Fit for purpose

Spend any time researching the ERP marketplace and it's difficult to miss the buzz around industry-specific best practices and templates. Supplied by the ERP vendor as part of the standard product, and installed out of the box, the idea behind industry-specific best practices and templates is to accelerate implementation time while also reducing implementation risk. And, what's more, deliver a solution that is better, as well as being more attuned to a manufacturer's industry-specific requirements. That's the plan, anyway. But in opting for best practices and templates, there's a risk that manufacturers might be locking themselves in to an overly restrictive – and overly prescriptive – set of business processes. So says Ian Farrar, sales manager at KCS Datawright, a specialist ERP provider for mid-sized manufacturers that boasts a customer roster including such names as Dunlop Oil & Marine, defence engineering group Petards Group, paint manufacturer Tor Coatings, Fluid Transfer International and BAE Systems' Global Combat Systems division. "ERP can't be a 'one size fits all' solution," he argues. "You need to understand the pain points and issues of the business in question. Every business has its own requirements and you can't assume that, because a company is, say, a chemicals manufacturer, that it will have the same needs and want exactly the same system, as every other chemicals manufacturer. What's more, if everyone has exactly the same system, where's the scope for competitive edge?" To some, it's an argument that will border on heresy. But Farrar – a seasoned manufacturing veteran, like most of KCS Datawright's specialists, and a former Rolls-Royce apprentice – sticks to his guns. "Rather than start with best practices and templates, we prefer to look under the bonnet of the business and establish what the pain points and priorities are," he says. "It's about walking the factory floor, seeing what goes on and seeing how that ties into how the overall business is performing. A template that delivers a simplified process might be ideal for some businesses, but totally counter-productive for a company that had developed its previous business processes in response to very clear requirements, intended to address very specific issues." Again, it's a viewpoint that sits uneasily with what some in the industry reckon is one of ERP's great innovations in recent years. But KCS Datawright, points out Farrar, can claim to be closer to the real issues that are facing many manufacturers than a good number of its competitors. Selling and implementing solutions directly How come? Because, says Farrar, the 35-year old Tyne and Wear-based business sells and implements its solutions directly, rather than through intermediaries. The contrast is clear. If a manufacturer buys an ERP system from one of the major players in the industry, they're forced to deal with a reseller, and not the people who actually developed the product and wrote the software – especially so in the case of manufacturing and distribution companies at the smaller end of the size spectrum. And just as importantly, that direct connection to the customer provides a two-way communication channel between customers and KCS Datawright's development staff, providing a means of not only ensuring the clearest possible translation of requirements into actual software, but also exposing KCS Datawright's developers to the real-life deployments of the ensuing code that they write. In short, sums up Farrar, many of KCS Datawright's customers have chosen its K8 Enterprise product precisely because it ideally matches their needs – offering, he reckons, the potential for a closer 'fit', with fewer tweaks and workarounds than competing offerings from much larger vendors. "Being based in the UK's North East, we have a huge manufacturing supply chain serving the automotive industry," he points out. "And businesses supplying products to vehicle manufacturers are generally required to have stringent systems and procedures in place, in order to win work from these automotive giants. Manufacturers must be able to report on and present their forward production schedules to the customer, providing confidence that their product can be shipped in time for installation into the end vehicles on the assembly line. There's also a need for strict batch traceability, and of course regular and accurate reporting on quality. These requirements would be nigh on impossible without a robust ERP system in place, which can be assessed and audited as to whether it meets the customers' needs." What's more, he adds, in an industry where margins are tight – and being an automotive supplier is no sinecure – affordability is key, as is the ability for systems to deliver a workflow and update mechanism that is 'low overhead' in terms of how people administer and interact with it. "These businesses have no slack in the system," observes Farrar. "They need an ERP system that does what they want and complements their own lean ways of working. A system that is a burden is a system that is a competitive disadvantage." Equally, though, it's important that such ERP systems, while being lean and focused, also meet changing regulatory requirements – a particular issue not just among KCS Datawright's process industry customers, but also more widely. "There's great interest surrounding packaging and waste regulations at moment, thanks to a reporting regime which places a legal obligation on businesses which make or use packaging to ensure that a proportion of the packaging they place on the market is recovered and recycled," says Farrar. Task is within BoM and automatically recorded Previously, he explains, this recording was often completed using spreadsheets and typically involved a degree of estimation. In the latest release of K8 Enterprise, the task is taken care of within the bill of materials so that when (say) a tin of paint is manufactured and sold, the associated tin and lid are automatically recorded as packaging and waste. "Come audit time, an accurate report can be run and this more than satisfies the relevant agencies with their view to meet EU Directive targets," sums up Farrar. "It's accurate, free from estimation and produced automatically, freeing manufacturers to focus on what they do best – manufacturing." Indeed, he adds, this emphasis on meeting individual customer requirements provides KCS Datawright with a firm focus that benefits both customer and KCS Datawright itself. "It encourages us as software developers to listen to our customers and not just supply software," he points out. "The onus is on us to solve problems and provide instant ROI. It's great to supply mobile apps and impressive business intelligence – and we do both – but bringing such capabilities to the market place, you always have to ask: Is it fit for purpose, and does it help customers with their day-to-day pain points?" In short, sums up Farrar, any implementation should always start with trying to solve the issues that the business is facing rather than those issues that an ERP system assumes it might be facing. "ERP can't be a one size fits all solution," he concludes. "There has to be an element of configuration and customisation. Installing a solution that is cheap or quick-to-implement won't necessarily give you the functionality you need.".