How Accurate are the All Industries Benefits of ERP?

Executive Summary

  • ERP is sold on the ability to be used in any industry.
  • Learn why the proposal that ERP works for any industry is incorrect and what this means for projects.

Introduction

ERP vendors have been adamant that their software can be used for any industry. SAP has many different industry solutions. However, when one examines these advertised capabilities, the actual functionality is often lacking. These SAP industry solutions are more marketing constructs than proper functionality, and because the marketing is so good, it took me years of working on SAP projects to figure this out. While I have not worked with every industry solution, I have worked with many of them, and none of them has been as advertised. Most of the time, the ERP system is implemented without using the functionality of the “industry solution.” It is entirely accurate to declare that SAP lies about its industry solutions. SAP industry solutions are designed to get executives in purchasing companies to think that SAP can meet their industry’s unique requirements. You will learn the reality of ERP system vendors versus ERP vendor marketing hyperbole.

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The Example of Repetitive Manufacturing

Repetitive manufacturing is a manufacturing environment where the production is continuous, and the equipment investments are high, as is the production rate. Late in one project, it finally came out that the repetitive manufacturing functionality was not worth turning on. As a result, the implementing company decided to forgo the functionality and stick with the standard discrete functionality with a few adjustments. SAP got the sale by pitching repetitive functionality down to the eleventh hour. But the company wasted an enormous amount of time discussing whether or not repetitive manufacturing functionality would be used. As a very experienced SAP consultant (from SAP itself) once stated to me,

“There is really more sizzle than steak to SAP repetitive manufacturing.” This issue of “there not being much there”

..is repeated throughout SAP industry solutions.

Among prospects, there seems to be some confusion on this topic. Just because a software vendor has several customers in a particular industry does not mean that their software serves that market or provides the necessary functionality. But with applications from name-brand vendors, so much of the purchasing decision is based upon the brand, yet many clients customize so much of the ERP system. Across all industries, one of the most fabulous unheralded “helpers” is probably Excel. It might be more accurate to say in airport advertisements, “XYZ ERP vendor + Excel is used by four out of five top chemical companies.” An honest statement—but not as catchy.

The Example of Discrete Versus Process Manufacturing Requirements

There are usually multiple input items and a single output item in discrete manufacturing (e.g., automobiles, toys, and tools). However, in-process manufacturing, where the final item cannot be broken down and converted back to the original input products (i.e., cheese cannot be disassembled into its original components, but an automobile can), one input item can convert to multiple output items, or multiple-input items can convert to various output items. All of these relationships can be easily modeled in a spreadsheet.

The finished product of process manufacturing is not merely the assembly of the input products but also an altogether transformed item.

For example:

  1. One cannot unthread fabric to get to the original spools and restock the thread as inventory.
  2. Once crude oil is cracked into jet fuel, kerosene, tar, etc., it cannot be reconstituted back into crude oil.
  3. In some types of process industry manufacturing, the input product is literally “gone.” For instance, when coal is converted into electrical energy, it cannot be converted back into coal.

So what common and important capabilities are typical of process industry manufacturing? The software vendor TGI, which states the following capabilities within its Enterprise 21 software application, can demonstrate process manufacturing planning requirements.

“1. Supports infinite-level formulas with yielding at the top level or ingredient level and rank-ordered ingredient substitutes

2. Products can have global formulas or unique facility-specific formulas

3. Supports scalable batches

4. Supports recipes through the integration of formulas and associated processing instructions and notes for use during batch process production

5. System maintained version and revision control with a fully integrated engineering change order process

6. Formulas support nested formulas and intermediates and can have infi nite notes and instructions

7. Supports online review of formulas via single-level and multi-level explosion

8. Multi-level where-used functionality enables rapid access and mass change to all finished goods using specific ingredients, intermediates, and nested formulas

9. Formulas and recipes are easily duplicated and updated for the same product or a new product

10. Formulas are pulled into work orders or batches for tracking and recording of actual ingredients consumed or backflushed at defined standards”

Batch Functionality in SAP ERP

Batch functionality in SAP can be enabled, which is used for batch process manufacturing. Batch functionality is a trendy requirement for all types of batch manufacturing (including manufacturing such items as bakery items, paint, glass, specialty chemical, and pharmaceuticals, as is explained in the book Process Industry Manufacturing Software: ERP, Planning, Recipe, MES & Process Control). Batch functionality allows specific batches (e.g., a batch of pharmaceuticals from a single production run) to be tracked. Batch manufacturing can be enabled in SAP ERP.

However, batch functionality is well known as a significant headache to enable. Batch management was added as an afterthought, even though it is foundational to a batch management ERP system and a process industry ERP system. SAP ERP was designed to work with discrete manufacturing, which has quite different requirements. This is not just an issue with SAP ERP, but of ERP generally, and not only with ERP as a software category, but with all manufacturing enterprise software sold to process industry customers.

This is a topic in the book Process Industry Manufacturing Software: ERP, Planning, Recipe, MES & Process Control. The following quotations talk about how enterprise software designed for discrete manufacturing customers is sold to process manufacturing companies.

“For IT chiefs like Pam Haney, IT director at Irvine Scientific, a $28 million life sciences company, issues of competitive advantage are overshadowed by ever-present customization needs with her ERP system. ‘What we’re faced with is having to deal with ERP packages that are not designed for process manufacturers.’” — Why ERP Systems are More Important Than Ever, CIO

“Originally business information systems for manufacturing companies were designed for discrete manufacturers, not process industries. These systems targeted industries such as automotive, consumer electronics, machine tools, etc. The discrete manufacturing sector produces piece parts to form subassemblies, which are then combined to form the fi nal product. Nearly all ERP suppliers have built their information systems to support the business functions of discrete manufacturers.” — Process Industry ERP Requirements

Precise requirements exist in process industry manufacturing companies that must be met one way or another.

“Today, process manufacturers have a proliferation of products. These products are produced using the same equipment or using existing processes downstream but at the same site. Because of the number of products now fl owing through the same cost center, using financially based cost systems to develop accurate, individual product costs is difficult, sometimes impossible. Furthermore, as multiple methods evolve for producing the same end item (whether in a sister plant or with newer technologies in an existing plant), the setting of standard costs must reflect a weighted average cost. This type of costing can only be done using an ERP system designed for the process environment.” — Process Industry ERP Requirements

Unplanned Customizations

Businesses require solutions that have been designed from the ground up to meet their requirements, not software that attempts to meet their requirements. ERP vendors claim they can address manufacturers’ specific requirements by appealing (successfully) to all industries with slick marketing literature yet with the barest level of functionality. Right now, thousands of companies have made unplanned customizations to their ERP systems because ERP vendors told them that the software would cover their industry-specific requirements when, in fact, they could not. So much money has flowed into Tier 1 ERP vendors who have provided generic solutions and left promises regarding industry-specific functionality unfulfilled. That money has been prevented from flowing to solutions that could have been developed to offer companies software that meets their requirements. This is another example of a prediction made by many ERP vendors that helped them get sales but has been bad for their “customers” and bad for the enterprise software market overall.

Should You Rely Upon Deloitte (Or Other Major Consulting Firms) for Process Industry ERP?

Deloitte both recommends and staffs SAP and Oracle ERP for its process industry and non-process industry clients primarily. However, these applications, SAP ECC/R/3 or Oracle JD Edwards Enterprise One, have quite a poor process industry functionality. This is consistent with a long history of software recommendations, which is inappropriate for process industries by the major consulting companies. This is because the major consulting companies have resources trained in specific software and would rather keep implementing this software than have to retrain a portion of its employees to achieve process industry-specific software. Therefore Deloitte recommends the software that it prefers to implement rather than software, which is the best fit for its clients.

This one size fits approach focuses on maximizing Deloitte’s revenues rather than providing advice of any quality to its clients. The replication of this strategy with other consulting companies is a primary reason that process industries tend to have such customized and high maintenance systems.

Where Can You Find These Applications?

Both SAP and Oracle spend more effort developing marketing literature that talks about what a good fit their software is for process industries than actually developing specific process industry functionality. A perfect example of this is batch functionality in SAP ECC/R/3 that is extremely difficult to configure and use. Still, the same functionality is standard in at least one other ERP system. What functionality is required of an ERP system in process industries is explained in the book Process Industry Manufacturing Software: ERP, Planning, Recipe, MES & Process Control.

Understanding Deloitte’s Institutional Structure

However, Deloitte is not working off of any research orientation. Still, it is instead steering its clients into purchasing the application that makes Deloitte the most money, and they will come up with any argument necessary to achieve this objective, including providing misinformation about the applications they are “recommending.” However, process industry companies don’t have to continue to rely upon this extremely self-serving advice from Deloitte.

Conclusion

The concept of using ERP for any industry with little customization is a sales construct that, after decades, has proven not to be true. The more customers have bought into this sales pitch, the more unplanned expenses and corrections and customizations were required of the ERP systems they purchased and implemented. ERP vendors have been lying to a wide variety of industries declaring that they have functionality purpose-built for them that they do not. Consulting companies assist in this lie by telling prospects that whatever is in the sales literature from the ERP vendors they partner with is true.