SCORING PERFORMANCE

Advanced Operational Benchmarking goes beyond traditional supply chain assessment to deliver a clear picture of overall company performance and strategic position

Given fast changes in today's business environment, companies have to make continuous improvement efforts to set the space for changes and head in the right, successful direction.

Supply chain management has become a key "weapon" of companies' success and a change agent since it is market oriented and customer centric. And benchmarking plays a very important role in supporting companies to achieve supply chain excellence, i.e. establishing responsiveness, agility, reliability and efficiency throughout their end-to-end supply chains.

Benchmarking represents a versatile process management tool that helps organizations to identify and understand what constitutes best operating practices. It provides senior executives with a structured approach for faster and better decision-making process. Benchmarking enables companies to get a clear insight in where they are standing against their competitors and how much they have to improve to become "best in class" in their industry.

Five top tips for ERP strategy planning

1.       Too often, a company will not know exactly what it wants from its ERP from the outset. Without proper clarification of the implementation plan, it can be flawed from the start, leading to complications further down the line. All firms should draw up a detailed business requirement document to establish a clear vision of their goals, including measurement tools to gauge success. There is a great deal to take into account, with any number of processes to consider – from manufacturing, logistics, inventory, shipping and invoicing, to sales, marketing delivery, billing and human resources - so it pays to get it right from day one.

2.       Having formulated the plan, the next 'must' is to ensure the appropriate resources are available to guarantee the strategy is implemented to its full potential. Companies that spread their staff too thinly, without giving them sufficient time to learn the ropes, will suffer in the longterm. A steering group to manage the project team's resources can be very useful to this end. Bringing in external resources to cover the time of permanent staff can help free them up to be completely immersed in the ERP prior to the handover. Underestimating the amount of time and money needed to implement a lasting ERP can lead to a missed opportunity, if the system is not taken to its full potential. The costs of support, as well as disruption to staff, make any perceived upfront savings a false economy.

Read More: http://www.logisticsit.com/absolutenm/templates/article-critical.aspx?articleid=5715&zoneid=31

Source: www.logisticsit.com