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July 09, 2015
How to Avoid Being a "Minion" Using A Proper ERP System
The plethora of advertising related to the upcoming theatrical release of the movie “Minions” inspired me to jot down some thoughts as to how a properly implemented, well-designed ERP system can actually reduce the "minions" in a typical business.
A minion is defined as a follower or underling to a powerful person, but for my purpose the latter is the more accurate notion. Over the years, I have witnessed plenty of offices with scores of workers toiling at jobs that are both mind numbing and error prone – and that’s the pity.
Taking the "Minion" Out of Everday Work
A well designed and implemented ERP system should eliminate virtually all of that kind of grunt work, and free up employees to use their minds to solve the problems that are inevitable but can, in the new regime, be brought to the attention of the right people as soon as they arise.
For instance, when a sales order for 850 units of merchadise comes in, there should be no need for a person to manually examine (or, worse yet, manipulate) every single one of those orders that arrives via EDI. The system should be able to check and validate the information on those 850 orders, push the ones that pass through to the sales order files and hold aside only those that have issues. If an order arrives with a "ship-to" that is not in the ERP system, or with a price that does not match the proper sales price to that customer, then that order should not go into the main file but instead should be held aside while a customer service person is notified of the problem(s). Then, that worker can attend to the specific issues at hand.
Management By Exception
This notion, of advising the appropriate person or people when there are issues, is called “management by exception” and is a core philosophy behind the design of BlueCherry. By automating custom-tailored reports and sending them to the specific people who can handle the problems therein, the system makes for the most efficient use of employees’ time. And better, from the worker’s point of view, the challenges of each new day’s issues are much more stimulating mentally than the drudgery of manually checking every line of every order to see it complies with, well, whatever. Goodbye minions and hello mentally stimulated workforce!
Other examples where this capability makes for a smarter workforce are:
- Production or purchasing: why make a printout of every PO outstanding? Wouldn’t it be smarter to have
o A listing of only those POs due to arrive at the war
ehouse next week sent to the warehouse manager, so she can ensure an appropriate workforce there?
o A listing of only those POs that are going to be more than 1 day later than planned, sent to the production or purchasing manager so he can chase down the delay?
o A listing of POs expected to ship from vendor X next month (or week), sent directly as a PDF attachment to that vendor? Your vendor might think you’ve hired someone just to chase them down, never knowing that the system is doing all the work.
- Sales fulfillment: Is there value in printing a listing of all outstanding sales orders? Perhaps better would be:
o A list of only those sales order lines that cannot
be shipped when required, either due to shortage of product or delayed arrival or perhaps even the rule that a shipment tomorrow will create a scenario where the balance of the order will need to ship next week, breaking the customer’s “one shipment per order” rule.
o A listing of sales orders that will be late sent specifically to the sales rep in charge of those customers, allowing the rep to ask for an extension.
o A listing of sales orders with gross profit margins of less than some threshold percentage sent to the financial executive who can decide whether or not to continue (or lower their priority in the allocation process)
These are just some examples, but the concept is clear: Having a proper ERP system with a manage-by-exception philosophy can enable your workforce to accomplish much more with less drudgery. So, while reducing the number of minions may be anathema to the movie, for a business it could be the way to go.
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