How has ERP facilitated supply chain functions?

Supply chain is an important process that includes the controlling and deciding the direction of resource movement in an organization. It also includes all other sub process involved in coordinating them. The concept of supply chain and its management is not a new one. It has been in existence from yester years. However ERP has helped to reduce their inaccuracies and increased the performance of "the chain /plan of action". It is important to know about ERP and supply chain management.

Some of the issues concerning ERP for supply chain management are as follows:

Manages change

By and large the whole process of ERP is known for the umpteen numbers of changes in all areas right from organizational structure to the rules and regulations. In this context the headache of managing changes is an important issue for the senior management. Infact the senior management themselves have to be convinced either by In-house IT personnel or Vendors/consultants. The task of creating awareness about the change is not an easy one. Everybody is bound to react in a negative manner.

Irrespective of the consequences and aftermath action managements have to go for ERP if they strongly feel so and if the market demands the same. Otherwise negative changes will be reflected in the balance sheet in the form of increase in expenditures and reduction in profits! No organization will tolerate them if it is beyond a negligible quantum .Organizations will be prepared to lose on this small scale only if there are unavoidable reasons.

Now the real difficulty lies in the hands of the organization. How do they measure or map change? What are the ways to implement the required measures? How can one find the rate and pace at which the organization is getting accosted to the mammoth change namely ERP? Supply chain management is the one phrase answer to all these three questions. Supply chain is the tool which indicates how things go about in the organization. This has increased the prospects of erp supply chain software market.

ERP and supply chain management helps in coordination of resources. The organization should manage the supply chain process. This remains true in any situation. ERP acts as a tool that helps the companies to execute the things in required for managing the supply chain in a proper manner.

Any enterprise application be it MRP or MRP II or ERP is helpful for the organization in planning and scheduling the required commodities. Since the function of supply chain lies in calculating all these ERP can add value and meaning to this process by way of rendering technical expertise not only in managing resources but also in handling crisis.

Identify mistakes

Errors are a part of human life. No organization however big and successful can curb them once for all. The difference lies in identifying and rectifying them. Organizations which don't identify them will find that they will never fulfill their objectives even if means managing their supply chain flawlessly. The simple reason is that their supply chain is itself not devoid of any errors and hence the results will only be negative even because it is nothing better than rightly managing a wrong process. There was no solution to this till erp and supply chain management came together.

However all organizations don't find an opportunity to periodically asses their mistakes and make correct things. This may be due to circumstances or various reasons that are beyond the scope of repair. However when ERP is implemented in an organization the first and foremost step is to identify the existing errors and make changes. The knowledge of ERP helps the supply chain process to do that very effectively and efficiently. The reason is that everything in the organization will be tuned and restructured to become ERP friendly. This naturally means redefining the supply chain and its constituents. This will be done to suit ERP which equals to adapting to a new process and rectifying the old mistakes. However there are still shortcomings of ERP in manufacturing supply chain market.

Set metrics

The organizations will be able to visualize and introduce some parameters. These parameters will become effective means for measuring ERP, its impact and the level of change, if it is compatible or in tune with the quantity desired and so on. Unless ERP is implemented in an organization it becomes difficult to set these parameters because there is no basis for measurement.Unl4ess supply chain functions properly in the organization there is a tool for making the above said measurements. There for ERP and Supply chain management mutually helps each other in this regard and also helps in scaling accountability for one another. This can be easily done if one identifies the supply chain segments supported by ERP.

Assistance and results

ERP helps these organizations to deliver the necessary results. It also helps in the functioning of the supply chain process. The supply chain process will continue uninterrupted whether or not ERP exists in the organization. ERP helps to increase the results, productivity and helps to ease the supply chain process.

Conclusion

ERP and supply chain management have greatly helped the manufacturing sector. The shortcomings of ERP in manufacturing supply chain have to be rectified in order to make it more effective. ERP supply chain software market is encouraging provided one identifies the supply chain segments that erp supports in the process of erp and supply chain management.

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