What is ERP system?
ERP is an automated application that automates internal controls and business processes and provides insight into a central database where there is a collection of departments that includes the management of the supply chain, human resources marketing, accounting, and sales. The Company that has fully applied the ERP system is Amazon, and there has been a significant change whereby since the year 2012, the Company has increased in net worth up to 47%. ERP system in the amazon performs the following tasks; marketing of the amazon goods, manufacturing of some goods, human resources, accounting, sales, and supply chain management(Pani2021, PG.289). It helps in marketing the services of goods and services of amazon online since amazon is an online-based business(Pani2021, PG.289). This is applicable where ERP software records the Company’s marketing activities, beginning with the current customers and contact of prospective and presale activities of the amazon by tracking the customers’ orders.
ERP software helps in the manufacturing g of the goods and services in the Amazon business. It allows coordination, management, and unprecedented visibility in the disparate process that makes up the Amazon company. ERP software helps Amazon aid human resources tasks that include payroll management, workforce, and applying the tracking tools to track the employee performance mainly in the online designated areas. Last year, Amazon used ERP in the recruiting, development, and training functions.
ERP is applied in the accounting section of the amazon company, where it has features that are time-saving and help streamline the data and ensure accounting automation. Amazon organization uses ERP in the sale where it creates floors of sale and gauges market elasticity. ERP is applied in completing the supply chain of the Amazon Company by scheduling and creating jobs effectively. This enables supervisors to know the real-time consumption of the resources, which is very useful in planning the delivery dates of the product.
Major ERP components specifically on materials requirement planning, master production, and capacity requirements of the planning.
ERP helps in the material planning of Amazon, where it has functionalities and the additional features that allow the Amazon manufacturing sector to streamline and automate the process of Amazon’s business(Lund2021, PG.106956). It develops the MRPs, which are more intended for manufacturing planning and inventory schedules. In the master production, ERP is applied in the Amazon organization. It creates a plan that helps outline the number of individual commodities produced at a particular duration like inventory, production, and staffing. It is linked to the manufacturing process, indicating how much materials are needed. Capacity requirement of planning of ERP components is the method of accounting used by Amazon company in determining the commodities they need to produce and if there are possibilities of meeting such goals in production.
The five challenges surrounding ERP software include; inadequate flexibility, vetting vendors are not proper, the need for integration when working out, maintenance costs, and challenges in understanding key features. Lack of flexibility of ERP software occurs when you select the correct software according to the intended requirements, making the Company seamless in terms of integration. As a result, there is inadequate flexibility. The is a challenge that apprises with the ERP inventing of the vendors whereby the I.T. sector of the amazon faces sweet talks from the ERP software sellers. Later on, they find the restriction of the functionality and how this will negatively impact best practices. This applies because most companies should not implement software with improper vendor vetting. The challenge of ERP software requires integration when working out, whereby system integration is time-consuming in ERP integration of data, which means some of the workflows will be hindered somewhere. Maintenance cost is another challenge that rises whereby ERP, besides the initial costs, will incur other maintenance charges. ERP is a very complex software and has many features to be learned. This raises the challenge of users not knowing all the elements in the ERP. This ends with Amazon company spending much on maintenance while the automation features which should increase the speed when working are not fully utilized.
Functions of ERP in Amazon
The five case studies where the ERP software failed include; ABC, Carmen’s fine food company, Heresy, Copier Company, and the Volkswagen Company. ERP failed in functioning correctly in ABC Company because of the inaccurate requirements. Carmen’s fine food company, based in Australia, failed because Carolyn, the Company’s CEO, was not committed to implementing the ERP system. The failure of the ERP software in Heresy which is the most accounted for the failure of the ERP is because of the lack of team resources in terms of experienced and talented operators. The loss of the EPR software in Copier Company based in Africa was also due to a lack of skilled and trained operators. There was a time that was reported that besides Volkswagen being so being, it experienced failure due to failure due to insufficient funding. This was a result of the negligence of the top team in allocating enough resources that would facilitate the maintenance of the ERP.
Five case studies where the ERP software has succeeded include; Amazon, tesla, Disney entertainment company, Alibaba Company, and fly emirates. The success of the EPR in Amazon could be attributed to the excellent budgeting of resources that will maintain the ERP software. The success of the ERP in the Tesla Company is due to good training of the workers on how to use it; therefore, they have a lot of skills. The success of ERP is due to good strategy when starting the project of ERP. The success of the Fly Emirates is due to the management’s commitment to managing the resources allocated to ERP software.
The criteria adopted in choosing the case study case is looking at the leading companies in production at the international level and then looking if the Company has ever integrated ERP in its business operations before shifting to the SAP software. Some showed a high level of success in using ERP software. The factors that could have led the Company not to achieve success in the ERP include; lack of skilled and experienced personnel, poor management of the ERP, insufficient funds for managing ERP, Poor vetting of the vendors, and lack of commitment among the leaders of the Company (Fostinone2016, PG.1237). The factors that led to the ERP’s success in some companies are a skilled I.T. team, committed leadership, the presence of funds for a good starting strategy for the Company, and good maintenance practices of the ERP.
Factors That Led To Failures Of The Erp Software In The Case Study. |
Factors That Led To The Success Of Erp Software In The Case Study. |
1. Lack of skilled and experienced personnel. 2. Poor management of the ERP. 3. Insufficient funds for managing ERP. 4. Poor vetting of the vendors. 5. And lack of commitment among the leaders of the Company. |
1) Presence of a skilled team of I.T. 2) Committed leadership. 3) Presence of funds of good starting strategy for the Company 4) Good maintenance practices of the ERP. |
The best practices that can be adopted for the best future patterns of the ERP software include; addressing the data quality, identifying your weakness and strength, finding trusted ERP software vendors, embracing some of the failures in the future, and finding a quick way to rectify them, and focusing on the communication process. By addressing data quality, the data can cost a loss of a million to a company that fails to consider the quality of the data they are processing. The companies should reconsider much on the quality of the data. Identifying some weaknesses and strengths, the Company should look at some disadvantages. Some of the powers that the Company should consider in the future are good budgeting on the amount used in catering maintenance of the ERP software. The lack of skilled personnel in the Company is one of the weaknesses, and the Company should consider finding well-experienced and talented personnel in the future. ERP vendor plays critical roles in the success of the ERP software. The Company should consider purchasing the software from a vendor who cannot mislead them in the future. The vendor will be resourceful in advising the Company on the best maintenance practices that should be carried on the software. Accepting failures does not mean that the Company is a failure rather than just an error in life. The Company should get the error and adopt practices that can lead to the reoccurrence of the error again, and all these practices will contribute to the future success of the ERP software.
Major components of ERP
Heaney Company is one of the companies that has faced the greatest failure of the ERP software besides investing a lot in the ERP software into its operations. ERP software is the engine for the supply chain process, and when it fails, all other methods are affected too. According to Gartner, the failure rate of the ERP is about 55 to 57%n, which means the project has failed to achieve the objectives it was intended to. Since the ERP is directly attached to activities like manufacturing sales, procurement, execution, accounting, resources management, assessment, and measurement, when it fails, that means all these supply chain activities are affected too. It involves the sales whereby ERP software provides the Company with more effective ways of handling the supply of services and goods and handling of the procurement as well from the execution process to the transportation process. ERP influences the assessment and measurement of goods and services, comparing the targets and projected goals. It identifies the workflow in the supply chain whereby it accesses any occurrence of variance and ensures that it is eliminated as early as possible; when ERP software fai9ls, this means that all these activities can’t work swiftly and will fail, and upon its failure, this supply chain process will be affected. ERP affects the supply chain process of the resources management whereby maintenance and monitoring cannot be done appropriately, mostly in maintaining the flexibility needed and business offering the required competition and ensuring the cost-effective operations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ERP is an automated application that automates internal controls and business processes and provides insight into a central database. A collection of departments includes management of the supply chain, human resources marketing, accounting, and sales. The five case studies where the ERP software failed include; ABC, Carmen’s fine food company, Heresy, Copier Company, and the Volkswagen Company. Five case studies where the ERP software has succeeded include; Amazon, tesla, Disney entertainment company, Alibaba Company, and fly emirates. The factors that could have led the Company not to achieve in the ERP include; lack of skilled and experienced personnel, poor management of the ERP, insufficient funds for managing ERP, Poor vetting of the vendors, and lack of commitment among the leaders the Company. The factors that led to the ERP’s success in some companies are a skilled I.T. team, committed leadership, the presence of funds for a good starting strategy for the Company, and good maintenance practices of the ERP.
References
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