According to a report from research carried out by an independent firm, out of 900 implementations, 840 could have yielded 10% more profit had it been adopted the “Lean Way”. The questions “How to leverage the ERP system to the fullest?” and “How to minimize the investment and wastage while implementation? ” are not new for the CIOs and have the same answer and that is ” Lean Philosophy for ERP Implementations “. Gone are the days when big budgets and years in the name of time used to be dedicated to enterprise resource planning Implementation. Lean ERP Implementation is what the world today demands. In this competitive world today, any non-value-adding manufacturing or business process is straight away dropped for a business to grow.
We know that an ERP software digs into the data from all the departments to provide us with statistics and reports that enable businesses to analyze the data to improve and increase profits. However, the current shift in the principle of implementation cannot be ignored either. CFOs are discovering that going the lean way for ERP is helping them make their business better and reduce investments by a significant percentage. It is indubitable that many businesses are deploying lean initiatives for the elimination of waste and reduction of cost and clutter. It is imperative to a business to get rid of anything and any process of ERP implementation that would not be of advantage to the company. “Only a fool would walk in with an army when it is certain that the war could be won single-handedly.”
Now, let’s answer the big question,
What is Lean Implementation?
Quite simply, it is an implementation methodology that eliminates non-value-add activities in a software implementation, re-implementation, or release upgrade. It empowers the business implementing the software to have complete control over the cost of their software project.
“Lean is all about getting the most out of people, cutting out the white noise created by clumsy systems, and streamlining the work process so it is as efficient as possible.” Experts say those lean organizations have better systems and experience improved profitability. Digging deeper into this well-hyped-up topic of LEAN PHILOSOPHY.
We have uncovered the ways through which lean ERP implementation helps a business minimize expenses and maximize profit. Firstly, we are very well aware of the fact that implementing software to fully utilize it involves the pertainment of certain principles, The principles of Lean Philosophy. These principles go as follows:
1. Specify Value
Value Specification is the most talked about and undyingly the most critical principle involved in the lean implementation of any software. You have got to know the value of your work to let customers know what your work offers them. It’s important to know a process in and out in order to be able to specify the requirements for that process.
To make the process more efficient it is important to understand what the process is capable of and what is that it is lacking so that you can incorporate it within the process. Also, this way it becomes easier to understand the additional superfluous features that are more like a burden than advantages. It’s always wiser to get rid of features and processes that would do no good to your business.
It certainly is very important to completely discard the operations and processes that generate no value to the company. However, conscious considerations should be given to processes that might seem that they generate no value yet are compulsory for the business to run efficiently. For example legal requirements such as preparing financial accounts.
This step will tell you the needs of ERP Implementation. It will also suggest the features in implementing the new ERP. ERP Software is implemented by SMEs and other large or small companies in order to streamline processes, get better control on the workflow on most important cut back on resources and work that are not delivering value. This step is most important and forms the base not only because you identify the processes and needs but also because this way it is outlined exactly where the ROI will come from.
2. Map
This step is an addition to the first step. Well firstly, for value specification you go around the entire business process to acknowledge what adds value to your business next it is very important to figure out what does not. This lean principle deals with finding out where activities are not delivering any good outcome. In the words of Cathie Hall, “this principle is to separate the wheat from the chaff.” Since this is where you think about how a process or activity is not adding any value, this is when you question ERP Implementation as well. This is where you think about how the ERP is gonna help or how the ERP is not gonna help.
Think of the following activities:
- Those which add no value.
- which add value but are inefficient.
- Those which add value and are efficient.
Those which add no value
An example of that could of ERP- CRM integration by a company. The company continues to add data separately into CRM and ERP applications. This addition continues after the systems integration. When the ERP and CRM are used independently, the data needs to be added twice but after integration, it could simply be fetched instead of manually adding it into two applications. Adding values twice unnecessarily adds no value to the company. You can discard it. Instead, data should be added only once and fetched automatically by the other system.
Activities that add value but are inefficient
So such values don’t help the fact that these could be activities that offer something to the customer improving their quality of experience with the company.
Activities that add value and are efficient
There are some activities that bring in the revenues for a company. Most of these activities are easy to identify and are thus added first, Nevertheless, there are some such activities that may be adding value directly but are associated with other activities and thus are missed or instead I should misjudge at times. We should be careful enough to analyze every activity properly enough and accordingly categorize them.
3. Flow
Flow as the name suggests is about performing activities in the right manner and devouring the processes and activities that would ruin the low otherwise. In real terms, this involves ensuring both physical flows and logical flows are in line. Physical flows include materials, finished goods, paperwork, logical flows. It means information is passed around and completed system transactions.
The flow of importance is the deciding factor for the success of any organization. However, despite it being such a critical concern it is most of the time ignored and is very much underrated. A flow gets generated in the implementation phase. At the implementation, stage companies are often keen to get the thing live and afterward iron out any issues. However many CIOs and CTOs say that should be avoided as far as Lean ERP Implementation is concerned. This makes it clear, Why the changes that need to be done are mapped out prior to the implementation. This way your ERP delivers a better flow.
An example of why flow in business should be considered could be the scenario. Wherein a business organization that had 3 branches purchasing stocks individually from the same supplier. You can centralize the purchase process by avoiding handing over it to individual branches. Centralized purchasing can decrease prices and increase the bargaining power of the company. ERP could be implemented with the functionality of centralized purchasing to improve the purchase. Since only one branch has to do purchasing the two branches cant demur this activity and save time and money.
4. Pull
It is very much like flow only that it relates to how various departments make demands on each other. Thereby “pulling” them into doing certain actions, whereas flow often references processes within the same department. Pull is a part of the second phase of implementation. You identify this after implementing the basic and complex things. Different departments use to pull and workflow. If the principles and discipline of the company are supportive of lean, the workflow could be leveraged. It improves the efficiency & performance of the company otherwise it would add up the extra mess and complicate the processes even further.
5. Review
While implementing ERP one always targets for perfections. Reviewing the ERP is an absolute necessity for Lean Implementation. This might be a tedious process. Most organizations will want to turn away from doing this after going through the toll of ERP implementation. Yet, it’s worth doing. The idea of total quality management is to continuously & systematically fix the issues that prove to be a hurdle in achieving perfection is what forms the basis of this phase. Organizations that don’t continue to improve the system for the processes will never get full payback. This relentless pursuit of the best ROI is the key attitude of an organization that is going for lean.
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