I'm sensitized to this topic given my background for most of my life in IT & systems deployment sitting down with clients and going through requirements, etc. At the risk of vague theory crafting, a "vent", I'll drop out my perceptions from a "get the work done" view in another industry.
- I had to fight with sales people pushing features that were meaningless to the client's, and
- Had to dance with client Managers who wanted pie-in-the-sky to talk about in their board meetings, but didn't address worker needs).
1) Commercial off-the-shelf software will always force you to bend to the needs of the software, including its weak points.
2) As such, never take the word of marketing material, even when that marketing material is completely truthful. It is NOT just about the software having a feature that does "X", it's always about HOW that feature is provided. Marketeers will wax poetic about their software does this spiffy thing, and in fact the software does indeed do that, but may do it in a pain-in-the-ass difficult manner. It's not just the What, it's the How it does it.
3) Never let the software company drive their explanations and demonstrations. YOU drive that by compiling a list of Tasks out of your environment, with requirements for completing each task by an ERP (in your minds) generated from not only management, but the workers actually doing the work.
Walk through the Tasks with the Software company having them illustrate HOW their software satisfies each Task to see where there are matches to HOW you want that feature to work, versus places you have to bend over to how the software does it.
You know your business. You know your people. You know what's causing you a pain in the ass in paperwork/information busywork instead of making parts. You can only evaluate an ERP against that by pulling that Task List together and writing up HOW you need things to work. That's your Gage Block.
Be prepared to bend over for the constraints of a commercial, off the shelf, ERP. Particularly if you are smaller and the software has been written for larger clients with bigger budgets. But, again, your Task List gives you something to, to chart that course and come to an informed understanding.
Lastly, an opinion/observation:
Most of my time was spent in Police, Fire, and Emergency Services CAD (computer aided dispatch) and Records Management (RMS), both as a customer at a Police Department, then years with several Vendors who provided software.
I have found that there is great similarity between that environment and Manufacturing, meaning:
People on the shop floor are in-process, real time, Tactical resources who do NOT have the time to putz around with inefficient / troublesome bureaucratic BS. They've got work to do, to specification, if something unexpected happens they need immediate response for either instructions or information.
Just . . . exactly . . . like Dispatchers and Police working Calls. Police/Fire Dispatch systems are DESIGNED entirely differently than Police/Fire Records systems. The entire design principles are DIFFERENT than what is provided for in Records systems clerks use. Computer Aided Dispatch systems (a good one) will have its interface designed for tactical use in events happening in real time.
Managers, Shop Foremen, Quality People, Owners also have a need for concise, accurate, timely, and easily acquired information out of that environment, and cannot be burdened with a troublesome, difficult to operate system containing information and reports summarizing what's going on.
Just . . . exactly . . . like Police/Fire who have to submit monthly reports to the Feds and State, or have to respond to an event that has the community in an uproar with the media, etc.
One of the great problems with commercial, off the shelf software, is if it's being designed and coded by "desk jockey's" who have little grounding in the environment they are trying to serve, and/or have adopted a disassociated view where what makes sense at a desk with plenty of time to theory craft what's "good" and "right" bears no resemblance to the pressures, interrupts, and consequences for mistakes on the shop floor. In real time.
It all comes back to HOW things have been designed to work, not just WHAT the software claims it does.
For those that bothered to read all this, I applaud your patience. Thank you.
