September 1996 € Volume 6 € Number 9
The Lone Ranger Need Not Apply
By Karl M. Kapp, CFPIM, CIRM
Clint Eastwood, Rambo, John Wayne, the Lone Ranger -- most American heroes
are rugged individuals. They blaze their own trail, fight their own battles
and work alone. This hero has won the West, climbed Mount Everest and hit
the game-winning solo home run. However, one item not on the Lone Ranger's
list of accomplishments is "successfully implemented an ERP system."
A team or an organization, not a "Lone Ranger," achieves implementation
success. Too often, one person within a manufacturing organization is responsible
for the entire enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation. The integrated
nature of an ERP system makes the task impossible for our solo hero. To
achieve a successful implementation, a team must be properly formed, work
towared well-defined goals, effectively communicate its mission and accomplishments.
Include Tonto and Silver
Cross-functional diversity is the goal you should strive for when creating
an implementation team. Team membership needs to include one individual
from all of the business areas: engineering, purchasing, inventory, sales,
finance, customer service, human resources and the MIS department. In addition,
team members should represent various viewpoints -- innovative to conservative
to the middle-of-the road. However, all team members must be open minded
and willing to champion change, regardless of their personal philosophy.
Choosing team members is never easy, it often involves political, professional
and personal issues. Teams with negativity, interpersonal conflicts and
hidden agendas do not achieve world-class implementations. Team members
must be people who directly affect daily operations and who understand the
tremendous benefits of an ERP system.
Team members must have the responsibility and authority to "make it
happen." If they do not, the implementation will fail. Many teams falter
because they do not have the authority to mandate new processes or procedures.
Workers don't have time for an ineffective or powerless implementation team.
They have more important things to do -- like produce product.
Each team member needs to be responsible for specific tasks. A key element
in team planning and team development is identifying the role each member
will play. A simple way to do this is to establish team member "job
descriptions." The description should be composed of the overall goal
of the team and the tasks each member needs to perform to achieve team goals.
Members must be held accountable for their assigned tasks. The job description
should be reviewed weekly to monitor progress and to identify potential
problems.
Who was that masked man?
Once the team is formed and functioning, it must avoid working in secrecy.
The team must communicate continually and accurately to the rest of the
organization. A surprising number of implementations fail because not everyone
in the organization is continually informed of the progress and requirements
of the implementation. Part of the team's job is to ensure that update memos
are sent to all interested parties. (Hint: Everyone in the organization
is an interested party).
The team can be sure that bad news and setbacks will travel far and wide.
The trick of the job is to make sure good news and accomplishments travel
just as far. One way to do this is to document and distribute time and money
savings as soon as they occur. When savings are documented and distributed
quickly, the momentum will help keep the organization excited about the
implementation and encourage the team in difficult times.
Riding into the sunset
It is tempting to make one person responsible for an entire implementation.
When one person is responsible, there is only one person to blame or one
person to locate when things aren't going well. However, experience has
shown that one person cannot successfully implement a system. Only a team
can accomplish a world-class implementation and ride successfully into the
sunset. So when a Lone Ranger comes knocking at your door, tell him "No
thanks partner, I'm gathering a posse."
Karl M. Kapp, M.Ed., CFPIM, CIRM, is the training manager at Telesis
Computer Corp., Pittsburgh. He is responsible for the development, design
and delivery of ERP software classes to a variety of manufacturing audiences.
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