strategic and tactical processes were successful in achieving their initial
objectives. The companies that fell down in any of these areas failed.
Discussion
The experiences of companies A and B show that effective executive
management commitment can help a project to achieve success. It appears,
however, that a considerable amount of this effectiveness is due to the activities
of the executive sponsor. Therefore, in the case of deployment of technology to
a division, top management should ensure that an effective committed sponsor
is chosen from among the corporate officers. The experiences of companies C
and D (where the projects faltered after the executive sponsors left) also present
a strong case for a back-up executive sponsor.
The research also shows a strong relationship between manufacturing
strategy and successful ERP implementations. Companies A and B took a more
futuristic, long-term view of their processes and linked the ERP investment
with strategic planning and modern evaluation and control systems.
Our study supports the need for reengineering prior to selection of the ERP.
However, to be effective the reengineering project should not take place under
the assumption that an ERP or any other type of pre-selected information or
manufacturing technology, will be implemented. The type of technology to be
adopted should flow from an analysis of the requirements of the reengineered
process or processes. In this way, management will be assured that the
reengineering effort will point to the technology, rather than the other way
around. In each of our cases corporate management was predisposed to an ERP
solution and this presented a major problem for company D, which did not
have prior experience with an integrating technology such as MRP or MRPII.
The “needs assessment” exercise is a very critical aspect of an ERP project.
It is from this activity that the basic configuration of the ERP system will
evolve. Inadequate attention to “needs assessment” will, most likely, lead to a
system that does not fit well with the organization. It appears, however, that
our firms used this process mainly to determine the software requirements of
the ERP system. The fact that both companies A and B had hardware cost
overruns indicates that required changes in the hardware legacy systems were
not adequately taken into account. Hence, the needs assessment exercise must
be extended to specifically cover hardware requirements. There also appears to
be a pressing need to survey management and operator education and skills at
this stage to ensure that the company’s personnel have the wherewithal to deal
with the reengineered processes and any prospective ES. If the gap between
required skills and available skills is too wide, as was the case with company B,
management should recognize that they have to adopt a less sophisticated
system, develop extensive training programs, or hire employees that will be
adept at operating the proposed systems. Therefore, management and operator
education and skill audits should be included in the “needs assessment.”