ERP Implementations: Pyramid of Priorities

ERP Implementation efforts are highly failure-prone. The primary reason is the misconceptions and lack of focus that accompany these efforts. ERPs are not magic that will eliminate all problems at once. It needs disciplined thoughts and efforts. Our helicopter view plan is what we call the Pyramid of Priorities.

1. Emergencies: The first effort should focus on eliminating emergencies that need constant fire-fighting. Examples are some material not being available in inventory, some purchase order that has not been delivered on time, and some certificate that has expired when needed. This should be the first focus area.
2. Intra-Departmental Efficiency: Once the emergencies have been taken care of our focus should move to improving the operations of individual departments. Like the Purchase Department Operating at its optimum. The Marketing Department Operates at its optimum. Once each department becomes optimized at its level we have completed the second phase of the implementation.
3. Inter-Departmental Efficiency: When individual departments have been organized and working as expected at that time inter-dependence of the departments should be streamlined so that information flows freely between all departments. This will have the first magical effect when the ERP all of a sudden starts delivering great value.
4. Planning & Scheduling: This is the ultimate goal of every company. To have a solid planning and scheduling system that further improves efficiencies and makes the operation pretty much ready for mass scaling. This can only work if the first three stages have been completed to their optimal potential as unless we have dependable data from all departments planning and scheduling is just like a mirage.