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Management Mastery: ERP’s Role in Supply Chain · Speaking of Supply Chain

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Speaking of Supply Chain, a Meeboch podcast.
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  Speaker 1: This is a show for logistics professionals looking to learn
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  Speaker 1: more about the latest innovations in supply chain. Each episode
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  Speaker 1: will feature a conversation on topics such as mitigating supply
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: chain disruption and reducing risk, current automation trends, sustainability initiatives,
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  Speaker 1: and more. Let's dive right in.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain, where we
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  Speaker 2: explore trends, current events, and innovations impacting the logistics and
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  Speaker 2: supply chain industries. I'm your host, Ellen Wood. Sustainability is
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  Speaker 2: no longer just a buzzword, it's a business imperative. In
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  Speaker 2: today's episode, we're going to be exploring how ERP systems
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  Speaker 2: are becoming the cornerstone of environmentally responsible operations. My guest
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  Speaker 2: today is Pritiksha Argowall, and we're going to be discussing
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  Speaker 2: everything from data driven decision making to supply chain transparency
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  Speaker 2: and the circular economy. Welcome to Speaking of Supply Chain.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you Allen, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 2: It's lovely to have you here. So let's get to
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  Speaker 2: our topic today, which is ERP systems and what they're
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  Speaker 2: able to do for supply chains and in a number
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  Speaker 2: of different areas from sustainability to transparency of where product
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  Speaker 2: is and even in the circular economy when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to returns or recyclables and any of those topics. So
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  Speaker 2: you are an expert in ERP implementation, what is the
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  Speaker 2: first thing that our listeners need to know if they
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  Speaker 2: have not experienced an ERP system, if they're not one
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  Speaker 2: of these enterprise level clients, what's the first thing they
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  Speaker 2: need to know about an ERP system that is going
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  Speaker 2: to make the difference for their supply chain.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. So, one of the things about ERB, in a
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  Speaker 3: very layman terms, is like ERB is a software which
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  Speaker 3: basically has all your different modules or line of businesses
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  Speaker 3: working together. So it will have your uder management, your
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  Speaker 3: supply chain management processes, it will have inventory management, procurement, accounting, finance,
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  Speaker 3: everything running in one system. And the best part about
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  Speaker 3: it is that all the information is centralized, standardized and
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  Speaker 3: flows very seamlessly. So talking in the aspect of sustainability,
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  Speaker 3: it gives our stakeholders a clear picture or a centralized
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  Speaker 3: picture of what is coming in, how is it going,
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  Speaker 3: what are the different processes and steps and then they
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  Speaker 3: can review all this data, inventory returns, processes and figure
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  Speaker 3: out the loopholes where they can improve sustainability or they
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  Speaker 3: can take the corrective measures to make it more efficient
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  Speaker 3: and to make it more nature friendly, environment friendly. So
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  Speaker 3: that's the best part about it, getting in holistic view
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  Speaker 3: running everything together exactly.
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  Speaker 2: So when you have all the data, all of the
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  Speaker 2: data for running the organization in one place, you're able
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  Speaker 2: to look at it through that holistic lens, see how
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  Speaker 2: it relates to other data within the system, to other
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  Speaker 2: business units, and really have a much more I've already
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  Speaker 2: used the word holistic, but just a much broader view
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  Speaker 2: of what's going on in the business.
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  Speaker 3: Birds I like to call it the birds I view.
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  Speaker 2: The bird's eye view. Okay, I like that. So looking
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  Speaker 2: at the whole thing, but then getting into some of
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  Speaker 2: those areas, correct what areas have or tend to have
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  Speaker 2: the highest potential for those sustainability improvements. Is it in operations?
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  Speaker 2: I assume maybe some of it's in procurement, But where
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  Speaker 2: are those sustainability quick wins?
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  Speaker 3: I think every area has potential areas to figure out sustainability,
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  Speaker 3: like especially like starting from order management, right, we had
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  Speaker 3: one of our customers, and it was a big customer.
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  Speaker 3: I can't name them, but they had orders coming in
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  Speaker 3: from different sources and through papers, emails, through you know faxes,
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  Speaker 3: so that involved a lot of carbon footprint, and they
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  Speaker 3: automated their entire process of taking orders. So they created
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  Speaker 3: an application automated the entire process of taking orders even
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  Speaker 3: through phone orders. They automated it using copilots like certain
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  Speaker 3: AI copilots, chatbots and all and made an easy way
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  Speaker 3: of automating all the orders and creating those orders in
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  Speaker 3: their ERP systems. So that reduced so many steps of
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  Speaker 3: you know, manual paperwork, manual entry. That really helped helped
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  Speaker 3: in reducing their carbon footprint as well as freeing up
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  Speaker 3: their resources from manually entering the orders into the system.
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  Speaker 3: So every single line of business, whether it is auto management,
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  Speaker 3: whether it is procurement. I'll give you on a example
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  Speaker 3: of one of my other customers. They created an application
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  Speaker 3: in the ERP system to check their suppliers against all
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  Speaker 3: these different sustainability regulations and they were scoring their suppliers
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  Speaker 3: and then they used to pick the supplier which has
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  Speaker 3: the least sustainability scored cost and they used to late
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  Speaker 3: it and pick this. So there are different ways you
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  Speaker 3: can optimize it. You can optimize the route that your
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  Speaker 3: transports are taking to deliver the product through ERP and
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  Speaker 3: figure out a much better route that will also save time,
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  Speaker 3: it will save fuel, it will save the cost. So
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  Speaker 3: every single line of business or every single area and
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  Speaker 3: ARP can be looked into do our small bit.
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  Speaker 2: So what are some of the challenges in collecting and
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  Speaker 2: managing all that data when it comes to an AIRP system.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you were talking about building a form or
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  Speaker 2: you know, an online order process. So yes, now the
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  Speaker 2: data is coming directly into the system in that's so
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  Speaker 2: much easier. But does that require a different program you
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  Speaker 2: were talking about transportation management? Does a TMS have to
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  Speaker 2: be a separate add on sidecar piece of this or
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  Speaker 2: is all of that inherently capable within the ERP systems
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  Speaker 2: that we have available today. I mean, we can talk
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  Speaker 2: about what they used to be able to do, and
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  Speaker 2: that's lovely, but it doesn't matter. Yes, what are they
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  Speaker 2: able to do today?
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  Speaker 3: So that's a very important question. Like, supply chain is
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  Speaker 3: very complex, and the complexity makes it very difficult, you know,
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  Speaker 3: to get the visibility and control over different aspects of
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  Speaker 3: supply tin and data availability and accuracy is like at
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  Speaker 3: the top of it. So many companies struggle with having
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  Speaker 3: that visibility into their extended supply gin, particularly beyond their
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  Speaker 3: first tier of suppliers. So with multiple tiers of suppliers,
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  Speaker 3: tracing the sustainability data back to the original source becomes
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  Speaker 3: really complex. So each adds another layer of difficulties. So
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  Speaker 3: collecting data verification process, gaining insight into the next level
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  Speaker 3: suppliers makes it very difficult and which is not very
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  Speaker 3: readily available. Some of the steps that suppliers or ERP
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  Speaker 3: implementers should take place is make sure that the data
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  Speaker 3: is available, collected, it's accurate. Like you know, you can
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  Speaker 3: have different automations like I said to clean the data
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  Speaker 3: and make sure because it goes hand in hand, your
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  Speaker 3: data availability and data accuracy needs to be on point
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  Speaker 3: in your ERP system. The second I would say is
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  Speaker 3: regulation and compliance is another challenge right with an increasing
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  Speaker 3: number of regulations and standards, sustainability can be really overwhelming
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  Speaker 3: for companies to take, keep track of or comply with it.
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  Speaker 3: So different regions can have different regulations, different standards. Some
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  Speaker 3: suppliers might be reluctant to share the data due to
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  Speaker 3: you know, concerns about confidentiality, competitive advantage, or it could
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  Speaker 3: require it could also require a lot of effort in
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  Speaker 3: collecting and reporting the data, right, so that is another challenge.
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  Speaker 3: Then one of the most common things which I have
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  Speaker 3: come across in different customers is fragmented information across you know,
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  Speaker 3: different regions or different systems. That further complicates collecting and
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  Speaker 3: integrating the data. Like there is consistent sustainability reporting standards
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  Speaker 3: and data quality issues such as incomplete or outdated information
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  Speaker 3: that can again lead to you know, inaccurate or inconsistent data.
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  Speaker 3: These suppliers can vary in size, well, they can be
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  Speaker 3: in different locations, they can have different technology capabilities, which
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  Speaker 3: can lead to standardizing the data collected from these different areas,
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  Speaker 3: and then you know, collecting it and making sure that
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  Speaker 3: the entire data is standardized and obviously there is technology constraint.
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  Speaker 3: That is another challenge, right Not everyone would have tools
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  Speaker 3: or platforms to easily collect those datas or integrate those
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  Speaker 3: data us into their existing cell system so that they
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  Speaker 3: can then evaluate the data and cost. We can't leave
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  Speaker 3: cost dot of that. That is like the biggest challenge
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  Speaker 3: companies have, Like you know, they might not have the goal,
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  Speaker 3: finance or the sources to invest in these stepe of
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  Speaker 3: technologies or even resources. You need to train your resources
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  Speaker 3: to know how to collect the data, verify it in
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  Speaker 3: a consumer reform. So on a high level, these are
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  Speaker 3: the basic set of challenges which I generally encountered in
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  Speaker 3: most of my customers or clients.
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  Speaker 2: So what are some data accuracy or completeness issues that
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  Speaker 2: you've seen? I mean, we're talking about mountains of data
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  Speaker 2: that could potentially be input into this master system to
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  Speaker 2: be able to orchestrate whatever is needed within the company.
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  Speaker 2: That's significant. There have to be some very strict and
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  Speaker 2: stringent guidelines for what this data is and isn't and
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  Speaker 2: making sure or that that accuracy is in place, not
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  Speaker 2: only accuracy, but completeness, that you have every single piece
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  Speaker 2: of data, because as soon as you're missing a piece
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  Speaker 2: of data, than that entire data line is irrelevant. It
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  Speaker 2: can't be counted correct. So what are some I mean
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  Speaker 2: other than you just mentioned the financial challenge of having
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  Speaker 2: the resources available to compile and clean the data, what
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  Speaker 2: else makes it so difficult to implement an ERP system?
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  Speaker 3: While first of all. What makes it difficult to implement
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  Speaker 3: an ERP system is the fear of unknown right. A
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  Speaker 3: lot of customers or clients don't know they have to
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  Speaker 3: learn a new technology right, and they also have to
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  Speaker 3: learn how to give the requirements. The first hurdle blog
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  Speaker 3: that I have mostly faced during my customers is they
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  Speaker 3: don't know how to give the requirements. So as consultants,
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  Speaker 3: it is from us to get the requirements from them.
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  Speaker 3: And also training right. Change management is another important aspect
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  Speaker 3: that goes hand in hand. They fear that these new
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  Speaker 3: tools or technologies might take their jobs or roles away
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  Speaker 3: from them. You have to be empathetic with it. You
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  Speaker 3: have to ease them that this will not take job
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  Speaker 3: roles away. In fact, this will help you to do
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  Speaker 3: your job much more effectively. Train them how to use
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  Speaker 3: the systems right. So there it needs to be a
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  Speaker 3: change management in place to help them ease how to
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  Speaker 3: use the system. So those are like some of the
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  Speaker 3: common things which I've encountered, you know, change management, learning
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  Speaker 3: how to use the system. And also ERP can be
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  Speaker 3: a very good too. Like you said, right, data, how
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  Speaker 3: can we standardize the data? Like in ERP you can
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  Speaker 3: collect the customer or supplier information and you can make
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  Speaker 3: sure that those So these are certain important fields that
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  Speaker 3: has to be put in a recorder or a supplier
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  Speaker 3: cannot be saved without entering these exact information or these
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  Speaker 3: important fields. So that way you can make sure that
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  Speaker 3: there is the important information is there in the system.
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  Speaker 3: Or you can put certain checks automatic to check whether
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  Speaker 3: no one can enter a random postal code. The postal
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  Speaker 3: codes should be within this list of course. So those
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  Speaker 3: are certain things that you can handle on data verification
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  Speaker 3: or data entry where automatically, why you're creating the data,
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  Speaker 3: you can make sure certain checks are in Please.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So what I'm hearing is that once you've implemented
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  Speaker 2: the ERP system and you have all of these things
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  Speaker 2: in place, these these forms, these collection points in order
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  Speaker 2: to standardize the data, that's one thing. But when you're
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  Speaker 2: looking to implement a new ERP system, as a lot
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  Speaker 2: of clients are these days, to try and get this
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  Speaker 2: bird's eye view of their organization, they have to go
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  Speaker 2: back to old data and they have to clean it,
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  Speaker 2: they have to scrub it, they have to append it,
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  Speaker 2: they have to make sure it's all in the same format. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: what are we talking about in terms of number one,
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  Speaker 2: resources and time. I don't even know if you can
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  Speaker 2: give me a standard answer to this, because it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be different for every organization. They're going to have
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  Speaker 2: different holes, they're going to be different sizes. But I mean,
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  Speaker 2: what is a typical expectation of how much lift are
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  Speaker 2: we going to have to get our old data up
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  Speaker 2: to speed in order to work?
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  Speaker 3: So, yeah, that's a very good question, I mean, and yes,
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  Speaker 3: I actually don't have an accurate answer because timelines differ
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  Speaker 3: from customers to customers and also how messed up their
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  Speaker 3: previous legacy system works, to be honest, so a lot
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  Speaker 3: of customers do have all these basic information already available
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  Speaker 3: in their old legacy system, whether they are using it
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  Speaker 3: in a different format. And generally there are these different
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  Speaker 3: tools that help to migrate the data from the previous
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  Speaker 3: tool to the other tool. Obviously, we need some resource
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  Speaker 3: from the customer side who knows the system for example,
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  Speaker 3: or order management or customer management team on the customer
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  Speaker 3: side needs to work with the customer migration manager on
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  Speaker 3: the new ARP system. Right, So those two technical people
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  Speaker 3: work together, they collect the data, they make sure that
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  Speaker 3: the data is in one format and then they can
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  Speaker 3: migrate it to the other. And these are all these systems,
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  Speaker 3: so if the data is in place, migration becomes easier.
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  Speaker 3: So yes, cleaning the data definitely takes time. And like
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  Speaker 3: I said, it goes back to my previous point, how
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  Speaker 3: much time or resources the organization is ready to spend.
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  Speaker 3: I have seen organizations who are very good at it,
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  Speaker 3: who already have their act together. They have cleaned the
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: data or started working on cleaning the data. They not
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: tell which point of historic data they want to load
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: in the new Airby system and the remaining historic data
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  Speaker 3: they will archive, so that really helps with their game.
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  Speaker 3: And yes, it can take I would say a few months.
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  Speaker 3: I would say generally, I've seen like one or two
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  Speaker 3: months on if you're working dedicatedly on this project, two
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  Speaker 3: three months to easily transport, clean the data and move
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  Speaker 3: it from one system to the other.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well, I know a lot of supply chains out
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  Speaker 2: there are still to this day, and it makes me
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  Speaker 2: cringe a little bit. They're still running all of their
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  Speaker 2: operations using Excel. Excel is a wonderful tool, but it
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: is not an ERP system, and so I guess that
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  Speaker 2: gives our listeners who are considering an ERP system a
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: little bit of a benchmark to say, look, if I'm
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: not sure that my data is ready to go, that's
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: something I can be doing, even as I'm exploring the possibilities,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: looking at different vendors trying to decide which particular software
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  Speaker 2: is the best fit for our organization, is to start
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  Speaker 2: cleaning the data. Whatever the data is, start cleaning it,
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  Speaker 2: make sure it's consistent, make sure that it is complete,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and then you'll have a better time with that customer
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  Speaker 2: implementation team that's going to be requiring that data, of course,
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  Speaker 2: and possibly eliminating some potential delays, because I know that
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  Speaker 2: that is typically something that we see in projects where
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: we have to collect data from the client is they
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: were just completely and wholly unprepared for what it is
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: that would be needed when they came to us and said,
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: you know, we have this project we want to do,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: and we say, okay, first you're going to need you
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  Speaker 2: know the data about this, and whether it's their their
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: order data or their their transportation data, whatever it is,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: going back and making sure that everything is clean is
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: one of the most time consuming steps in most projects.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say, and this is also a step
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  Speaker 3: that can bring down the entire ARP implementation. Yes, that
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  Speaker 3: is very true. I do remember walking into clients where
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  Speaker 3: we had gathered all the requirements, automated all their processes,
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: but just because they were not ready to clean their data,
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: we had to call off the project, take a step back,
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: give them time to you know, clean up the data,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: and then go back in again. So I have seen
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: that could be a major And on a second note, also,
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  Speaker 3: I remember like, if your data is not clean, no
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: matter how good the processes are going to be in
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: the new ARP system, you will not be able to
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: benefit out of it because everything is driven from the data.
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  Speaker 3: All the analysis that you would be doing, all the
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: decisions that you would be taking, will be from the
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: automation that is running on that data. So if that
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  Speaker 3: data is not clean, no matter how good of a
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: job you've done in automating the processes or digitizing your
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: ERP systems, it's not going to work efficiently.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, let's do that louder for the people in the back.
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  Speaker 2: If your data is not clean, you can't automate processes
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  Speaker 2: with it. Because I think that's one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that really catches organizations by surprise is they want these
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: they want these automated processes. They want to simplify the
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: work that they're doing. They want to simplify it so
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: that they can have a better time with labor. There's
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: labor constraints right now, there's a talent shortage. They want
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: to achieve some of these sustainability goals with not having
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: paper and faxes and things. There are so many things
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: that organizations are trying to do within that automation of
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: different processes, and they don't realize that you can't automate
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  Speaker 2: a process that has bad data. It won't work because
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  Speaker 2: you're just going to get the wrong results.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're going to get the wrong results, and then
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  Speaker 3: you have to redo the entire thing manually yourself, and.
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  Speaker 2: You've probably made some bad decisions along the way based
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: on those bad data and bad results. So it's really
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  Speaker 2: a cautionary tale and super important to understand the absolute
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: importance of clean and accurate data before moving into any automation,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: whether it's an ERP or any other system that we're
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: looking at. So one thing that I did want to ask,
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  Speaker 2: because we've talked a little bit about sustainability and using
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: that system in order to create some of those processes
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: that allow them to increase their sustainability adherence, whether it's
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: an external regulation. There's a lot of legislature that's taking
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: place across the world right now trying to improve sustainability
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: and improve our carbon footprints. So what are some examples
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  Speaker 2: of how they've used an ERP system in order to
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  Speaker 2: create that sustainability to a degree that it makes that
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  Speaker 2: a differentiator for their business.
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  Speaker 3: So for example, companies like I would say Johnson and
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  Speaker 3: Johnson are Unilever, they have actually used ERP systems to
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: streamline their supply chain. They are monitoring different environmental impacts.
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  Speaker 3: They have certain checkpoints, certain key metrics that they track
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  Speaker 3: themselves against. They are also monitoring how these how their
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: suppliers are impacting the environmental they're kind of rating their
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: suppliers to make sure and these companies are focusing on
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: using ERP to improve their sustainability practices and has their
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: reputation be considered as one of the you know, responsible
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: corporate companies I would say not employees. Yeah, that can
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: be appealing to both their customers and investors who prioritize
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: sustainability over environment and they are doing by you know,
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: like I said earlier, they're looking into different areas of
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: their business processes, whether it is optimizing the inventory or
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: you know, optimizing the return management process or figuring out
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: better transportation routes to deliver the products, or automating order
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: management processes. There are different areas that they look into
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: to optimize their small bits of business processes which eventually
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: make a huge impact.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: It's so interesting to me to learn how much of
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: supply chain actually impacts other areas of the business and
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: in ways that maybe seem logical or second nature. But
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: when we're talking about some of these sustainability goals, well,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: like these these large enterprise organizations like you mentioned, they
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: have someone, they have a sustainability officer, a chief sustainability officer,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: whose sole position is there to make sure that they're
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: making improvements in these areas. But then to go back
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: and see how much of that can be driven and
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: affected by things like you know, which supplier are we
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: using to order you know this this component or this packaging,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: or how are we sending out or how are we
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: receiving these these orders. It's it's going to make a
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: huge difference. And I love that the ERP solution is
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: able to pull all of that into the one area,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: into the one database that's going to help all of
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: those decision makers across that organization, across that c suite
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: able to see the same things and talk about these
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: things using the same language. So they're they're looking at
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: the same data, they're finding the same things, but from
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: their own perspective.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're optimizing all these processes based on their company's requirements.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: And one other thing I wanted to ask, because you
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: were you mentioned a couple companies that I'm sure all
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: of our listeners have heard of, and these are major
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: global conglomerates. Of course they use an ERP system, of
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: course they do. But is there is there a basement
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: to that? Is there a minimum requirement in terms of size,
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: to where an ERP is just not going to be
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: the best solution that something smaller is obviously going to
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: be less expensive. I mean, we can, we can use
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: cost as the determining factor, but at what point is
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: there just not enough data input for an ERP system
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: to make sense?
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: So I think it is. It is dependent on certain
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: important factors, and there are reasons why companies don't pol
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: implementing ARB. First, is it is high initiative costs. Implementing
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: an ARP system can be expensive. It will involve like
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: significant upfront costs, whether it is software, licensing, hardware customizations.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: So small businesses or startups which will have limited barget
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: and financially it might not be the right choice for
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: them to you know, go ahead and implement a big
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: ERP system. That would be one reason. The second thing,
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: like I said, it's the complexity and the time consuming implementation.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: Right if companies are not looking to if their businesses
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: are straightforward and you know, they don't really need so
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: they don't have such complicated supply chain management processes or
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: order management processes, then you know implementing an ERP would
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: again be very time consuming and which they can easily
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: still get their works work done by using you know,
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: simple Excel files or those. So I think that is
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: another concern that could be another reason why small companies
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: should not would not go for it. Inetdiquate ID resources
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: like ERP requires ongoing maintenance, It requires updates, it requires support,
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: It requires resources you know to be working on the
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: ERP system to help you with it. So if you
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: don't have the enough resources or you don't have the
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: right amount of resources or the budget to you know,
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: scale your teams then ERP. Obviously, that was the other
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: reason I have seen generally in my experience why companies
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: choose not to go for ARP ERP systems. Generally, small
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: size companies or startups would not implement ARP until they
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: have reached, you know, like to omit size company, or
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: the business process has become so complicated that they can
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: implement an ARP and then it really makes sense for them.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, no, that's that's good for our listeners to
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: understand that it's not a one size fits all solution.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: This is this is a big solution, and it is robust,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: and it is capable of a lot of things, but
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: it is not the perfect solution to every organization's supply
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: chain and management woes. And then I guess my last
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: question would be, you know, you've implemented a number of
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: ERP systems for customers all over the world. M Yeah, Okay,
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: what is your most interesting implementation story? Doesn't have to
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: be the whole story, but what is one of the
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: favorite things that happened during an implementation that you will
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: never forget.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: I was working for this company, which is a pretty
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: big company for us. It's in life science life science,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: and they used to produce all these materials for different hospitals.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: They had sales rips that used to deliver these products
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: to a hospital and it included everything like you know,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: small bones to skulls, to tea to everything. So I
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: think what made me interesting is like, you never really
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: get into a place where you can see all these
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: getting manufactured apart from the MRP implementation, So that was
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: definitely very exciting to me to see how the entire
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: life cycle management process works. And trust me, it's so
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: complicated making sure small details are taken care of because
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: all of these things that they were manufacturing in their
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: organization was impacting hospital, so you can't make errors there.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: They cannot be defects in their products or their supply chain.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: So I think from the ARP implementation, for us being consultants,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: one implementation could be the other from the business process,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: but knowing what difference they are making to the world
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: made it very fascinating for me. Learning their entire business
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: became actually a learning experience for me as well. And
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: in this whole I also learned. I think particularly what
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: was very interesting for me is how they wanted to
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: optimize their especially their what you call inventory management and
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: return management processes, especially to cater to make their business
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: processes much more efficient, to make sure that all these
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: products are easily reaching the hospitals, the doctors, the patients
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: as and when they require it. So I think that
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: became very interesting to me and also a learning experience
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: on how they wanted to, you know, make this change
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: to track their inventory levels, make sure their product they
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: can view of their product movements in real time so
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: that they can stay on top of their products getting
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: delivered to hospitals, to patients, to doctors because they were
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: in such a demanding industry, and also making sure when
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: they were getting these return management returns back from their
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: customers or from their vendors, and if they were an issue,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: how can they make sure to quality check on these
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: returns like they had to quality check whether the return
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: material was written just because it was not being used
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: by the hospital anymore or they didn't require it because
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: of the oversupply, or was it getting returned due to
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: a defect manufacturing, And in case there was it was
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: return due to a defect manufacturing, how can they correct
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: the difficult and reuse the product and if they cannot
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: be reused, how could this crap of this product making
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: ensure that they are not creating environmental hazards. So I
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: think that project for me all in all, was a
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: big learning experience, especially from being a consultant that we
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: were not just implementing the ERB to do inventory control,
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: return management or customer supplier integration, but it was really
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: good to see how as a company they were trying
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: to make sure that they apart from you know, serving hospitals,
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: doctors and patients, they were also keeping an eye to
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: make sure that they are being a good corporate company
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: to make sure environment does not impacted, common footprint is
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: reduced and sustainability can be achieved as much as possible.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I agree, it's so interesting to go into some of
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: these organizations that brands that we're all familiar with and
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: seeing how they do what they do, how they deliver
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: the product that we are used to seeing in an
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: end result, or maybe we're not even used to seeing them.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: When it comes to something like medical devices, that's not
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: something I'm going to go into the store and pick
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: up off the shelf, but when I need it, when
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: my doctor needs that, then I need it and it's
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: so interesting to see the way the supply chain impacts
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: all of our lives. But I agree it is especially
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: gratifying to be a part of that improvement, a part
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: of that change for that organization, to help them do
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: what they're doing and try to achieve their mission in
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: a faster, more efficient way.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, that was definitely a gratifying experience for me. Well.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: That brings us to the end of this episode. Pratisha,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: thank you very much for joining us today and all
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: of your insight into the implementation of ERP systems. And
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: I will have your LinkedIn in our description for the podcast,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: so if anyone wants to get in touch with you
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: and ask you more questions about this, they know where
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: to reach you. If our listeners out there have a
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: suggestion for a topic or would like to be a
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: guest on the show, we'd love to hear from you.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: You can contact me at podcast at mebok dot com
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: at any time. As always, thanks for listening to Speaking
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: of Supply Chain. If you enjoyed our show, please rate
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: and review us on whatever podcast platform you prefer and
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: be sure to tune in next time.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Me Meeboch Consulting is one of the largest and most
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: globally recognized supply chain consulting, engineering, and advisory firms. For
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: nearly fifty years, we've helped clients achieve supply chain excellence
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and sustainable competitive advantage across the entire spectrum of the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: supply chain by delivering improvements and innovation strategically, tactically, and digitally.
• 31:16
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