Supply Chain Management

Major benefits from better synchronization across the entire supply chain…

_ Lower inventories & lower financing costs

_ Shorter receivable cycles

_ Optimal use of production resources, costly work forces &

transportation fleets

_ Faster response – to – market changes

_ Greater satisfaction & loyalty among customers

_ Greater profitability

_ The most successful companies maximize benefits by selecting the supply

chain management solutions on the bases of

_ Critical business processes

_ Procurement to pay cycles

_ Demand forecasting

_ Order to cash cycles

_ Some of the issues that necessitate a change from the traditional information

model [P 95]

1 Cost of maintenance Of the different systems in the various

departments

2 Response Time Time taken to retrieve information

3 Scalability Ability of the system to grow with the growing

information needs of the company

4 Technology Whether the company is utilizing the latest

technology or is the technological

infrastructure obsolete

_ Costs & Benefits

_ Features that affect the cost for implementation of ERP System

1 Package chosen 5 Resource available in house for

implementation

2 The technology used 6 External consultant

3 Hardware / software

infrastructure

Size of the company

4 Training 8 Scope of the implementation

_ Different phases of the ERP implementation are given below

1 Pre evaluation screening 7 Implementation team training

2 Package evaluation 8 Testing

3 Project planning phase 9 Going live

4 Gap analysis 10 End user training

5 Reengineering 11 Post implementation6 Configuration

_ Important points to be kept in mind while evaluating the ERP Software are

1 Functional fit with the company’s

business processes

8 Ability to support multi site

planning & control

2 Degree of integration between

the various components of the

ERP System

9 Technology – client / server

capabilities, database

independence, security

3 Flexible 10 Availability of regular

upgrades

4 Complexity 11 Amount of customization

requirement

5 User friendliness 12 Local structure infrastructure

6 Quick implementation 13 Availability of reference sites

7 Ability to support multi site

planning & control

14 Total costs, of license,

training, implementation,

maintenance, customization &

hardware requirements.