Opinion Authored by Isaac Bennet
I have been working in the Information Technology field a long time, some would say too long. The biggest lesson I have learned over the years is that technology is the easy part. “Easy for you to say, nerd.” It’s true. And I am a geek, not a nerd. Projects to implement new technology rarely fail because of the technology. They usually fail because of unforeseen issues, and it can vary from not understanding the full scope of what the technology will touch, to bad training, to general complexity. I am going to focus specifically on the manufacturing industry. Mainly because I am selfish and that is the environment that I have been in for the last 17 years.
When a software salesperson walks into a room with an itty-bitty grin and their marketing materials resonate with you and your current predicament, you get excited! You feel like this could be a game changer, a turning point, disruptive, transformative. The initial excitement is real, and you don’t want to lose the momentum. You put together the presentation, you get the requisition ready for approval and you present this revolutionary software that will solve your problems and create global standards for your manufacturing operations team. Bravo, you did it! Capital is approved and all your problems are solved!
Let’s get real. We all know the work begins once that approval makes its rounds and you get the stamp to spend money. Once reality sets in you find yourself sliding down the peak of excitement to the winding road of expectations. You gather the stakeholders together and you have a kickoff meeting where you present the solution in all its glory and now you have everyone on the hype train. Then you start to implement the solution and you quickly find out the intricacies and the complexity and you hit the valley of despair.
So, what’s the problem? The salesperson said this shop floor MES (Manufacturing Execution System) was modular, easy to use and could hook into any ERP system. Well yeah it can. It can do a lot of things. What it can’t do is fix your data.
I was part of a large global organization that built a customized shop floor solution using their ERP system as the platform. They did it in one location, in Europe, and it worked well for them. The global leadership team sat in this location, and they thought, “This is great! Let’s make this the global standard.” In theory this sounds fantastic. A lot of time and money was spent, and they made very little progress. Why?
Let’s run down the list of why:
- Diverse Business Processes: I visited one plant and had a discussion with the local support team. One of the comments that was made was about the number of Plant Managers they have had over the past 10 years and how many changes they have made to their processes. The support team just did as they were told and never felt they could say “no.” This led to variations of data going into the ERP system in different ways and different formats.
- Regulatory Compliance: Do you know what Maquiladora is? Neither did I. It refers to a factory in Mexico and the benefits global corporations get when running a factory in Mexico. To take advantage of these benefits there are certain regulatory compliances that need to be followed. Of course, this means that business processes and data exchange in these locations will be different. When implementing global standards, you need to be careful of scenarios like these.
- Data Inconsistencies and Duplication: This one is connected to number one (1) and number two (2). This is the core. Today, Data is King! Data, data data. The new oil, soil, gold and bacon. Everyone wants to make decisions based on data that can transform their business. The problem is getting good data. The company wanted to make a standard for all shop floors globally, but the processes were different which led to different data. Different countries had different regulations which led to different data. On top of that there was no data governance so you could have the same part in 3 different plants all with different part numbers. Oops.
There are other pitfalls when trying to implement software standards in a manufacturing environment including legacy systems found throughout the company, but in the end, it all leads back to process and data. Manufacturing environments are very complex, especially in companies that have multiple locations and are making many different products. You can try and plan for these pitfalls but in the end, you will never see all of them. My advice? Go work in finance. I joke. I, like you, enjoy working in manufacturing because of the diversity and complexity. My advice is tread softly, have a big vision, prepare as much as possible, but start small. Look for the pitfalls and find a software solution that is agile and can easily adjust. My advice? Teach data governance, fix your data before you implement, and maintain your master data like it is the gold covered bacon that you desire.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Isaac Bennett is an internationally recognized author and keynote speaker on manufacturing technology. He is a Solutions Architect at Flexware Innovation, providing digital transformation consulting for global manufacturers. Isaac most often writes and speaks on topics like 1) accelerating business through technology (ERP, MES, Artificial Intelligence), 2) breaking down traditional business silos through digital transformation 3) demonstrating how technology can bring value to the organization. To book Isaac for an upcoming podcast or keynote, contact us.
