Category: Business Process Improvement

There is no better opportunity for business process improvement than when selecting and implementing a new ERP system. Every problem is an opportunity to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Don’t assume that a vendor’s best practice will automatically improve business process. Some processes are strategic in nature, and best practices may not apply. In other cases, the costs to implement best practice outweigh any benefits.

WnChickenEgg

What come first – an ERP system (the chicken) or lean management (the egg)?

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Lean management is all about eliminating any waste by identifying each step in a business process and then revising or cutting out non-value added steps. The question is whether this should be done prior to selecting an ERP system. Proponents of doing it first assume that the implementation of an ERP system would be merely improving the automation of the existing process and better to eliminate the waste first. However, this approach (sometimes called repaving the cow paths and extending the chicken and egg analogy) is not best practice. The implementation of an ERP system is the best opportunity to […]

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How Production Systems are Like the NFL

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December 16, 2014 from IndustryWeek – “I sometimes find it difficult to describe what I do to friends and acquaintances who have careers outside of manufacturing and rarely give much thought to how things actually get made. To the uninitiated, if I were to say “I help manufacturers to implement continuous improvement (CI) models” or “I support companies in their production system journey,” I might as well be speaking a foreign language because, while these statements resonate with those of us who live and breathe CI every day, they don’t mean much to the rest of the world…” Read more […]

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How to Optimize Your ERP System

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October 14, 2012 from The Enterprise System Spectator and written by Frank Scavo – “When it comes to ERP, most business leaders realize that it is critical to select the right system and implement it successfully. Likewise, when it comes to advice about ERP, most analysts and consultants focus on their attention on best practices for ERP vendor selection and implementation. But very few analysts pay attention to what happens after the implementation. An organization will spend many more months using an ERP system than it will selecting and implementing it. A company might take three to six months to […]

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9 Bad KPI Habits to Change

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March 2012 from KPI Library – “Well this is not an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a list of the bad habits I see the majority of my clients consistently practicing when it comes to choosing, creating and using performance measures or KPIs. We reap what we sow, and that’s why it can be a useful exercise to see if you do have any bad KPI habits and start developing some better ones…” Read more 180 View – All our projects start with a discussion of CSF (Critical Success Factors – what an organizations […]

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Supply Chain News: Dr. Elli Goldratt’s Unplugged Interview with SCDigest – 180Systems

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February 1, 2012 from SupplyChainDigest – “Last week, we noted the 2011 death of Dr. Eli Goldratt, originator of the “Theory of Constraints,” author of “The Goal,” which introduced TOC to the world, founder of the Goldratt Institute, and much more… There are two pillars to the Theory of Constraints. One is the starting assumption of all the hard sciences, which is that in all real-life systems there is inherent simplicity. If you can just find that inherent simplicity, you can manage, control and improve the system. The other pillar is “that people are not stupid…” Read more 180 View […]

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Most fraud is an inside job, says survey

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November 10, 2011 from InfoWorld – “Fraud cost organizations 2.1 percent of earnings in the past 12 months, which is equivalent to a week of revenues over the course of a year, according to the Kroll Annual Global Fraud Report, a recent survey that polled more than 1,200 senior executives worldwide. The research does contain some good news, however, and found a decline in the frequency of fraud over last year. Of the executives polled, 75 percent suffered some kind of fraud-related loss in the last 12 months, which is down from 88 percent the year prior. However, fraud remains […]

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Best practices not always best

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October 22, 2010 from The Enterprise System Spectator – “…The term best practices has at least two major and totally different definitions, and second, in many areas of business, there is not generally agreement on what are the best practices…” Read more 180 View – This is good article that reflects our philosophy. The major vendors and consulting firms always pitch best practice to their prospects and clients and that they are the source for best practice. I often see proposals that are based on the assumption that best practices will be applied to an implementation. But some processes are […]

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