Seven misunderstandings of ERP in the hottest smal

Seven misunderstandings of ERP in small and medium-sized enterprises

there are some deviations in people's understanding of Enterprise Resource Planning Management (ERP), which can be summarized into seven aspects: just like treating office software such as word and excel, ERP is completely equivalent to a set of software system; It is considered that small and medium-sized enterprises are difficult to bear the cost of implementing ERP and its process reorganization, and it is not suitable to implement it; There is deviation in the expectation of return on investment of ERP; Think ERP is the business of the implementation team; Do not understand the function of ERP, and fail to give full play to its superiority in the real-time processing of statements; Unclear understanding of the relationship between ERP and conventional logistics and cost management; Misunderstanding of ERP management objects. Next, the author will elaborate from the above aspects

first, just like treating word, Excel and other software, ERP is completely equivalent to a set of ordinary office software system

some people think that the implementation of ERP is to spend money to buy a software system, thinking that it can be used as office software. ERP is first regarded as a software problem, and then a management problem. This misunderstanding has led many enterprises to spend 90% of their ERP project budget on purchasing fully functional ERP software systems, ignoring the training of personnel and the adjustment of system processes. This practice of putting the cart before the horse will inevitably lead to little effect of the project

in fact, ERP is not only a management mode for modern enterprises to develop towards internationalization, but also an integrated idea and new management theory of enterprise management based on modern resource management. This is reflected in: first, ERP pays more attention to the contact with suppliers, distributors and manufacturers; It covers the fields of order receiving, procurement, production, delivery, payment recovery, accounting processing, etc. (even including artificial intelligence, customer relationship management, sophisticated production, concurrent engineering, Internet, database warehouse, financial investment management, transportation management, project management, regulations and standards management, process control, etc.; but these functions are generally impossible for small and medium-sized enterprises). Second, ERP puts more emphasis on enterprise business processes, and realizes the integration of personnel, finance, manufacturing and distribution through workflow optimization, so as to support the process reorganization of enterprises. Third, ERP puts more emphasis on finance and has a relatively perfect enterprise financial management system; This enables the concept of value management to be implemented, and the capital flow is more organically combined with logistics and information flow. Fourth, ERP considers the role of people as resources in production and operation planning, as well as the training cost of people. Fifth, in manufacturing planning, ERP supports the mixed production management mode of MRP Ⅱ and JIT (just in time), as well as the management mode of various production modes (discrete manufacturing, continuous process manufacturing, etc.). In this way, the focus of ERP is shifted from "personnel and operation use" to "resource and process management", so as to ensure that enterprises directly focus on these two key tasks with appropriate time, funds and management resources

in order to successfully implement ERP, enterprises should see an opportunity to shift their attention from "personnel and operation" to "due to the market expansion of new products and customer recognition, it takes a certain amount of time to verify resource and process management". This requires enterprises to stand on the position of optimizing resource and process management to evaluate and inspect the business and production flow projects that have not only won the title of provincial "mass entrepreneurship and innovation team", optimize and transform, That is, pay attention to the cooperation and training of personnel - not the training of using software systems, but change the traditional idea of "personnel and operation use" as the center, establish the concept of "resource and process management", and transform all processes within the enterprise - change the traditional thinking orientation of "personnel and operation use" and shape a new orientation of "resources and processes". If we don't invest enough resources in personnel training and transform the inherent business process, the best ERP software is in vain

second, it is considered that small and medium-sized enterprises are difficult to bear the costs of implementing ERP and its process reorganization, and should not implement it.

because ERP was first introduced and successfully implemented in some large enterprises, and the implementation costs are often hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions, which makes many people have a wrong understanding: the implementation of ERP is expensive, and small and medium-sized enterprises cannot afford it. In addition, the reorganization of the process will inevitably trigger emotions for employees who are familiar with the old management process, and the unreasonable process will also restrict the rational allocation of human resources

in fact, ERP is not the patent of large enterprises, and small and medium-sized enterprises are also able to implement ERP. In a broad sense, every enterprise can implement ERP, and the difference only lies in the advantages and disadvantages of the implementation effect. If you want to achieve good results, you must focus on strategies, personnel and processes. Software is only one of them. For a medium-sized and small-sized enterprise of general scale, even if it needs to implement ERP software, the basic price will not be too high; In most cases, if you do good Strategies + good personnel (referring to employees who have received necessary training) + good processes + simple software, then generally small and medium-sized enterprises can also implement very "great" ERP. If, in a narrow sense, the main cost of implementing ERP in small and medium-sized enterprises is ERP software and its implementation, can small and medium-sized enterprises afford it? In fact, at present, many quasi ERP management modes have sprung up in the management circle. Smart enterprise managers have borrowed the management theory and thinking mode of ERP, combined with conventional office software (such as Excel, access, etc.), plus some simple computer technology, to solve the contradiction between the common financial difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises and the desire for information management, which can save a sum of money for it products, technology purchase, maintenance and operation, It can also enable small and medium-sized enterprises to use information technology to enhance their own strength

third, there is a deviation in the expectation of the return on investment of ERP

at present, some enterprises cannot correctly evaluate the real value of ERP system, or regard it as a panacea for all diseases, and believe that all problems of enterprises can be solved by implementing ERP; Or think ERP is chicken ribs, not much value. These two understandings have extreme return on investment in implementing ERP

erp came into being under the circumstances of increasingly fierce market competition and expanding demand for resources and process management. It is mainly to help enterprises fully seek the maximum profits of enterprises through process reorganization and resource integration. Through the implementation of ERP, enterprises can realize the transformation from "manual operation" to "information integration", so as to make the best use of enterprise resources, Therefore, ERP tries to solve the most direct and critical problems in enterprise competition - resource allocation and efficiency and the resulting cost problems, but it cannot solve all the problems of enterprises, such as the choice of enterprise strategy and enterprise culture, to ensure the accuracy of measurement data; It realizes the real problems of physical zero adjustment, gain adjustment, automatic shift, zero adjustment, calibration and storage of experimental force measurement, establishment of enterprise system, enterprise financing and so on

how big is the return on investment and the probability of success of ERP? In China, there are indeed many enterprises that have not achieved obvious results in implementing ERP. The main reasons are as follows:

① using the wrong method can't grasp the key. Because many enterprises follow the first mistake and concentrate their main resources on the software system, ignoring the overall strategy, personnel training and process transformation

② the heads of all departments only pay attention to the proficiency of subordinate personnel and whether they can use it, and leave themselves out, thinking that this is a micro trivial matter that subordinates can deal with completely

③ excessive absorption and acceptance of the advice of software providers, process planning is not combined with their own actual situation, cutting feet to suit their actions, in the end, not only failed to improve work efficiency, but also lost a lot of human and material resources

IV. many people think that ERP is the business of the implementation team

many people think that the company has established an ERP promotion team, so they naturally think that the promotion of ERP is the business of the ERP promotion team, and it is understandable that it should be implemented by the ERP promotion team. Some people even think that it should be the responsibility of the financial department from the perspective of ERP management functions. These understandings are not comprehensive, The correct answer is that all managers related to the company's resources and processes should be negative for ERP, because the ultimate goal of ERP system is to achieve the speed of enterprise information and the rationalization of resource allocation through process reorganization and reasonable resource allocation. To achieve this, we must constantly review the factory, improve the process and reset resources, which requires the joint efforts of all employees involved in the enterprise. Therefore, every employee involved in the enterprise has a certain responsibility for the success of ERP, but the size is different

on the other hand, if everyone bears the same responsibility, it means that no one is responsible, which will inevitably weaken the consciousness. Therefore, there must be decision makers or decision-making institutions who are responsible for the success of ERP. Since the highest level of ERP is enterprise process optimization and reasonable resources, the enterprise leaders or leadership who are most suitable to formulate this management strategy are duty bound to bear the inescapable responsibility for the success of ERP. European and American investigation reports show that the biggest reason for the failure of ERP implementation is the lack of leadership support and attention

therefore, the successful implementation of ERP first requires the leaders of the enterprise to pay high attention and do it by themselves. Without their support and participation, ERP projects are doomed to fail at the beginning. Secondly, all employees need to reach a consensus and work together. In short, in the planning stage of ERP, we should promote it from top to bottom, and in the specific implementation stage, we should form a bottom-up driving force of leadership participation

v. I don't understand the function of ERP and fail to give full play to its advantages in the real-time processing of statements

the author has contacted many department heads who use ERP. Most of them believe that the function of ERP only stays at the level of inventory, logistics, finance and accounting, and even think that the use of ERP is just transferring the work of finance or warehouse management to other departments, which is another misunderstanding of ERP

before using ERP, in order to meet the management needs, enterprises often use some information statistical tables, such as input-output rate statistical table, output schedule, sales schedule, production schedule, etc. these reports are often obtained by manual statistics of internal and external transactions in daily business; After using ERP, many reports can be generated directly from the system; However, because the demander (department head) of the information report does not understand the system, there are two possible phenomena: do you think that any report can be generated directly from the ERP system; Do you want it? Some reports could have been generated directly (or indirectly) from the ERP system, but the demander (department head) of the information report did not know it (the ERP promotion team could not know the management intention of the demander (department head) of the information report) is still obtaining information in the previous way. Such a result runs counter to the goal of using ERP

VI. unclear understanding of the relationship between ERP and conventional logistics and cost management

modern management concepts and computer technology promote the continuous development of enterprise logistics and cost management integration. The emergence of ERP has pushed the heat wave of enterprise logistics and cost management integration to a new climax, and ERP has almost become a synonym for enterprise logistics and cost management integration. So many people believe that enterprise logistics and success