Any IT professional who has been through an implementation and cutover has heard words to this effect more than once throughout the process.  Now comes the adjustment period and all that entails when a new ERP (enterprise resource planning) manufacturing process software system goes live.

ERP manufacturing process system

“Man oh Man! A new ERP manufacturing process system…now what?”

In the best of all possible professional worlds, every employee in an organization would get extensive training and have weeks to “practice” before a new ERP manufacturing process software system goes live.  In the best of all possible professional worlds, every single employee will have signed on to the virtues of the new and espoused the company vision that sought out the new ERP manufacturing process software system and whole-heartedly jumped right on the bandwagon with the visionaries with excited anticipation…in the best of all possible professional worlds…in the best of all possible professional worlds….

But, as the writer implies, that best of all possible professional worlds exists only within the realm of fiction and them there is the reality in which a manufacturing business must operate. It is not some fantasy land in which disbelief is willingly suspended but an everyday reality that demands that day to day business continues to be conducted throughout the entire implementation process.  

The goal of a well-planned erp implementation process is to allow business to continue uninterrupted throughout the transition with the final cutover occurring in as seamless a way as is possible.  Implementation experts far and wide have been heard insisting that a major transition such as that of changing the ERP manufacturing process software can occur virtually unnoticed. This is not the case, however.

It is always advisable to have implementation experts on-site for a significant stretch of time following a go-live, often retaining at least one SME (subject matter expert) for as much as a year thereafter.  Implementation of ERP manufacturing process software is no simple task as it is the very backbone upon which a manufacturing company is built and operates.

In the real world, people work on the assembly line and in customer service and in engineering and in accounting, finance, sales, planning, and procurement and so on. People tend to be creatures of habit and settle quite easily into a routine. Comfortable with familiarity, those who have been using the existing erp system are often quite willing to give the full measure of individual devotion to the legacy system and resist the introduction of the new tool.

It is indeed, a tricky business to get staff to cutover and can be almost involved as the steps that go into the technological transition itself. By necessity, the new and the legacy system operate in parallel to minimize the impact that an implementation has on day to day operations.  There will, however, come the day when the plug is finally pulled on the old system.  

It is in the best interest of the organization to get staff to take ownership of the new system and if the culture of the company is one of innovation and progress.  And those who operate in that sort of environment will have the easiest time in accepting a new ERP manufacturing process software as the way to the future.