The hottest thing in the world is to implement ERP

Great things in the world should be done in detail, and ERP should be implemented from zero. Caption: Hongzhi ERP project is a typical example, and I believe it will have high practical value for home appliance manufacturing enterprises that are about to implement ERP

in April, 2006, the 11th fourth shift Asian user conference was grandly held in the Golden Flower Hotel of Shangri La in the ancient city of Xi'an. At this conference, Zhanjiang Hongzhi Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. was rated as the excellent user of the fourth shift in the Asia Pacific region. Hongzhi's informatization construction started from a blank sheet of paper, without using relevant software, coding system and talents who understand ERP. The success of ERP project stems from the control of the details of the implementation process

I. company background

Zhanjiang Hongzhi not only affects the final test data, Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. is located in Guandu town, Zhanjiang City. It is an export-oriented private enterprise integrating technology, industry and trade. After being funded by three entrepreneurs, it has developed into a leading household appliance enterprise in Zhanjiang with more than 1000 employees and an annual output value of 300 million yuan in just a few years

Hongzhi's products are small household appliances, divided into two categories: lamps and cookers. Lamp products are divided into track lamp series, work lamp series, floor lamp series, GU10 lamp series, etc; Cooker products are divided into rice cooker series, slow cooker series, induction cooker series, coffee pot series and electric kettle series. The products are mainly exported. In 2004, they began to enter the domestic market and implemented the regional distribution system. The factory is divided into three production departments: injection molding, hardware and assembly. The overseas market organizes production by order, and the domestic market mainly focuses on sales forecast production

due to the rapid development of the company's business, the company's main energy is to complete orders, and there is no systematic management reform. The annual sales of 2.3 billion seems to be a barrier for the development of private enterprises. Overstocking, missing materials, production line downtime, rising costs, and cadres busy with "fire fighting" have become common problems of the company, which cannot be completely solved by manual operation and increasing manpower alone. A labor-intensive household appliance manufacturing enterprise, with an annual growth rate of less than 30%, has entered the winter, which is very dangerous. Therefore, ERP and building an information sharing platform for manufacturing system have been put on the agenda of the company's leaders

second, the key to project selection is to know yourself and know the enemy

because the company has no people who understand ERP, no one knows where to start. At first, I prepared to invite colleges and universities to customize the development, thinking that this is more in line with the reality of the enterprise, but this way has long development cycle, large investment and low success rate. As an enterprise, it should pursue mature applications and should not become a test field for University projects, so we decided to buy ready-made software and select excellent implementation consulting companies through public bidding. After the relevant media released the bidding information, more than a dozen ERP manufacturers, large and small, responded to the bid at home and abroad. In order to be clear when listening at the same time, I asked the companies participating in the model selection to collect and provide negative information about their competitors, expose each other's shortcomings, but I can't believe the results continue to show open mouthed and slandered. As a result, a variety of reports and materials have poured in, including official history and unofficial history. In the positive and negative comparison, we have a more objective and comprehensive understanding of each company. Through preliminary screening, it is determined to have substantive communication with Tiansi Huadi, digital China, UFIDA and siban. Next, we invite software companies to come for interviews and product demonstrations. Generally, sales of software companies come with a consultant. Through days of contact, they can basically have a general understanding of product applicability and consultant level. It should be noted that each department of the company pays attention to different perspectives. In the process of demonstration, it is necessary to make a key demonstration in combination with the problems raised by each department. It is best to prepare a product BOM for input into the system demonstration. In addition, you can't just listen to the software company, but also see it in person. On the one hand, we visit software companies, on the other hand, we select their successful customers, visit and have a discussion in these customer factories, and understand their application system effects and implementation experience. In this process, we always adhere to fairness, impartiality and openness, so that every software company participating in the bidding can show the most real situation as much as possible. During the field visit and discussion, we all talk with problems, and when we come back, we will compile a selection report and submit it to the company's leaders. After four months of repeated communication, we comprehensively evaluated the product performance, the company's background strength, the consultant's experience level, service ability, price and other aspects, and finally determined fourth shift as the cooperative implementer of our ERP project

successful model selection is the first step towards the success of ERP projects. Choosing ERP manufacturers is actually choosing long-term partners. During model selection, we should focus on four aspects: Company (background and strength), products (software), consultants (consulting and services), and price

1. Company. First of all, any company has its own history and culture. If you don't understand it, you will be easily confused by some superficial phenomena. Choose a large company or a small company? Manufacturers have a priority for customers. Whether high-profile large companies can allocate first-class resources in our projects and respond quickly to problems needs to be considered. For small and growing IT companies with low popularity and small scale, we need to consider how it can help us live long. In addition, the frequent flow of consultants from small IT companies and the low entry threshold also increase the risk of successful launch. Choose a foreign company or a domestic company? Generally speaking, the MRP of domestic software companies is weak, there are many projects to be undertaken, and the level of consultants dispatched is not high. As for choosing foreign software, cultural differences lead to differences in habits and rules, the interface is not very friendly, and some places lack flexibility. In addition, we should be prepared for higher product prices and service costs. In short, we should choose professional ERP manufacturers. Because of their specialty, they are successful

2. Products. The product demonstration process of ERP manufacturers is the same, and it may not be found that there are too many differences in functions in a relatively short time. It can be said that they can meet the basic needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, so the cost of product scalability, secondary opening tensile resilience and elongation is worth considering. The core of ERP products is MRP, and many ERP systems are built from the periphery of financial management. In manufacturing enterprises with MRP and MRP Ⅱ as the core, the accumulation of technology and industry enterprise experience is insufficient, which shows that they fail in some key points. Therefore, for discrete manufacturing enterprises that both have OEM and need to produce and purchase according to forecast, most of them use mixed mode for production and material management, which requires a variety of planning modes, and a strong production planning system is particularly important. As for the product technical architecture, is c/s better or b/s better? It can only be said that each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Compared with b/s architecture, c/s has a long development time and mature technology. The client has a complete set of applications with strong data processing ability and fast response speed. The disadvantage is that the system upgrade cost is high. The advantage of b/s is that the system can be used anywhere as long as it can be accessed. All operations are completed by the server. The client does not need to install any special software, so it is convenient to maintain and upgrade. After all, the b/s structure is only the development direction of IT technology. Compared with the c/s structure, the security and application maturity are slightly insufficient. It should be emphasized that what enterprises really want is to be easy to use, and don't dwell too much on what technology it is based on

3. Consultants. The implementation of ERP is a huge and complex system engineering, and there may be various problems in the implementation process. The implementation consultant is an important aspect to give customers confidence. The high level of consultants is not due to the large number of people. High level consultants can make up for many deficiencies of the software and the company itself, so it is best to implement them by expert consultants who have actually worked in the factory and have rich industry experience. It is said that a mature consultant has destroyed at least three clients, so it is best to include the consultant's qualification, time guarantee, consultant replacement, etc. in the contract, and do not believe the manufacturer's verbal commitment. Cai Ying, the consultant of class 4, has more than ten years of senior management experience in manufacturing, material planning, industrial engineering and cost control. She has implemented ERP projects in nearly 100 factories and published several ERP books. She is an expert consultant, which greatly enhances our confidence in choosing class 4

4. Price. ERP price is mainly divided into three parts: software price, consultant implementation fee and annual upgrade and maintenance fee, of which the consultant implementation service fee is generally charged per person per day. In addition, the secondary development cost can be calculated on a daily basis or on a lump sum basis. It should be clear here that price can be discussed, but price should not be the first factor in model selection. Good cost performance is important

there is no best, only more suitable. In fact, if we choose any manufacturer, they will only "teach it to fish, not teach it to fish". Software manufacturers help us plan, and enterprises are the main body of ERP implementation. For enterprises going to ERP, ask yourself: are we ready

third, the implementation process focuses on the control of details

at the grand and solemn project launch meeting, the project assignment was announced and the project convention was signed, marking the official beginning of the implementation phase. In fact, since the moment of signing the contract with the consulting company, we have entered the project implementation stage. We can't buy servers, set up project teams, and formulate implementation plans. After several milestones such as centralized training, prototype testing and conference room pilot, Hongzhi ERP system was switched to online in mid November 2005, realizing material coding, document standardization and process standardization. In this process, we have highlighted the following features:

1. The top leaders of the project personally grasp the system instead of manual work, resulting in some processes and practices will be changed, the power of some departments will be weakened, and the problems and sins intentionally or unintentionally covered up will be exposed to the world (inventory is the root of all sins). These habits and interests will become all kinds of interference and resistance. At this time, without the support of leaders, the project will not be implemented. At the beginning, Hongzhi executives reached a consensus in this regard: the essential problem of ERP project failure is "people", "no matter how old the qualification is, how high the position is, how big the contribution is, if you can't adapt to the ERP Construction of the company, please ask him to make way". Manufacturing informatization will be a historic leap that must be experienced to build a century old Hongzhi. You Jin, the top CEO of the company, personally serves as the director of the project steering committee. No matter how busy the project meeting is, he will come to discuss problems with the members of the project team and fully provide human, financial, material and other resources support. As an ERP project manager, I must find a way to win the support of leaders. Through the publicity and momentum of the conference and the factory newspaper, I can make employees understand that ERP is the general trend and the boss' decision. Resistance is not only futile, but also punished. Once the potential is created, it will come naturally and get twice the result with half the effort. During the implementation process, the implementation progress and problems that the project team is difficult to make decisions should be reported to the CEO at any time, so that the leaders can participate in the project comprehensively and deeply. When the boss pays attention, others have to pay attention. Only when the boss really understands it can he make the right decision. The longer you use manual mode, the more suspicious you are about the new system. Babies will never grow up until they are weaned. Therefore, we are