Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Dr. Kanika Prasad Assistant Professors Department of Production and Industrial Engineering NIT Jamshedpur Before ERP

Orders Part Sends Report Customer Sales dept. Demographics file Customer

Check for Parts Call back “Not in Stock” Accounting We ordered the parts Files Accounting Sends Report Invoices Sends Report Accounting

Vendor Warehouse

Inventory Files Purchasing Files Purchasing We ordered the Parts Before ERP After ERP Need for ERP

In the ever-growing business environment, the following demands are placed on the industry:

• Aggressive cost control initiatives

• Need to analyse costs/revenues on a product or customer basis

• Flexibility to respond to changing business requirements

• More informed management decision making

• Changes in ways of doing business. Applications and planning systems introduced into the business world

• Management Information Systems (MIS) • Integrated Information Systems (IIS) • Executive Information Systems (EIS) • Corporate Information Systems (CIS) • Enterprise Wide Systems (EWS) • Material Requirement Planning (MRP) • Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) • Money Resource Planning (MRP III)

• ERP has evolved from the system known as MRPII system with the integration of information between Vendor, Customer and Manufacturer using networks such as LAN, WAN and INTERNET etc. History of ERP

Resource Contd.

Resource Resource Contd. • MRPII system evolved from MRP system. MRP is a technique that explodes the end product demands obtained from Master Production Schedule for the given product structure which is taken from Bill of Material into a schedule of planned orders considering the inventory in hand. • MRPII has a number of drawbacks. • The main problem is that it has not been able to effectively integrate the different functional areas to share the resources effectively. • The traditional application systems, which the organizations generally employ, treat each transaction separately • They are built around the strong boundaries of specific functions that a specific application is meant to cater. Evolution of ERP • 1960s - centralized computing systems, mostly automating their inventory control systems using inventory control packages (IC). These were legacy systems based on programming languages such as COBOL, ALGOL and FORTRAN. • 1970s - MRP systems involved mainly planning the product or parts requirements according to the master production schedule. • 1980s - MRP II emphasized on optimizing manufacturing processes by synchronizing the materials with production requirements. MRP II included areas such as shop floor and distribution management, project management, finance, human resource and engineering. • 1990s - ERP systems with the power of enterprise-wide inter-functional coordination and integration. • During the 1990s - ERP vendors added more modules and functions as “add-ons” to the core modules giving birth to the “extended ERPs.” These ERP extensions include advanced planning and scheduling (APS), e-business solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM). Business process • collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer.

• four main functional areas of operation • Marketing and Sales (M/S), • Supply Chain Management (SCM), • Accounting and Finance (A/F) and • Human Resources (HR).

• ERP software supports the efficient operation of business processes by integrating throughout a business tasks related to sales, marketing, manufacturing, logistics, accounting, and staffing. Sample business processes related to sale of a personal computer Examples of functional areas of operation and their business functions Difference between Business process and Business function • The customer’s computer is damaged during shipment.

• Only one functional area is involved in accepting the damaged item, receipt of the return is a business function and is handled by the customer relationship management function of Marketing and Sales.

• Several functional areas are involved in repair and return of the computer, the handling of the repair is a business process.

• Thus, the customer is dealing with many of the company’s functional areas in her process of buying and obtaining a computer. The M/S functional area exchanges data with customers and with HR, A/F and SCM functional areas

Inputs for M/S include: ● Customer data ● Order data ● Sales trend data ● Per-unit cost ● Travel expense company policy

Outputs for M/S include: ● Sales strategies ● Product pricing ● Employment needs The SCM functional area exchanges data with suppliers and with HR, A/F and M/S functional areas

Inputs for SCM include: ● Product sales data ● Production plans ● Inventory levels ● Layoff and recall company policy

Outputs for SCM include: ● Raw material orders ● Packaging orders ● Resource expenditure data ● Production and inventory reports ● Hiring information The A/F functional area exchanges data with customers and with HR, SCM and M/S functional areas

Inputs for A/F include: ● Product sales data ● Production plans ● Inventory levels ● Layoff and recall company policy

Outputs for A/F include: ● Raw material orders ● Packaging orders ● Resource expenditure data ● Production and inventory reports ● Hiring information The HR functional area exchanges data with A/F, SCM and M/S functional areas

Inputs for HR include: ● Personnel forecasts ● Skills data Outputs for HR include: ● Regulation compliance ● Employee training and certification ● Skills database ● Employee evaluation and compensation Introduction to ERP • An ERP system - a fully integrated business management system covering functional areas of an enterprise like • Logistics, • Production, • Finance and Accounting • Human Resources

• One of the objectives of ERP is to design an efficient information system by integrating and automating the activities to make them faster and transparent.

• ERPs help organizations to achieve competitive advantage. Contd.

• organizes and integrates operation processes and information flows to make optimum use of resources such as men, material, money and machine. • helps to manage companywide business processes, using a common database and shared management reporting tools. • ERPs are cross-functional and enterprise wide. ERP Definition - A Systems Perspective • ERP, often like other IT and business concepts, are defined in many different ways. • It provides a base for defining more detailed concepts in the field - ERP software, ERP systems, ERP implementation etc. • It provides a common ground for comparison with related concepts - CRM, SCM etc. • It helps answer the basic questions in the field - benefits of ERP, the causes of ERP failure etc. Goal, components, and boundary of ERP The Goal - to improve and streamline internal business processes, which typically requires reengineering of current business processes. The Components - common components of a MIS. ERP Software - core of an ERP system. Software modules (product planning, parts purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, order tracking, finance, and accounting and human resources) automate business activities of a functional area within an organization Business Processes - three levels strategic planning, management control and operational control. Contd. ERP Users - employees of the organization at all levels, from workers, supervisors, and mid-level managers to executives. Hardware and Operating Systems - UNIX based. Windows NT and Linux . The Boundary of an ERP System - usually smaller than the boundary of the organization that implements the ERP system. In contrast, the boundary of supply chain systems and ecommerce systems extends to the organization's suppliers, distributors, partners and customers. In practice, however, many ERP implementations involve the integration of ERP with external information systems. Modules of ERP information systems Current ERP systems evolved as a result of

• Advancement of hardware and software technology (computing power, memory, and communications) needed to support the system,

• Development of a vision of integrated information systems, and

• Reengineering of companies to shift from a functional focus to a business process focus. Enabling Technologies • Sophisticated information technology infrastructure. • The earlier ERP systems were built only to work with huge mainframe computers. • The new era of PC, advent of client server technology and scalable Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) • Most of the ERP systems exploit the power of Three Tier Client Server Architecture. • The other important enabling technologies for ERP systems are Workflow, • Work group, Group Ware, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet, Intranet, Data warehousing, etc. Information and material flows in a functional business model

Limited competition

Flexibility not required

Rapid decision making not required

top-heavy & overstaffed organizations incapable of reacting quickly to change Information and material flows in a process business model

flow of information and management activity is “horizontal” SAP - Systems Analysis and Program • In 1972, IBM systems analysts in Mannheim, Germany— • Dietmar Hopp, • Claus Wellenreuther, • Hasso Plattner, • Klaus Tschira, and • Hans-Werner Hector • Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung • SAP’s goal - develop a standard software product that could be configured to meet the needs of each company. • Internal programming language - Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) • 1972 - R/1, 1978 - R/2, 1988 – R/3 • Competitor - Oracle Modules within the SAP ERP integrated IS environment Modules within the ERP system • Sales and Distribution (SD) module • records sales orders • scheduled deliveries • Information about the customer is maintained and accessed

• Materials Management (MM) module • acquisition of raw materials from suppliers (purchasing) • handling of raw materials inventory • storage of WIP goods • shipping of finished goods to the customer Contd. • Production Planning (PP) module • maintains production information. • production is planned and scheduled • actual production activities are recorded • Quality Management (QM) module • plans and records quality control activities, • product inspections and material certifications • Plant Maintenance (PM) module • manages maintenance resources • plan preventive maintenance to minimize equipment breakdowns.. Contd. • Asset Management (AM) • manage fixed asset purchases (plant and machinery) • related depreciation • Human Resources (HR) module • facilitates employee recruiting, hiring, and training • includes payroll and benefits • The Project System (PS) module • plan R&D, construction, and marketing projects. • costs to be collected against a project • manage the implementation of the SAP ERP system • manages build-to-order items, which are low-volume, highly complex products such as ships and aircrafts. Contd. • Financial Accounting (FI) module • records transactions in the general ledger accounts • generates financial statements for external reporting purposes • Controlling (CO) module • serves internal management purposes, assigning manufacturing costs to products and to cost centers, so that the profitability of the company’s activities can be analyzed • Supports managerial decision making • Workflow (WF) module • set of tools that can be used to automate any of the activities in SAP ERP. • perform task-flow analysis and prompt employees (by e-mail) if they need to take action • Workflow is ideal for business processes that are not daily activities, but that occur frequently enough to be worth the effort to implement workflow. ERP Characteristics

• Flexibility : respond to the changing needs of an enterprise. The client server technology enables ERP to run across various database back ends through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). • Modular & Open : Open system architecture. • Any module can be interfaced or detached whenever required. • Support multiple hardware platforms for the companies having heterogeneous collection of systems. • Support some third party addons also. • Comprehensive - Able to support variety of organizational functions and must be suitable for a wide range of business organizations. • Beyond The Company : It should not be confined to the organizational boundaries, rather support the on-line connectivity to the other business entities of the organization. • Best Business Practices : It must have a collection of the best business processes applicable worldwide. An ERP package imposes its own logic on a company’s strategy, culture and organization. Features of ERP System

• ERP provides multi-platform, multi-facility, multi-mode manufacturing, multi-currency, multi-lingual facilities. • It supports strategic and business planning activities, operational planning and execution activities, creation of Materials and Resources. • ERP covers all functional areas like manufacturing, selling and distribution, payables, receivables, inventory, accounts, human resources, purchases etc. • ERP performs core activities and increases customer service, thereby augmenting the corporate image. • ERP provides complete integration of systems not only across departments but also across companies under the same management. Contd. • ERP bridges the information gap across organizations. • ERP is the solution for better project management. • ERP allows automatic introduction of the latest technologies like Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet, Intranet, Video conferencing, E-Commerce etc. • ERP eliminates most business problems like material shortages, productivity enhancements, customer service, cash management, inventory problems, quality problems, prompt delivery etc. • ERP provides intelligent business tools like decision support system, Executive information system, Data mining and easy working systems to enable better decisions. Significance of ERP • ERP allows easier global integration: • Barriers of currency exchange rates, language, and culture can be bridged automatically • ERP integrates people and data while eliminating the need to update and repair many separate computer systems. • ERP allows management to manage operations, not just monitor them. • ERP system can dramatically reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. • Rohm and Haas, $8 billion chemical company doubled revenue per employee over the past six years. • Toyota anticipates savings of $7 million from its new ERP system Benefits of ERP System

• Gives increased control of invoicing and payment processing and thereby boosting the productivity and eliminating their reliance on computer personnel for these operations. • Reduced paper documents by providing on-line formats for quickly entering and retrieving information. • Improves timeliness of information by permitting posting daily instead of monthly. • Greater accuracy of information with detailed content, better presentation, satisfactory for the auditors. • Improved cost control. • Faster response and follow-.up on customers. Contd.

• More efficient cash collection, reduction in delay in payments by customers. • Better monitoring and quicker resolution of queries. • Enables quick response to change in business operations and market conditions. • Helps to achieve competitive advantage by improving business process. • Improves supply-demand linkage with remote locations and branches in different countries. • Provides a unified customer database usable by all applications. • Improves International operations by supporting a variety of tax structures, invoicing schemes, multiple currencies, multiple period accounting and languages. • Improves information access and management throughout the enterprise. Why Companies Undertake ERP? • Integrate financial information : ERP creates a single version of the truth that cannot be questioned because everyone is using the same system. • Integrate customer order information : Can keep track of orders more easily, and coordinate manufacturing, inventory and shipping among many different locations simultaneously. • Standardise and speed up manufacturing processes : ERP systems come with standard methods for automating some of the steps of a manufacturing process. • Reduce inventory : ERP helps the manufacturing process flow more smoothly, that can lead to reduced inventories, and it can help users better plan deliveries to customers, reducing the finished good inventory at the warehouses and shipping docks.

• Standardise HR information : ERP is helpful in tracking employees’ time and communicating with them about benefits and services. How much does an ERP system cost? • The size of the ERP software, which corresponds to the size of the company it serves. • The need for new hardware that is capable of running complex ERP software. • Consultants’ and analysts’ fees • Time for implementation (which causes disruption of business) • Training (which costs both time and money) Ways to interpret return on ERP investment • ERP eliminates redundant effort and duplicated data, it can generate savings in operations expense. Because an ERP system can help produce goods and services more quickly, more sales can be generated every month. • Sometimes, a company that doesn’t implement an ERP system might be forced out of business by competitors—how do you calculate the monetary advantage of remaining in business? • A smoothly running ERP system can save a company’s personnel, suppliers, distributors, and customers much frustration—a benefit that is real, but difficult to quantify. • Both cost savings and increased revenues occur over many years, it is difficult to put an exact dollar figure to the amount accrued from the original ERP investment. • ERP implementations take time, there may be other business factors affecting the company’s costs and profitability, making it difficult to isolate the impact of the ERP system alone. • ERP systems provide real-time data, allowing companies to improve external customer communications. Better communication can improve customer relationships and increase sales. BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING (BPR) BPR is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of processes to achieve dramatic improvement, in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed,” • Dramatic achievement - to achieve 80% or 90% reduction (in say, delivery time, work in progress or rejection rate) and not just 5%, 10% reduction. • Radical redesign - BPR is reinventing and not enhancing or improving. BPR says that “Whatever you were doing in the past is all wrong”, do not get biased by it or reassemble you new system to redesign it afresh. • Fundamental rethinking - asking the question “why do you do what you do”, thereby eliminating business process altogether if it does not add any value to the customer. Business Engineering : Business Engineering has come out of merging of two concepts 1. Information Technology 2. Business Process Reengineering. • Business Engineering is the rethinking of Business Processes to improve speed, quality and output of materials or services. The main point in business engineering is the efficient redesigning of company’s value added chains. • Value added chains - series of connected steps running through a business which when efficiently completed add value to enterprise and customers. • Information technology helps to develop business models, which assist in redesigning of business processes. • Business Engineering is the method of development of business processes according to changing requirements. Business Management : • ERP merges very well with common business management issues like • Business Process Reengineering, • total quality management, • Mass customisation, • service orientation, and • virtual corporation etc. • The basic objective of implementing an ERP program is to put in place the applications and infrastructure architecture that effectively and completely support the Enterprise’s business plan and business processes. • When an enterprise does not have optimized business processes, the ERP implementation needs a process reengineering which enable to capture knowledge of the experts into the system thus gaining considerable benefits in productivity. • The first step in implementation of ERP is the development of a Business process model showing business process as one large system and the interconnection and sequence of business subsystems or processes that drive it. ERP IMPLEMENTATION

• The success of an implementation mainly depends on how closely the implementation consultants, users and vendors work together to achieve the overall objectives of the organisation. • The implementation consultants have to understand the needs of the users, understand the prevailing business realties and design the business solutions keeping in mind It is the users • ERP is an enabling tool, which makes one do his work better, which naturally need additional efforts. • During the course of implementation the standard package may undergo changes which may be a simple one or a major ‘functionality’ change. Customization. Contd.

• The contents of the package are known as modules and the modules are further divided into Components. • The roles and responsibilities of the employees have to be clearly identified, understood and The employees will have to accept new processes and procedures configured in the system laid down in the ERP system. • At the same time these processes and procedures have to be simple and user friendly. • A well managed and implemented ERP package can give a 200 percent return on investment where as a poorly implemented one can yield a return on investment as low as 25 percent. ERP Implementation steps 1. Identifying the Needs: • Why should an ERP package be implemented? • Will it improve profitability? • Can the delivery times of products be reduced? • How does it improve customer satisfaction in terms of quality, cost, delivery time and service? • Will it help to reduce cost of products? • How can it help to increase business turnover and at the same time reduce manpower? • Will it be possible to reengineer the business processes? Contd. 2. Evaluating the “AS IS” situation of the business : • To understand the present situation of the business, the various functions should first be listed. • Total time taken by the business processes. • Number of decision points existing in the present scenario. • Number of Departments/Locations of businesses process. • The flow of information and its routing. • The number of reporting points currently available. Contd. 3. ‘Would Be’ situation : • The concept of ‘Benchmarking’ is used to see that processes achieved are the best in industry. • Benchmarking is done on various factors like cost, quality, service etc. This concept enables to optimise the processes to gain overall benefits. 4. Reengineering the business process : • To reduce the business process cycle time. • To reduce the number of decision points to a minimum. • Streamlining the flow of information and eliminating the unwanted flow of information. Contd. 5. Evaluation of various ERP packages: • Flexibility: It should enable organizations to respond quickly by leveraging changes to their advantage, letting them concentrate on strategically expanding to address new products and markets. • Comprehensive: It should be applicable across all sizes, functions and industries. It should have in-depth features in A/F, SCM, quality management, plant maintenance, sales and distribution, HR management and project management. • Beyond the company: It should support and enable inter-enterprise business processes with customers, suppliers, banks, government and business partners and create complete logistical chains covering the entire route from supply to delivery, across multiple geographies, currencies and country specific business rules. Contd. 5. Evaluation of various ERP packages: • Best business practices : The software should enable integration of all business operation in an overall system for planning, controlling and monitoring and offer a choice of multiple ready-made business processes. It should intrinsically have a rich wealth of business and organisational knowledge base. • New technologies: It should incorporate cutting-edge and future-proof technologies such as object orientation into product development and ensure inter-operability with the Internet and other emerging technologies. 6. Finalisation of the ERP package : done by making a comparison of critical factors through a matrix analysis. Contd. 7. Installation of Hardware and Networks : Carried out in a phased manner depending on the schedule of implementation and need of the hardware components. 8. Finalizing the Implementation Consultants : skill set industry specific experience cost of hiring consultants 9. Implementation of ERP package • formation of team • preparation of plan Contd. • gap analysis • mapping of business process to package • Customization • development of user specific reports and transaction • uploading of data from existing system • test run • user training • Parallel run. • Concurrence from user • Migration to the new system • User documentation. • Post-implementation support. • System monitoring and fine tuning Implementation Guidelines For ERP

1. Understanding the corporate needs and culture of the organisation and then adopt the implementation technique to match these factors. 2. Doing a business process redesign exercise prior to starting the implementation. 3. Establishing a good communication network across the organisation. 4. Providing a strong and effective leadership so that people down the line are well motivated. 5. Finding an efficient and capable project manager Contd.

6. Creating a balanced team of implementation consultants who can work together as a team. 7. Selecting a good implementation methodology with minimum customisation. 8. Training end users. 9. Adapting the new system and mating the required changes in the working environment to make effective use of the system in future. RISK AND GOVERNANCE ISSUES IN AN ERP

• Single point of failure : Since all the organization’ data and transaction processing is within one application system Structural changes associates with reengineering or redesigning business processes. • Job role changes : transition of traditional user’s roles to empowered-based roles with much greater access to enterprises information in real time. • Online, real-time : this requires a continuous business environment capable of utilizing the new capabilities of the ERP application and responding quickly to any problem requiring of re-entry of information. • Change management: Users must understand that their actions or inaction have a direct impact upon other users and, therefore, must learn to be more diligent and efficient in the performance of their day-today duties. Considerable training is therefore required for what is typically a large number of users. Contd.

• Distributed computing experience : Inexperience with implementing and managing distributed computing technology may pose significant challenges. • Broad system access : Increased remote access by users and outsiders and high integration among application functions allow increased access to application and data. • Dependency on external assistance : Organization accustomed to inhouse legacy systems may find they have to rely on external help. Unless such external assistance is properly managed, it could introduce an element of security and resource management risk that may expose the organizations to greater risk. Contd. • Program interfaces and data conversions : Extensive interfaces and data conversions from legacy systems and other commercial software are often necessary. The exposures of data integrity, security and capacity requirements for ERP are therefore often much higher. • Audit expertise : Specialist expertise is required to effectively audit and control an ERP environment. The relative complexity of ERP systems has created specialisation such that each specialist may know only a relatively small fraction of the entire ERP’s functionality in a particular core module, • Single sign on : It reduces the security administration effort associated with administrating web-based access to multiple systems, but simultaneously introduces additional risk in that an incorrect assignment of access may result in inappropriate access to multiple systems. • Data content quality : As enterprise applications are opened to external suppliers and customers, the need for integrity in enterprise data becomes paramount. • Privacy and confidentiality : Regularity and governance issues surrounding the increased capture and visibility of personal information, i.e. spending habits. Assignments

• Discuss the reasons for growth of ERP market. • List out the various ERP system packages available in the market. Which one occupies the top most position and why?

• Why do ERP projects fail so often? • How does ERP fit with E commerce?