Successful ERP implementation teams develop safeguards against a computer takeover. Avoiding the HAL Syndrome calls for the project team to post a vigilant watch during the implementation life cycle. This watch includes the use of several techniques. The first technique is to carefully define why the ERP system is being implemented. By default, implementations without a clear business focus lean toward a computer focus. The second technique is to train the project team in the non-technical aspects of implementation. Teach employees about corporate culture and change management — not formulas, bits and bytes. The third safeguard is to manage the data entering the ERP system. We all know the old adage — garbage in, garbage out. Finding the right data to enter into the computer is essential. The final step is to avoid technical jargon. When discussing your ERP implementation, avoid TLAs (three letter acronyms) and techno-speak.

Applying these four techniques to your ERP implementation will help you to avoid the HAL Syndrome.

Business Needs Analysis
The first step toward avoiding the HAL Syndrome is to carefully conduct a business needs analysis. Your organization needs to determine the business need being addressed by the ERP system. This step is of extreme importance. In too many cases, an ERP system is purchased to achieve vague and somewhat idealistic goals that cannot possibly be accurately measured. An example of this type of goal would be to "reduce inventory." What exactly does that phrase mean? Reduce what inventory? Purchased parts? Work-in-progress? Finished goods? All inventory? After you identify what inventory you are going to reduce, by how much are you going to reduce it? Why? What is the anticipated return on investment (ROI)? Is it possible to reduce inventory without the expense of the ERP system? If so, by how much and how much more can you reduce inventory with the ERP system in place?

The analysis of your business needs provides your organization with measurable, concrete results that can be used to determine the progress of the implementation and to see if the implementation should be undertaken at all. The difficulty many technology implementation projects have is an inadequate or missing business needs analysis.

A business needs analysis is a careful, step-by-step examination of how your business functions. It includes the collection of data from a variety of areas within the manufacturing organization. The needs analysis asks questions concerning:

• on-time performance in shipping and receiving

• inventory turns by inventory type

• effectiveness of order entry processing

• costs associated with satisfying difficult customer requests

• effectiveness of materials planning

• plant layout and material movement

• sales and marketing strategies

• vendor relationships

• internal rewards and measurements

The results of the business needs analysis are a solid assessment of your company's position and the identification of opportunities for improvement. Once the business needs analysis is complete, your company can target the areas which will have the biggest impact on your corporate bottom line. The result may be the need to implement an ERP system or the identification of more pressing issues (e.g., product quality). The business needs analysis is an excellent tool for avoiding HAL. It allows you to determine if technology is really the answer to your manufacturing problems.

Non-Technology Training
Few implementation teams receive any training in team building, project management, negotiation skills, decision-making, needs analysis, or any other soft skills essential to implementation success. Instead, companies tend to focus on hard skills or the more technical aspects of ERP. This technical focus leads to the HAL Syndrome.

Technical training or hard skills training in the areas of material requirements planning (MRP) or inventory formulas, while important, should not be the focus of ERP training. Technical training alone does not result in implementation success. When implementing an ERP system, you are changing the practices and procedures of your organization. You must teach people how to handle the change and adapt to the new procedures. When all training revolves around punching buttons and reading screens, employees focus on the computer and not the manufacturing practices introduced by the ERP system.

Separate the computer from the processes and procedures of the ERP system. If possible, conduct "computer" classes within your organization that focus purely on computer literacy, word processing or spreadsheets without any mention of ERP. Show employees that the computer is simply a tool and not the focus of the ERP implementation.

In addition, conduct ERP classes without discussing the computer. Show employees the overall picture of the organization and how an ERP system will improve manufacturing and profitability within the company. Show them how an ERP system is a collection of practices and principles. Mention, in an off-hand manner, "Oh, by the way, the ERP system runs on a computer."

Not only will such soft skills training improve and simplify your ERP implementation, the skills gained will prove highly transferable to other corporate implementation projects. For example, the skill of "negotiation" can be used daily when talking with customers, vendors and fellow co-workers. The skill of "needs analysis" can be used to determine whether or not to purchase a new copier or to outsource a production line.

Finding Data
HAL believed it could make no mistake. Your ERP system operates under the same assumption. When data is entered into an ERP system, it is treated as if it is absolutely correct. The ERP system doesn't question the data. It determines inventory levels, purchasing requirements and other calculations based on whatever information is provided.

When implementing an ERP system, one of the primary tasks of the project team is to find the proper data to load into the system. Proper data is information used daily by managers and employees to make decisions. Unfortunately, finding proper data is not as easy a task as it would seem. In some companies, each manager or supervisor has his or her own stash of data. This stash can be hidden anywhere: in a spreadsheet, on a hard drive, in drawers of a filing cabinet, in a relational database on a network server, or on a 5 x 8-inch index card next to the lathe.

The search for consistent and accurate data to place into the ERP system can be a frustrating and difficult task. You must develop a list of places to look in order to ensure that the proper data is used by the ERP system. If improper data is entered, the HAL Syndrome takes control and provides you with faulty and possibly dangerous data.

Two places in which multiple types of data can be hidden is in inventory part numbers and in bills of material. It is not uncommon to have one set of numbers for engineering parts and a different set of numbers for production parts. Another area of multiple part numbers is purchasing. Often the purchasing department will purchase with vendor part numbers and then have to track vendor part numbers to production or engineering part numbers and, in some cases, both. In such a system, there exists tremendous opportunity for errors. The implementation team needs to develop methodologies for identification and elimination of points of multiple numbers.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), many ERP systems do allow for multiple part numbers per item. However, the project team has to ensure the part numbers are properly cross-referenced prior to entering the parts into the ERP system. The strategy of catching multiple numbers as they arise has been tried again and again; consistently this method fails. It is therefore worth the time for the project team to establish a spreadsheet to cross-reference all numbers prior to beginning the entry of the numbers into the ERP system.

Another place to look for potential data problems is the exchange of data between the accounting department and the production department. Look to see if items are costed in the same manner they are produced. This could cause problems in ERP systems that allow only one cost type per part number. It is also not the best practice for determining an accurate product cost. In addition, the accounting department tends to use historical averages on some data while manufacturing wants actuals, or vice versa. For example, scrap counts can be based on historical percentages on the cost side, but on actuals in production. It is also possible that items are manufactured with one set of part numbers but costed with another.

The ERP project team must identify and eliminate the various "pockets" of data, thus avoiding the HAL Syndrome from the beginning by ensuring that proper data is entered into the ERP system. If the process of data management is not conducted prior to the implementation process, serious implementation delays will occur while the data problems are resolved. Schedule time in your implementation plan to find and evaluate the different "islands of information" within your manufacturing company.

Avoid Techno-speak
Our language frames how we see our environment. If the project team and upper management continually refer to the ERP implementation as a computer project, then everyone will view the new ERP system as such. Even in closed-door meetings, the discussion should revolve around the manufacturing impact and not the computer. Remember HAL was able to read lips even when he couldn't hear the crew members speaking. How the project team views the implementation will be reflected in the views of the employees directly impacted by the ERP system. The idea is to convey the fact that the ERP system is an improved method of manufacturing, not simply automation of old and possibly inefficient processes.

Some tips include:

• Refer to the computer as a tool or delivery vehicle for the new procedures.

• Call the new system a manufacturing management system, not a computer system.

• Refer to any training as manufacturing training, not new computer system training.

An ERP implementation is a major undertaking for any organization. Chaos and confusion surrounding the implementation can be greatly eased by lessening the introduction of new and strange terminology.

If the project leaders can frame the change in comfortable, easily recognized words, the mysterious new computer system becomes a little easier to understand. Focus on the benefits to the manufacturing process and not on the hardware and software that makes it possible.

Avoiding the HAL Syndrome
In the movie, "2001: A Space Odyssey," the stakes were high. Most crew members lost their lives. In a manufacturing organization, the stakes aren't nearly as high, but they are important nonetheless. Jobs can be lost. Divisions can be closed. Companies file for bankruptcy. In most cases, a successful ERP implementation is critical to the long-term success of the manufacturing organization.

Fortunately, the HAL Syndrome is avoidable. If project team members have a clear business focus, teach soft skills as well as technical skills, find the proper data and avoid technical jargon, the mission of successfully implementing the ERP system will be accomplished.

Copyright © 2020 by APICS — The Educational Society for Resource Management. All rights reserved.

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