So what exactly can a role-based architecture do? I asked Dick Pearse, product director, this question and here are the benefits he shared with me.

Determine your role

When you’re first set up as a user in Cincom CONTROL: 2010, you are assigned one (or more) of 27 different business roles.

Users can be assigned multiples roles. Privileges are accumulative. And you see how customers are included as a role? Customers can tailor custom roles to meet their needs.

Specific, useful information in real time

As you see in the graphic below, the supply chain manager and buyer see only their unique view of the world.

[Click image to enlarge.]

A role-based architecture delivers the specific information required for each role to execute the assigned business functions.

This includes:

• Performance measures
• Access to information
• Process execution
• Visibility

(Note: You’ll see this information displayed in the Business Activity Monitor.)

Role Governance

With the 27 roles that Cincom CONTROL: 2010 delivers, we assure role governance by adhering to segregation of duties.

[Click image to enlarge.]

Not only does this help make sure that the right information is provided to the right person, but it also allows you to provide security of your data.

Having an ERP system with role-based architecture, enables users to make informed decisions and quickly implement the required actions regarding key business metrics.

For more, check out our product page: http://erp.cincom.com/cincom-control-2010/ or click on the Cincom CONTROL category in the right-hand side bar of this blog.

It’s a psychological thing I guess, a natural inclination to follow the herd. The problem with following the herd is that life is frequently not kind to the herd. The lions don’t stop eating wildebeests just because the wildebeests aren’t moving around or thriving.

The simple fact is lions can feast when the herd stops moving around. For the lion, it’s high times indeed.

Focus on Business Effectiveness

Good Times for Lions

Business is just the same. Your successful competitors are most likely planning how to take advantage of whatever economic climate is prevalent at any given time. That certainly includes a plan to exploit the competitive vacuum created by companies that “pull in their horns” and wait out the downturn.

Now is the time to look at business effectiveness. What do you do well? What can you do better? What should you stop doing?

If you are still running your business on the vision you see in your rear view mirror, you are just asking to get creamed in the market. Last month’s performance numbers don’t mean anything to your plan for the future if the market has changed or moved since your last plan was executed. Why would you base your business planning on numbers from last month, last quarter or last year?

Agile, responsive business execution is based on information as fresh as today, right now, this very hour. Information feeding the execution decision process that eliminates the lag between measured performance and resultant execution strategy.

How the New Breed of ERP Helps

The new breed of ERP, such as CONTROL:2010 is just the kind of kick start your operation can use to start turning things around. Rather than focusing on endless data compiled in reams of standardized reports CONTROL:2010 provides you and your team with the specific information they need to execute their jobs as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Believe me, there is more to this then just a bunch of nice-sounding words. The new CONTROL is radically different from other ERP systems.

Role-based data, matched with integrated workflow and user configurable dashboards allows the individual to create a personalized work space that is not constrained by a title-based role format, but rather a modifiable template that is configurable to match each person’s unique, individual requirements.

At the center of this workspace is our Business Activity Monitor technology that places the most critical real-time reporting right in the center of the user’s screen.

Tied directly to this work space, the user has their executable functions associated with their job arranged for convenient and instant access. Virtually no lag time between information received and action taken.

You are literally running your business in real time versus reacting to old data that is likely not even valid.

Now is the time to unleash your lions. Now is the time to start your recovery.

You can run MRP anytime you want to—even all the time. CONTROL:2010’s MRP Now enables manufacturers to respond faster to changes in supply or demand.

CONTROL:2010 gives the flexibility to run MRP anytime and anyway you need it.

• Batch: You don’t have to wait until the next scheduled MRP batch process. You can run it on demand.
• Single Part: You can even run single part modification and see instant results in terms of pricing, scheduling, inventory adjustments and configuration modifications.
• Continuous: You also have the flexibility to have “always on MRP” (i.e., activity-driven).

Example of Cincom CONTROL:2010's MRP Now. Click to enlarge.

Special Product Orders

Cincom Manufacturing Business Solutions specializes is helping custom manufacturers – those with made-to-order, engineer-to-order, or design-to-order products – simplify their complex business processes so they can cut expenses and increase revenue. With Cincom’s recent enhancements to Cincom CONTROL: 2010’s MRP Now, these manufacturers can even run single part modification and see instant results in terms of pricing, scheduling, inventory adjustments and configuration modifications.

This is especially crucial information when creating custom products.

For more, check out our product page: http://erp.cincom.com/cincom-control-2010/

This winnowing process is time consumptive and ineffective. It’s just too easy to miss the critical puzzle part when you are looking at thousands of parts in order to find the exact right one.

Just for fun, I decided I would try to quantify the amount of information I have to evaluate during a given period. When I look at my inbox, for today, eliminating the blatantly personal items (e.g., my college and hobby LinkedIn group up dates), I find that I have received email content from 27 separate senders.

To further quantify it, I opened each email and counted the number of issues, questions, points made, etc . within each item. On average, each item contained six unique points for consideration, reply, further action, etc. That’s roughly 162 items requiring my attention so far today. The day is roughly five hours old at this point which means I have on average 32 information inputs coming to me via email in each single hour of the workday.

This does not count telephone, walk-ins, stuff on the bulletin boards, virtual and physical, interoffice mail, blackberry mail, google alerts, RSS feeds and all the rest of the “noise” that we are subjected to over the course of a workday.

Regardless, I would wager that my incoming load is somewhat lightweight compared to many people. Nonetheless, it is way more than I can effectively handle. When I periodically clear out my inbox, it will typically include many, many emails that have not even been opened.

This is why, role-based selectivity of incoming data is so important to decision intensive workers. The longer it takes to find the information you need, the longer your decision is delayed. This means that whatever proscribed action you might take because of that information must wait through that delay as well.

Let me put it another way, while you sort through your friend Bob’s email, which is prefaced with a detailed account of his latest exploits on the green, your job is on hold. Sure, you finally get to the last paragraph, where Bob let’s you know that he did indeed close the Larson deal. However, in the meantime your factory is waiting on the order, waiting on you to green-light the special configuration that Larson wants yesterday.

What if your wear multiple hats?

There is another aspect to this that is frequently over looked.

Business roles are not like roles in the theatre. Theatrical roles are pretty exacting. Blanche DuBois is tightly defined by Tennessee Williams. No one is ever going to confuse Blanche with George Bernard Shaw’s version of St. Joan of Arc. However, in the business world, Joan and Blanche could easily be the same person.

None of us fit exactly into an org chart box. We all have multiple facets to our job that may or may not have much in the way of connectedness. If you are working in Finance, you might be responsible for tax-related issues, but also collections. If you sell, you may also be responsible for customer support. A marketing person might be responsible for writing ad copy and for maintaining parts of the company web site.

In each of these cases, there is a need for multiple role support. Different data informs different decisions and supports different resulting actions. Whatever product you are using must be able to completely conform itself to your “job,” not your title. Your screen must have elements or quick access to elements that support both roles.

A role-based ERP implementation must consider this. If you are working with a system that features pre-defined roles, be sure that the roles allow enough flexibility to support all of the daily tasks and responsibilities in which you are involved.

Regardless if your job is made up of one or ten separate and distinct roles, you must limit the data coming in to that which is truly useful to your effective execution of your responsibilities.

Best Manufacturing Compliance Practices

Cincom considers these to be an evolving set of best practices as they relate to manufacturers’ compliance strategies:

• Work with the Legal Department to have due diligence completed on your company’s potential exposure.
• Create a corporate-wide compliance team that includes C-level executives. This is another critical step in that for many manufacturers, the concept of how to change is just as important as the why of changing. The evolving best practices in this area include having a C-level executive spearhead the corporate-wide compliance team and staffing it with members of Engineering, Quality Assurance, Logistics, Marketing, and New Product Development.
• Qualify suppliers and validate their compliance plans. This is a critical step in the development of compliant supply-chain strategies and needs to be the focal point of the compliance teams’ efforts.
• Aggressively pursue a supply-chain material declaration process including the use of questionnaires to capture all needed information. This is another critical step as this requires manufacturers to be fully informed as to the substances in all of their products. Companies attaining best practices in this area are using material-declaration questionnaires and need to be tracked as part of a broader compliance management system.
• Perform statistically significant testing of incoming components and finished products to validate compliance efforts. The strategies defined by the corporate-wide compliance team need to center on sampling for each of the compliance substances and then tracking these results and publishing the results internally.
• Creating an enterprise quality and compliance management strategy differentiates those manufacturers that are attaining best practices. From the many steps toward creating internally synchronized, yet agile processes for staying in compliance, the highest-performing manufacturers are also aggressively pursuing an enterprise quality and compliance-management strategy to capture, organize, and quickly interpret and act on compliance-related knowledge gained.

Managing Customer Relationships to Compliance

Given the fact that most manufacturers are influenced by compliance standards relative to suppliers and channel partners, it’s a very good idea to share compliance statistics with your OEM and distribution customers. Companies attaining best practices in enterprise quality and compliance management practice sharing results extensively with all levels and types of customers. Consider this an investment in customer relationships and transparency of your operations aimed at serving them.

Compliance strategies are delivering stronger-than expected competitive advantages for those companies that are aggressively pursuing a company-wide compliance strategy. Compliance efforts pay off with competitive advantages that firms were not able to achieve in the past. Compliance strategies create innovation and new ways for a firm to operate which give opportunity for the firm to better adapt to the marketplace and better serve its customers. The competitive benefits of compliance are driving these companies to attain greater levels of inter-process integration and use investments to take on the more difficult integration and process redefinition tasks.

This is an edited excerpt of “The High Costs of Non-Compliance for Manufacturers.” To read the full paper click here.

 The Four Month Process

According to Lou Washington, a manager with Cincom’s Manufacturing Business Solutions division who specializes in ERP and supply chain management, Cincom’s ERP implementation team used a project planner to arrive at a standard process that fits into a four-month window. He says that the four-month implementation goal is not to hit the four months exactly but to complete a quality project in a time sensitive manner. Some projects will take less than four months and other more complicated projects will go a little longer than four months. It depends on the project.

So what business benefits do companies have in a quality and timely ERP implementation?

Lou says the primary business goal from getting the product implemented quickly means you will start to see business benefits much sooner.

Mark Butler adds to this saying that “most ERP implementations range from a 6 to 18 month project. A business can completely transform in that time.”  By implementing their own product, Cincom shortens the window of opportunity for the business to change, making their implementations more successful.

A study conducted by Panorama Consulting Group, an independent ERP consulting firm in Denver, Colorado, found that 93% of ERP implementations take longer than expected. Further, two out of three (59%) implementations cost more than initially assumed. Only 13% of the respondents surveyed characterized themselves as very satisfied with their company’s software implementation. This study shows that ERP implementations in general have a bad reputation for failure and that the majority of ERP implementations take longer than initially assumed.

Cincom’s ERP implementation process gets the implementation done in a time sensitive manner while having a success rate of zero failed implementations—fast and successful.

photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46430286@N05/4283250621/

Regarding the implementation, GKN Aerospace North America East President and CEO, Jay Fitzsimmons, said, “Having implemented six different ERP systems in my career, Cincom’s Enterprise Management proved to be the most straightforward and least labor-intensive … . Cincom provides us with a strong foundation that we could use very quickly, and then perform site tailoring moving forward.”

After completing the two phases with Cincom, GKN Aerospace reaped outstanding results:

Phase I: A Need for Speed

• Successful implementation for its St. Louis headquarters in just four and a half months
• A 40% reduction in application integration costs
• Record sales in first month
• Project payback in three months 

Phase II: Enter Operational Excellence 

• A $25 million reduction in inventory investment in the first six months
• A 42% increase in inventory turns
• A 38% reduction in cycle time (planned)

After soaring to success with Cincom, GKN Aerospace decided to move to Phase III: Vision for the Future. Fitzsimmons elaborated on this decision by saying, “Cincom’s Enterprise Management provides the flexibility and adaptability we need to aggressively improve our performance and cost-competitiveness for our customers.” On top of this, Cincom has also brought awards to GKN Aerospace. The company has achieved worldwide recognition of their adaptation of technology to solve their business challenges:

• ComputerWorld Honors Laureate Award 2002

               For GKN’s visionary use of information technology in manufacturing

• CIO Magazine CIO 100 Awards

               Two-time winners for 2003 and 2004

Read their entire story here.

That saying is the mantra of most forward-thinking CFOs. Instead of resorting to knee-jerk reactions to the downturn with across-the-board job and expense cuts, the CFOs who navigated the economic storm took a different approach.  They looked at each strategy, business process and program and sought to selectively cut expenses.

These CFOs worked to create value by cutting expenses—they were after a lean enterprise—not just slashing expenses from their balance sheets.  The companies with strong earnings, profits and soaring share prices used the crisis to cut unprofitable programs that had become financial deadwood on their balance sheets.  A crisis gave these forward-thinking CFOs the perfect scenario to trim back unprofitable product lines while saving the precious knowledge and intelligence of the teams working on them.

What happened?  Their return on investment went positive because all that expertise was applied to high-growth projects bringing new innovation into next-generation programs.

A three-prong approach to recession success

The crisis also forced a very high level of urgency into making core business processes as efficient as possible.  Cash became king, and the power to change processes became much more focused and urgent.  One of the best writers to capture this change  is Tim Reason, editorial director, CFO Magazine, who in January 2008, wrote that a three-prong attack for positioning a company for the recession and beyond was by far the best strategy. While the majority of writers blindly advocated across-the-board expense cuts, Mr. Reason focused on a slightly different strategy. His strategy was based on three major activities.

1. Seeking permanent changes in the area of cost savings
2. Maximizing the cash position of the company
3. Obsessively measuring the metrics that really count

In retrospect, this seems like great advice, and it’s probably just as applicable today as it was then. However, what does the CFO have to do to move this agenda forward?

In order to accomplish any of these three goals, the CFO will require accurate, relevant and actionable information.  What are not needed are huge spreadsheet reports from disparate sources over various reporting times. The spreadsheet may well be banned. We’re talking tightly defined, focused reports delivering the necessary KPIs to facilitate effective decisions.

This requires manufacturing analytics, which will give the CFO the needed access into the manufacturing process. Rather than looking at historical data and drawing up reactive plans based on that history, manufacturing analytics enable the predictive management of the enterprise.

How do CFOs put this into practice?

If you want to accomplish permanent change in cost savings, you have to get surgical and forget about just lopping off huge chunks of your workforce or product offerings. These are one-time fixes that do nothing about the revenue side of the equation. A transformational change only occurs with ongoing improvements; those that boost revenue and reduce cost simultaneously and repeatedly over time.

Here are ten areas where CFOs using manufacturing analytics will get their companies moving in the right direction.

1)      Inventory control – This isn’t earth-shattering news, however, it is extremely effective. You simply can’t afford to be left holding massive amounts of unsold product that’s left over because of a change in the market. Increasing inventory turns represents money that remains in play as opposed to spent funds. Tighter control means lower risk and less exposure.

2)      Supply sourcing – Consider all aspects of this carefully. The answer here is not always found in Asia. Your inventory expense begins on the loading dock at the factory. You’re paying for stuff that is in transit as well as what’s in your warehouse. Globalization carries the added cost of transit time.

3)      Regulatory issues – We live in an era where everything that happens can be looked at from the standpoint of blame or credit. When a drill rig explodes, a plane crashes or a stock plummets, the first order of business is to determine whose fault it is. The knee-jerk solution is frequently regulatory in nature. Tie this into a globalized market, and the complexities are enormous. The CFO must stay on top of this and must be prepared to address those business processes that must be modified in light of new regulations.

4)      Fully embrace appropriate process-improvement methodologies – Whether you are using Six Sigma, TQM or any other methodologies, you must make sure that your decisions are driven by the right data and the right metrics. Manufacturing analytics accomplish this effectively by pulling only the data necessary to focus on any given process, department, product or other unit.

5)      Evaluate receivables – Who is paying on time, who is late and why. This includes those who pay early. However, more important than the “who” is the “why.” When you understand why companies pay when they do, the ability to predict and improve receivables performance is greatly helped.

6)      Tax management – Deloitte maintains that CFOs frequently overlook tax-related issues when looking at bottom-line improvement actions. Like regulatory matters, it can be expected that various taxing authorities will turn to modifications in tax regulations as a method of addressing their own budgetary issues. There is huge potential here for improvement or disaster.

7)      Green and sustainability strategies deliver cost savings too – Green initiatives offer huge opportunities for competitive advantages in terms of product offerings and from operational improvements as well. Looking at internal processes, supplier sourcing and resource utilization practices are all areas where the CFO can affect process improvements and changes.

8)      Prioritization of expense – For the CFO, this is what it’s all about. Manufacturing analytics  does this effectively. This is where the big picture must displace the politics and siloed decision-making that costs companies billions in terms of mismanagement.

9)      Risk management – Effective management of risk starts with accurate information. If you are evaluating potential products, policy changes, suppliers or process improvements, CFOs must base recommendations on accurate information.

10)   Making currency fluctuations as profitable as possible – One aspect of this recession is the dynamic nature of the value of one currency against another. CFOs in organizations that deal with international customers, suppliers or manufacturing operations need to pay close attention to this area.

Bottom line: Manufacturing analytics is the key to getting the information that you need to do your job—not to react to the past, but to direct your company toward a prosperous future.

For more, visit http://erp.cincom.com/2010/07/cincom-control-2010-business-activity-monitor/.

Thanks to Louis Columbus for his co-writing assistance.

This session featured a presentation from Mike Gauthier on calculating ROI on moving to Cincom CONTROL:2010.

Mike’s talk covered the calculation of current costs associated with hardware, software, people and processes as well as the costs associated with new system. Particular emphasis was given to the process used to determine gains delivered in specific process improvements.

Mike explained that, “Process improvement is at the heart of determining the green dollar return delivered by CONTROL:2010.”

ROI is Quickly Realized

He went on to explain, “These returns can be dramatic and quick. In many cases the system is paying for itself in just a few months.”

Mike cited several “real world” examples in his talk. These included people making an initial investment in Cincom technology as well as companies moving from older releases of CONTROL to the 2010 release.

This was the first time Cincom has used a virtual format for the user summit. Attendees were asked to submit comments, critiques and suggestions.

This session featured a three part format with separate presentations outlining futures for Cincom CONTROL:2010, Cincom Acquire and ENVIRON.

Mike Gauthier, Cincom Product Director for CONTROL:2010 brought everyone up to date on specifics related to the R2 and R3 release of CONTROL:2010. Mike also addressed the new six month product release cycle being implemented the CMBS product family.

Mike explained, “We believe the new release cycle will make life easier for everyone since it provides additional functional and technology capabilities in smaller scope and duration which enables a more focused and less costly testing cycle for our customers.”

Ralph Schwarz, Product Director for Cincom Front Office technologies briefed the group on the Acquire product and Dan Nichols, Director of Product Planning gave everyone a glimpse at what Environ has on tap.

CONTROL:2010 Solution Stack

This is the first time Cincom has used a virtual format for our user conference. It has allowed many users to attend who would not have been able to come to our conference due to travel restrictions.

The conference wraps up today with presentations starting at 4 P.M. EDT. Mike Gauthier will discuss several methods for calculating ROI for those anticipating upgrades to CONTROL:2010.

Jerry Miller will offer some concluding remarks following the ROI presentation.