A checklist for your next ERP

Manufacturers undergoing core business system review are likely to need very different selection criteria to those used when they last went through the exercise – and ERP developer SSI, part of Chelford, has come up with a checklist. Sales and marketing director Neville Merritt suggests 10 key areas of business change that should influence decision making –everything from technology to the spread of extended enterprise functions and support for global requirements. Top of the list are time-based management features – aspects like support for rapid new product development, demand-pull planning, real-time (not bucket) scheduling, JIT (just in time) logistics support, sequencing and plant optimisation, and process-based as well as MRP planning. The checklist then covers ERP systems’ abilities to support cost reduction (through automation, portal support, e-procurement and multi-plant management), management of variety (mass customisation), globalisation, collaboration, consolidation, new working environments and so on. Full details are available in a White Paper on the subject from the company.