Enterprise resource planning- tools for supply chain manager

Many people ask me what are the key skills required for a supply chain management personnel. My answers are:-
a) ability to establish process and system
b) good understanding of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
c) and of course, excellent management skill

Supply chain is about physical and tangible stuff. The physical items that move around and eventually generate income for the company. The success of generation of recurring incomes is because there is clear process and good system for the physical movement.

For many companies, activities within the company which generate incomes are captured with a system, the ERP system. As a supply chain practitioner, knowledge and ability to work with an ERP system is essential. Within the EPR, is where all the data are kept. The secret of supply chain is making information visible and as simple as possible. ERP is the one and only tool designed for that. With all information happening with in company captured under one place, company is able to analyze and develop clear strategy for the competitive edge.

Here is a good write up on ERP, there are details on SAP which is the most popular ERP today (article extracted from Economist).




Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the setting up of electronic information systems throughout an organisation in such a way that disparate parts of the organisation are brought together, parts that may rarely in the past have had access to information about each other—manufacturing, for instance, and customer relationship management (CRM).

ERP software, designed to implement this, acts as a sort of central nervous system for the corporation. It gathers information about the state and activity of different parts of the body corporate and conveys this information to parts elsewhere that can make fruitful use of it. The information is updated in real time by the users and is accessible to all those on the network at all times.

Just as the central nervous system’s capacity can at times seem to transcend the collective capacity of its individual parts (a phenomenon that we call consciousness), so too can that of ERP systems. They (as it were) make the corporation self-aware. In particular, ERP systems link together information about finance, human resources, production and distribution. They embrace stock-control systems, customer databases, order-tracking systems, accounts payable, and so on. They also interface when and where necessary with suppliers and customers.

The interlinking of ERP systems can be extraordinarily complex. Firms usually start with a pilot project before implementing a group-wide scheme.

The history of ERP is the history of SAP (System Analyse und Programmentwicklung), a German software company that in the 1990s established an extraordinary dominance in the market for ERP systems. SAP was set up by three engineers in Mannheim in 1972. Their aim was to help companies link their different business processes by correlating information from various functions and using it to run the whole business more smoothly.

SAP’s software was designed to be modular so that a company’s systems could be rapidly adapted to take account of growth and change. It was so successful in recognising and meeting business’s it needs that by the late 1990s SAP’s share of the market for ERP systems was greater than that of its five nearest rivals put together. Its systems were reckoned to be running in at least half of the world’s 500 largest companies.

Its extraordinarily rapid growth at the time (an annual average rate of increase in sales of over 40%) was backed by a marketing strategy that encouraged management consultants to implement SAP systems within client firms. Many consultants set up specialist SAP departments for the purpose. Without this support in implementation, there might have been a crippling bottleneck in the growth of SAP’s business.

The ERP systems market itself grew rapidly as firms saw the benefits to be gained from consolidating information about their geographically and functionally dispersed bits and pieces. ERP systems enabled them to have a view of their organisation as a whole that they had never previously enjoyed. It was a bit like seeing the early colour photographs of earth taken from outer space.

For a number of reasons, these systems were initially most popular with large multinationals:

• they had advanced it infrastructures on which they could run the systems;

• they were keen to standardise their diverse range of business processes;

• they had the staff necessary to manage the systems once they were up and running.

As this big-company market became saturated, ERP systems providers began to look at how they might adapt their products to suit smaller organisations.



Further reading
James, D. and Wolf, M.L., “A Second Wind for ERP”, McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2, 2000

Getting a BlackBerry-On time management

A close of mine whom was just promoted to be the Sales Director of an advertising agency will be getting a Blackberry.

He is thrilled and excited. The new toy will enable him to reach the whole world and the world can keep sending sms, e-mails to him.

To me that is a daunting situation to be. How many times our discussion with colleagues are interrupted when the phone rings. With the Blackberry, there are influx of e-mails, sms, etc all demanding our attentions.

Perhaps is the age factor but i cannot but to notice the younger, tech-savvy new tends to believe the below statement:-

BlackBerry in one hand, phone in the other, eyes fixed on several of the 15 windows open on his laptop screen: today's high-performing manager owes his superior productivity to technology-enabled multitasking.

I beg to differ. And here are some good tips for the managers instead.

Maggie Jackson is the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age:-

First, pay attention to your attention: be cognizant of when and where you are paying attention. Are you reacting to every ping? Notice when your responses to immediate calls on your attention squeeze out deeper relationships, fuller conversations, time to reflect. Notice when they keep you too rooted in the moment, and prevent you from taking time to think deeply and plan for the future.

Second, set aside slow time. I've become ferociously careful about setting aside time and space for quiet, deep reflection.

Personally, i am a strong follower who practices Covey's advise. His book First thing first guides each of us to align our day, week, month and year to focus on priorities of our life. Time management is not about doing more things in lesser time, but doing the important things with the right amount of time and priorities as we go through the day.

In summary technology must not be the distraction of our time and focus but be a useful tools to help us focus, organize and have some fun.

Good luck to my Sales Director pal!

Back to Basic- on management theories

Being a manager need one to be pragmatic rather than theorist.

However some basic concepts and application of business or strategy models help in providing a quick understanding and overview of big picture.

In the challenging time, a quick review of the company positioning, the market environments and reviewing the direction or rather the strategy of the company help to reinforce the importance of getting the basic right.

Here is a good link to the tools and models developed since 1930 to 2000. There are good details on 9 matrix and others tools such as SCP, 7S ,etc.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Enduring_ideas_The_GE-McKinsey_nine-box_matrix_2198?pagenum=1#interactive_ninebox

What i learn from politics

I don't have fate in politics. You discover about ideologies and believe the world can be a better place. But that good fate valids only during the university time.

Politics is definitely not top of mind in working life. Office life itself is hard enough. Yet there are just too many stories and critics on newspaper that i can't help but to pickup some useful management insights.

Karpal Singh (has been roundly criticised by many people) suggesting that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should step down for fostering the party-hopping culture that led to the loss of Perak to Barisan Nasional (BN). Is his fiery comments are unhelpful to PR’s cause, especially at a time like this when they are under siege in Perak and with the PR government in Kedah possibly becoming shaky too?

But there are learnings for the manager, we have black goats in the office too.
Boss says we implement Six Sigma for better productivity, there will be whisper saying it is just another new boss campaign. New boss whom build his career in the production floor therefore wanted to build more factories.

We (especially Asian) are poorly trained to accept differing views. We are unable to understand or even analyse it.

Gerakan and MCA have not spoken out against Umno’s welcoming of two former PKR state assemblymen who have been charged for corruption or against a former DAP representative who is quite possibly the most reviled politicians amongst Chinese voters not just in Perak but across Malaysia. And you and I know where the Chinese is not voting for them the last election.

Some what can us manager learn from this?

There is also differents views and opinions. Ignoring them is a choice. But definitely not healthy. Putting issues on the table might not be comfortable or easy, but it managing the risk of unknown.

The manager can learn to get the best of the situation.
We can treat Karpal as the 'aging tiger' trying to show his paw or we start to welcome a fresh idea and alternative options speaking up representing part of the people.

Even better, you realize there is a role for 'Karpal' in your office as the "bad cop". Which help to reinforce the "good cop" positioning.

In summary there is always 'other views' in the office.
a) silencing the 'alternative' view is not what the manager should do
b) optimize the situation such as utilising the strength of the 'alternative' view to help deciding the better options.