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Quite often, the terms value chain management and supply chain management are used interchangeably. While they overlap and are ultimately complementary, they are in fact two separate yet critical terms that impact your organizational success.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the cornerstone of virtually every manufacturing business, enabling it to plan, allocate, and track the resources required to manufacture and distribute products cost-efficiently. To accomplish all this, it is essential to choose and utilize an ERP system that can enable greater efficiency and increased automation throughout the manufacturing process while providing information that can drive better decision-making and ultimately profitability. 

You've heard it countless times – the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to change the way business is conducted. As consumers, we can see this unfolding in our everyday lives. Shoppers love the flexibility of checking out when they are ready from an associate with an iPad that already knows what they’re purchasing vs. waiting in line for a cashier. As business professionals, then, the question is: when can we use IoT in our organization’s operations?

Like it or not, system migrations often come with the territory in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape. Often they are perceived of as a necessary evil. Nobody wants to rock a steady boat – things are working now and a migration just opens the door for a range of risks and unknowns.

Effective supply chain management (SCM) in today’s technologically-advanced manufacturing environment can be a daunting task. However, according to Dr. Donald Radliff, executive director of Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, efficient supply chain and logistics operations backed by a solid supply chain strategy can reduce costs by as much as 10-40 percent. The trick is following ten rules for successful supply chain management: 

Many enterprises considering the latest in ERP systems mistakenly think it has to be an either/or solution – a reliable Tier 1 on-premise system or an agile cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) ERP solution. 

Many business professionals talk about "operational excellence", but few understand that it actually consists of several elements that must be successfully implemented and integrated to be successful. If you ask a dozen business professionals to define Operational Excellence, you’ll get a dozen different answers, such as “it’s about process quality and making perfect parts every time,“ or “it’s applying lean tools everywhere to eliminate waste.” Perhaps one of the best definitions I’ve seen is also one of the simplest, from business consulting firm Duggan Associates: “It is when each and every employee can see the flow of value to the customer and fix that flow when it breaks down.” 

When there is a natural extreme weather condition, like a snowstorm or flooding, often businesses come to a standstill. In 2017 alone, the US was impacted by 16 separate billion-dollar disaster events, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). All of that added up and crossed $300 billion in damages in 2017, a new annual record.

The IBM i platform has been a stalwart for many organizations over the past 30 years. Few platforms have comparable longevity and stability. But with that stability, comes the eventual retirement of employees who have been hands-on with the platform for decades.

Aside from the emotional impact of losing core, long-term employees, many companies also fear losing the copious skills developed while navigating the IBM i platform and the mission-critical enterprise applications on it over such a long period of time. In many cases, these long-term employees are the sole repository of intricate software program knowledge, including the mountain of software modifications made over the course of decades. A great deal of intellectual property is stored between the ears of these employees.

All is not lost!

With the year end closing in quickly, manufacturing organizations are in the throes of planning and budgeting for the year ahead. Often that means figuring out how to get ahead of challenges that have been costing your organization both time and money. And when it comes to your ERP, the PSGi team has seen the same challenges inevitably rear their heads time and time again. In this blog, we’ve highlighted the three common ERP mistakes you’ll want to avoid.