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ERP - ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING CONSULTING
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We have been around since the early days of MRP solutions where requirements were broken down into components using Bills of Materials. The demand from parent items was then calculated into components in a timely manner. This was a major accomplishment and breakthrough over the traditional inventory management using EOQ or similar lot sizing methods.
 A lot has happened since then. First MRPII - The Manufacturing Resource Planning was developed, then came Just-in-Time, TQM, MES systems along with multi facility, multi currency, multi language planning and execution systems. Today, the fully integrated multi-company resource planning systems are called, ERP-Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP systems considerably vary in size and functionality. Integration between BOM and Routing, Planning and Work Centers, Sales and Inventory, Engineering and Purchasing, etc. must be correctly
applied with appropriate business processes. Customer
Relationship Management, Supplier Relationship
Management, Demand Management and other supply chain
components have added great deal of complexity into ERP
systems. With the changes in technology, many ERP
implementations result into under-utilized but expensive systems
to run, and many others are not implemented properly but paid
a hefty price..
This is where our expertise can help especially in the supply chain, manufacturing
and inventory control side. We have accumulated years of knowledge in ERP systems not in one specific software but many of them in successive generations. We know how a company must operate in order to maximize the benefits from ERP systems.
ABCAN is a truly independent consulting company with no ties to any ERP vendor which means; we work for your company, on your behalf, rather than trying to sell a software and retain a sales commission. We are paid by our clients, not by ERP vendors.
Hiring a consultant is probably one of the most critical decisions you have to make when you are planning for an ERP project.
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 Initial Contact |
Companies embarking on ERP projects must understand that it is an important strategic undertake. It will require a long time frame, resources and people of high calibre from the company. We will spend some time to understand your company and business, review issues, recognize limitations on resources, establish the objectives and define scope of an ERP project. We will study the manufacturing environment, discuss the investment requirements and benefits, establish a budget, and provide necessary road map for selection and implementation. |
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 Implement |
ERP implementations are most often end up in failure because of lacking due diligence. It requires extensive amount of resources, time and people. Some employees are required to conduct their daily chores while must also attend meetings, training, set up, pilot, and implementation activities. We will help to overcome these issues and shortfalls. Implementation is also strategic with respect to use of resources and timing. Once a choice is made, we are often able to team up with ERP vendor's consulting arm to provide independent advise for many decisions to be made during implementation.
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 Investigate |
Each ERP project must begin with proper education. We will customize an education program for different levels of management and participants and deliver it. Then we will help you to form your ERP organization such as steering committee, project team(s) and project manager. We will also participate in your team's work to establish proper business process, streamline your operations, clean the existing system. We will investigate your operations, current and future, assess the most appropriate business processes. We will find the most appropriate method of selecting software vendors and help you prepare a RFQ for the selected ERP vendors.
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 Improve |
Most successful ERP implementation are achieved with substantial education and well executed project management. People are the most important key to make ERP systems successful. As users and managers understand the workings of ERP systems better, so becomes their decision-making and execution. There are certain performance measurements to maintain the integrity of system. Accuracy of BOMs, production and inventory records, purchasing, sales, accounting transactions, etc. as well as timeliness of data are paramount to keep the system reliable. The system parameters should be fine tuned periodically. We will help you to identify and improve in these areas.
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 Identify |
ERP vendor selection is a tedious work. We will help you to go through this selection process. It is important to understand the difference between a promised functionality and a real one as well as must haves and desired ones. We will help you with software demonstrations by designing evaluation scenarios, site visits, and negotiations. Once the ERP vendors are short listed, then the final contract negotiations start ending with the purchase. It is paramount to understand that selected ERP software fits to your company's business environment (current and/or future) to the highest level possible. Our involvement would be to show you the shortfalls, items to watch for, opportunities to save time and money, industry comparisons, pros and cons of candidate softwares.
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 Integrate |
ERP investments are usually substantial. ROI can be a major benefit when properly implemented and performed. There are times that the ERP performance will regress requiring additional resources. Other times, ERP functionality requirements will change or upgrades will be needed. We will identify and spec-out these requirements with you. We will help to ensure your continued success with repeated education and training. We have more than 15 different courses to cover the areas related to ERP subjects. We will also help streamlining and standardizing your business processes, policies and procedures. Our final stage of engagement will provide you with a world-class assessment of your ERP system. Training in ERP systems coupled by your performance will propel into the world-class ERP community.
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Additional Information:
Seminars: ERP Selection and Implementation, SCM, Materials Management
Courses: ERP, APICS Fundamentals Certification, APICS CPIM Program
Other References: Textbooks, Articles, Previous Projects. Please contact
us for additional information.
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