not concerned about upgrades and support?  How do you currently utilize the support services provided by your supplier?  What is important to you?  What does your business need to grow?  What support services are a necessity and what is a luxury?

 

At Dolvin Consulting, we would like to know what you think.  Please share your ideas with us.  Contact us, if you need help.