ERP - на английски
Алекси
integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified
system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer
software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of
most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for
the various system modules.
Contents
* 1 Origin of the term
* 2 Overview
o 2.1 Before
o 2.2 After
* 3 Best Practices
* 4 Implementation
o 4.1 Consulting Services
o 4.2 Customization Services
o 4.3 Maintenance and Support Services
* 5 Advantages
* 6 Disadvantages
* 7 References
* 8 Further Readings
* 9 See also
Origin of the term
MRP vs. ERP - Manufacturing management systems have evolved in stages
over the past 30 years from a simple means of calculating materials
requirements to the automation of an entire enterprise. Around 1980,
over-frequent changes in sales forecasts, entailing continual
reajustments in production, as well as the unsuitability of the
parameters fixed buy the system, led MRP (Material Requirement
Planning) to evolve into a new concept : Manufacturating Resource
Planning (or MRP2) and finally the generic concept Manufacturating
Resource Planning ERP
MRP vs. ERP - Manufacturing management systems have evolved in stages
over the past 30 years from a simple means of calculating materials
requirements to the automation of an entire enterprise. Around 1980,
over-frequent changes in sales forecasts, entailing continual
reajustments in production, as well as the unsuitability of the
parameters fixed buy the system, led MRP (Material Requirement
Planning) to evolve into a new concept : Manufacturating Resource
Planning (or MRP2) and finally the generic concept Manufacturating
Resource Planning ERP[1]
The term ERP originally implied systems designed to plan the use of
enterprise-wide resources. Although the initialism ERP originated in
the manufacturing environment, today's use of the term ERP systems has
much broader scope. ERP systems typically attempt to cover all basic
functions of an organization, regardless of the organization's
business or charter. Business, non-profit organizations,
nongovernmental organizations, governments, and other large entities
utilize ERP systems.
Additionally, to be considered an ERP system, a software package
generally would only need to provide functionality in a single package
that would normally be covered by two or more systems. Technically, a
software package that provides both payroll and accounting functions
would be considered an ERP software package.
However, the term is typically reserved for larger, more broadly based
applications. The introduction of an ERP system to replace two or more
independent applications eliminates the need for external interfaces
previously required between systems, and provides additional benefits
that range from standardization and lower maintenance (one system
instead of two or more) to easier and/or greater reporting
capabilities (as all data is typically kept in one database).
Examples of modules in an ERP which formerly would have been stand-
alone applications include: Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Financials,
Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resources, Warehouse
Management and Decision Support System.
[edit] Overview
Some organizations - typically those with sufficient in-house IT
skills to integrate multiple software products - choose to implement
only portions of an ERP system and develop an external interface to
other ERP or stand-alone systems for their other application needs.
For instance, the PeopleSoft HRMS and Financials systems may be
perceived to be better than SAP's HRMS solution. And likewise, some
may perceive SAP's manufacturing and CRM systems as better than
PeopleSoft's equivalents. In this case these organizations may justify
the purchase of an ERP system, but choose to purchase the PeopleSoft
HRMS and Financials modules from Oracle, and their remaining
applications from SAP.[citation needed]
This is very common in the retail sector[citation needed], where even
a mid-sized retailer will have a discrete Point-of-Sale (POS) product
and financials application, then a series of specialised applications
to handle business requirements such as warehouse management, staff
rostering, merchandising and logistics.
Ideally, ERP delivers a single database that contains all data for the
software modules, which would include:
Manufacturing
Engineering, Bills of Material, Scheduling, Capacity, Workflow
Management, Quality Control, Cost Management, Manufacturing Process,
Manufacturing Projects, Manufacturing Flow
Supply Chain Management
Inventory, Order Entry, Purchasing, Product Configurator, Supply
Chain Planning, Supplier Scheduling, Inspection of goods, Claim
Processing, Commission Calculation
Financials
General Ledger, Cash Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts
Receivable, Fixed Assets
Projects
Costing, Billing, Time and Expense, Activity Management
Human Resources
Human Resources, Payroll, Training, Time & Attendance, Benefits
Customer Relationship Management
Sales and Marketing, Commissions, Service, Customer Contact and
Call Center support
Data Warehouse
and various Self-Service interfaces for Customers, Suppliers, and
Employees
Enterprise Resource Planning is a term originally derived from
manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) that followed material
requirements planning (MRP). MRP evolved into ERP when "routings"
became major part of the software architecture and a company's
capacity planning activity also became a part of the standard software
activity. ERP systems typically handle the manufacturing, logistics,
distribution, inventory, shipping, invoicing, and accounting for a
company. Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software can aid in the
control of many business activities, like sales, marketing, delivery,
billing, production, inventory management, quality management, and
human resource management.
ERPs are often incorrectly called back office systems indicating that
customers and the general public are not directly involved. This is
contrasted with front office systems like customer relationship
management (CRM) systems that deal directly with the customers, or the
eBusiness systems such as eCommerce, eGovernment, eTelecom, and
eFinance, or supplier relationship management (SRM) systems.
ERPs are cross-functional and enterprise wide. All functional
departments that are involved in operations or production are
integrated in one system. In addition to manufacturing, warehousing,
logistics, and Information Technology, this would include accounting,
human resources, marketing, and strategic management.
ERP II means open ERP architecture of components. The older,
monolithic ERP systems became component oriented.
EAS - Enterprise Application Suite is a new name for formerly
developed ERP systems which include (almost) all segments of business,
using ordinary Internet browsers as thin clients.
[edit] Before
Prior to the concept of ERP systems, departments within an
organization (for example, the Human Resources (HR) department, the
Payroll (PR) department, and the Financials department) would have
their own computer systems. The HR computer system (Often called HRMS
or HRIS) would typically contain information on the department,
reporting structure, and personal details of employees. The PR
department would typically calculate and store paycheck information.
The Financials department would typically store financial transactions
for the organization. Each system would have to rely on a set of
common data to communicate with each other. For the HRIS to send
salary information to the PR system, an employee number would need to
be assigned and remain static between the two systems to accurately
identify an employee. The Financials system was not interested in the
employee level data, but only the payouts made by the PR systems, such
as the Tax payments to various authorities, payments for employee
benefits to providers, and so on. This provided complications. For
instance, a person could not be paid in the Payroll system without an
employee number.
[edit] After
ERP software, among other things, combined the data of formerly
separate applications. This made the worry of keeping numbers in
synchronization across multiple systems disappear. It standardised and
reduced the number of software specialities required within larger
organizations.
[edit] Best Practices
Best Practices were also a benefit of implementing an ERP system. When
implementing an ERP system, organizations essentially had to choose
between customizing the software or modifying their business processes
to the "Best Practice" functionality delivered in the vanilla version
of the software.
Typically, the delivery of best practice applies more usefully to
large organizations and especially where there is a compliance
requirement such as IFRS, Sarbanes-Oxley or Basel II, or where the
process is a commodity such as electronic funds transfer. This is
because the procedure of capturing and reporting legislative or
commodity content can be readily codified within the ERP software, and
then replicated with confidence across multiple businesses who have
the same business requirement.
Where such a compliance or commodity requirement does not underpin the
business process, it can be argued that determining and applying a
best practice actually erodes competitive advantage by homogenizing
the business compared to everyone else in their industry sector.
[edit] Implementation
Because of their wide scope of application within a business, ERP
software systems are typically complex and usually impose significant
changes on staff work practices. Implementing ERP software is
typically not an "in-house" skill, so even smaller projects are more
cost effective if specialist ERP implementation consultants are
employed. The length of time to implement an ERP system depends on the
size of the business, the scope of the change and willingness of the
customer to take ownership for the project. A small project (e.g., a
company of less than 100 staff) may be planned and delivered within 3
months; however, a large, multi-site or multi-country implementation
may take years.
The most important aspect of any ERP implementation is that the
company who has purchased the ERP product takes ownership of the
project.
To implement ERP systems, companies often seek the help of an ERP
vendor or of third-party consulting companies. These firms typically
provide three areas of professional services: Consulting,
Customization and Support.
[edit] Consulting Services
The Consulting team is typically responsible for your initial ERP
implementation and subsequent delivery of work to tailor the system
beyond "go live". Typically such tailoring includes additional product
training; creation of process triggers and workflow; specialist advice
to improve how the ERP is used in the business; system optimization;
and assistance writing reports, complex data extracts or implementing
Business Intelligence.
The consulting team are also responsible for planning and jointly
testing the implementation. This is a critical part of the project,
and one that is often overlooked.
Consulting for a large ERP project involves three levels: systems
architecture, business process consulting (primarily re-engineering)
and technical consulting (primarily programming and tool configuration
activity). A systems architect designs the overall dataflow for the
enterprise including the future dataflow plan. A business consultant
studies an organization's current business processes and matches them
to the corresponding processes in the ERP system, thus 'configuring'
the ERP system to the organization's needs. Technical consulting often
involves programming. Most ERP vendors allow modification of their
software to suit the business needs of their customer.
For most mid-sized companies, the cost of the implementation will
range from around the list price of the ERP user licenses to up to
twice this amount (depending on the level of customization required).
Large companies, and especially those with multiple sites or
countries, will often spend considerably more on the implementation
than the cost of the user licenses -- three to five times more is not
uncommon for a multi-site implementation.
[edit] Customization Services
Customization is the process of extending or changing how the system
works by writing new user interfaces and underlying application code.
Such customisations typically reflect local work practices that are
not currently in the core routines of the ERP system software.
Examples of such code include early adopter features (e.g., mobility
interfaces were uncommon a few years ago and were typically
customised) or interfacing to third party applications (this is 'bread
and butter' customization for larger implementations as there are
typically dozens of ancillary systems that the core ERP software has
to interact with). The Professional Services team is also involved
during ERP upgrades to ensure that customisations are compatible with
the new release. In some cases the functionality delivered via a
previous customization may have been subsequently incorporated into
the core routines of the ERP software, allowing customers to revert
back to standard product and retire the customization completely.
Customizing an ERP package can be very expensive and complicated,
because many ERP packages are not designed to support customization,
so most businesses implement the best practices embedded in the
acquired ERP system. Some ERP packages are very generic in their
reports and inquiries, such that customization is expected in every
implementation. It is important to recognize that for these packages
it often makes sense to buy third party plug-ins that interface well
with your ERP software rather than reinventing the wheel.
Customization work is usually undertaken as bespoke software
development on a time and materials basis. Because of the specialist
nature of the customization and the 'one off' aspect of the work, it
is common to pay in the order of $200 per hour for this work. Also, in
many cases the work delivered as customization is not covered by the
ERP vendors Maintenance Agreement, so while there is typically a 90-
day warranty against software faults in the custom code, there is no
obligation on the ERP vendor to warrant that the code works with the
next upgrade or point release of the core product.
One often neglected aspect of customization is the associated
documentation. While it can seem like a considerable -- and expensive
-- overhead to the customization project, it is critical that someone
is responsible for the creation and user testing of the documentation.
Without the description on how to use the customisation, the effort is
largely wasted as it becomes difficult to train new staff in the work
practice that the customization delivers.
[edit] Maintenance and Support Services
Once your system has been implemented, the consulting company will
typically enter into a Support Agreement to assist your staff to keep
the ERP software running in an optimal way. To minimize additional
costs and provide more realism into the needs of the units to be
affected by ERP (as an added service to customers), the option of
creating a committee headed by the consultant using participative
management approach during the design stage with the client's heads of
departments(no substitutes allowed) to be affected by the changes in
ERPs to provide hands on management control requirements planning.
This would allow direct long term projections into the client's needs,
thus minimizing future conversion patches (at least for the 1st 5
years operation unless there is a corporate-wide organizational
structural change involving operational systems)on a more dedicated
approach to initial conversion.
A Maintenance Agreement typically provides you rights to all current
version patches, and both minor and major releases, and will most
likely allow your staff to raise support calls. While there is no
standard cost for this type of agreement, they are typically between
15% and 20% of the list price of the ERP user licenses.
[edit] Advantages
In the absence of an ERP system, a large manufacturer may find itself
with many software applications that do not talk to each other and do
not effectively interface. Tasks that need to interface with one
another may involve:
* design engineering (how to best make the product)
* order tracking from acceptance through fulfillment
* the revenue cycle from invoice through cash receipt
* managing interdependencies of complex Bill of Materials
* tracking the 3-way match between Purchase orders (what was
ordered), Inventory receipts (what arrived), and Costing (what the
vendor invoiced)
* the Accounting for all of these tasks, tracking the Revenue,
Cost and Profit on a granular level.
Change how a product is made, in the engineering details, and that is
how it will now be made. Effective dates can be used to control when
the switch over will occur from an old version to the next one, both
the date that some ingredients go into effect, and date that some are
discontinued. Part of the change can include labeling to identify
version numbers.
Computer security is included within an ERP to protect against both
outsider crime, such as industrial espionage, and insider crime, such
as embezzlement. A data tampering scenario might involve a terrorist
altering a Bill of Materials so as to put poison in food products, or
other sabotage. ERP security helps to prevent abuse as well.
[edit] Disadvantages
Many problems organizations have with ERP systems are due to
inadequate investment in ongoing training for involved personnel,
including those implementing and testing changes, as well as a lack of
corporate policy protecting the integrity of the data in the ERP
systems and how it is used.
Limitations of ERP include:
Success depends on the skill and experience of the workforce,
including training about how to make the system work correctly. Many
companies cut costs by cutting training budgets. Privately owned small
enterprises are often undercapitalized, meaning their ERP system is
often operated by personnel with inadequate education in ERP in
general, such as APICS foundations, and in the particular ERP vendor
package being used.
* Personnel turnover; companies can employ new managers lacking
education in the company's ERP system, proposing changes in business
practices that are out of synchronization with the best utilization of
the company's selected ERP.
* Customization of the ERP software is limited. Some customization
may involve changing of the ERP software structure which is usually
not allowed.
* Re-engineering of business processes to fit the "industry
standard" prescribed by the ERP system may lead to a loss of
competitive advantage.
* ERP systems can be very expensive to install often ranging from
30,000 to 500,000,000 for multinational companies.
* ERP vendors can charge sums of money for annual license renewal
that is unrelated to the size of the company using the ERP or its
profitability.
* Technical support personnel often give replies to callers that
are inappropriate for the caller's corporate structure. Computer
security concerns arise, for example when telling a non-programmer how
to change a database on the fly, at a company that requires an audit
trail of changes so as to meet some regulatory standards.
* ERPs are often seen as too rigid and too difficult to adapt to
the specific workflow and business process of some companies-this is
cited as one of the main causes of their failure.
* Systems can be difficult to use.
* Systems are too restrictive and do not allow much flexibility in
implementation and usage.
* The system can suffer from the "weakest link" problem-an
inefficiency in one department or at one of the partners may affect
other participants.
* Many of the integrated links need high accuracy in other
applications to work effectively. A company can achieve minimum
standards, then over time "dirty data" will reduce the reliability of
some applications.
* Once a system is established, switching costs are very high for
any one of the partners (reducing flexibility and strategic control at
the corporate level).
* The blurring of company boundaries can cause problems in
accountability, lines of responsibility, and employee morale.
* Resistance in sharing sensitive internal information between
departments can reduce the effectiveness of the software.
* There are frequent compatibility problems with the various
legacy systems of the partners.
* The system may be over-engineered relative to the actual needs
of the customer.