Enterprise Manufacturing Systems Architecture and ERP in a Cloudy Future

Transcription

1 Enterprise Manufacturing Systems Architecture and ERP in a Cloudy Future The Winning Combination a Strategic Software Platform Provider and Manufacturing Industry Partner by Industry Expert and Senior Cincom Fellow, Melissa A. Cook

2 THE CLOUD The word feels well sort of foggy. If you ask people to explain it, you leave the conversation feeling well sort of foggy. The word especially doesn t fit well into the vocabulary of the manufacturing industry. If the word manufacturing is on one end of a spectrum, the word cloud is probably somewhere near the other end. Manufacturing is earthbound, and the cloud is up there in the sky floating somewhere. Here today, gone tomorrow. Seems impractical. So not only are many manufacturing managers not sure what ERP is, now it might run up there or out there or somewhere other than the plant where there are concrete floors, not clouds.

3 Guidance for Manufacturers Selecting an ERP System Lessons learned from 30 years in the industry This is the first in a series of articles to give some practical, concrete, down-to-earth guidance to manufacturing companies that are selecting and deploying ERP software and related extensions in today s world of the cloud. This guidance is based on lessons learned from over 30 years in the industry what works, what doesn t, what s coming, what s going, what s new, what s not. What I LOVE about working on ERP implementations with manufacturing people is that they understand how stuff is designed and made, by either custom-designing parts or outsourcing parts to suppliers. All of this knowledge applies to designing or outsourcing software to suppliers, including ERP suppliers. After all, software suppliers are often called software manufacturers. It makes for great parallels that can be drawn between manufacturing concepts and the basics of understanding how to make or procure and deploy and support business systems in your company. You build stuff, and we build software to help you build stuff. For example, if you re a manufacturer, you re familiar with bills of material and breaking a product down into parts and outsourcing to suppliers where desired. Some parts and suppliers are strategic and some aren t. For the important ones, you make a strategic sourcing decision. An ERP, if you re considering one, is THE strategic part to your enterprise manufacturing systems architecture. You need to decide if you re going to outsource that part, and if so (which I would recommend for ERP), make a strategic sourcing decision. 1 2

4 WHERE DO YOU START?

5 1Do a current inventory of your enterprise manufacturing systems parts and suppliers before you begin considering your choices on ERP. How many software suppliers do you already have? How much do you spend with them? Who are the most strategic? Which ones are you considering replacing as part of your ERP project? You should inventory ALL of your software and software suppliers not only manufacturing applications but including general office automation tools, BI tools, etc. The technology industry continues to improve in capabilities to integrate these tools into a cohesive, integrated systems architecture, especially in the cloud. So you need to understand what you already have in order to make good choices for the future. Actively managing your parts and supplier list, and usually keeping it to the minimum size balanced with risk avoidance, makes sense in manufacturing and also in systems. 3 4

6 2Next, the question is WHICH supplier to choose for your ERP this all-important part of your business systems architecture. Here s what is NEW! It has to do with the emergence of what manufacturers would call a configurable BOM within the ERP space. It allows you to procure a core ERP platform from a strategic software supplier and also configure in extensions from a manufacturing industry software partner that can provide industry-specific best practices and software functionality. This has been a VERY difficult sweet spot to hit for the past 30 years. Most verticalized software suppliers have had to build full-blown ERPs that provide everything from common, core functionality all the way out to the edge of vertical-specific functionality. Maintaining this large footprint of software, along with keeping up with disruptive technology trends, is a very costly endeavor, and most vertical software suppliers fall behind very quickly. That has left a HUGE glut of 10- to 30-yearold, proprietary, large-footprint ERPs out in the manufacturing world many of which are obsolete but still running core manufacturing processes. Jumping to yet another monolithic, huge-footprint attempt to boil-the-ocean ERP is not the answer. It is CRITICAL to not only have YOUR industry capabilities in your ERP platform but also to leverage core ERP capabilities that are common across industries. And therein is where change is afoot. After 30 years, the winning combination has fully arrived. We finally have core ERP platforms from strategic software companies that are also designed to allow for extensions by industry partners. There are hundreds of specialized manufacturing verticals from automotive manufacturing to food and beverage processing, and there is NO way that a single, monolithic platform will do a good job of covering all, although some are vainly struggling to do this. You need the mix of a strategic core product with configurable options. I bet you ve heard that before in manufacturing! A configurable BOM.

7 Configurable BOMs provide flexibility with minimum maintenance. And the parallel for software is a strategic core ERP provider with industry partner extensions. And what about the cloud? You are going to need large, strategic, core ERP providers with the R&D budgets required to react quickly to disruptive trends like mobile and cloud and whatever else the future holds. These core ERP providers also can provide robust and flexible architectures in which industry- and vertical-knowledgeable superstar suppliers are allowed to build their extensions or interface. This is only going to become more important in the era of the cloud and the Internet of Things, where choice will dramatically increase and interfacing and configurable solutions will become the norm. That s why you should consider selecting Cincom. They are a proven, long-term manufacturing industry partner with a modular family of advanced capabilities for complex manufacturing built on a flexible, modern and open ERP platform from Microsoft Dynamics, which provides core manufacturing and financial capabilities. Configurable BOM That s the sweet spot in enterprise manufacturing systems architecture and a proven concept in manufacturing that provides flexibility for a very cloudy future. Cincom, Microsoft and a World of Expert Resources Cincom and Microsoft together deliver enterprise-level solutions for manufacturers of highly engineered products with far more depth than anything previously available. Morgan Wheaton Director Dynamics Global Partners, Microsoft Business Solutions Cincom has been delivering innovative ERP and other enterprise-class software solutions for decades, and has helped many of the world s leading manufacturers achieve extremely high levels of operational and financial performance. Microsoft is the world s leading technology company and fastest-growing provider of ERP solutions. Together, Microsoft Dynamics AX and Cincom have created the first ERP system developed specifically for the needs of configure-to-order (CTO) and engineer-to-order (ETO) manufacturers. It combines the comprehensive functional scope and highly adaptable framework of Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Dynamics CRM with specialized selling, engineering, contract, project and aftermarket service capabilities from Cincom natively embedded throughout the system. Many of Cincom s extended capabilities are modular and can be added to Microsoft Dynamics AX individually to meet specific needs. However, when the full suite is combined with the proven breadth and user familiarity of Microsoft Dynamics AX, these capabilities deliver an advanced, end-to-end, highly industry-focused ERP solution that goes beyond anything available until now. Learn more at: 5 6

8 About the Author Melissa A. Cook has over 30 years of proven success and experience in the high-technology industry in systems engineering, enterprise business applications architectures and senior business management positions. Currently a Senior Cincom Fellow, Cook is internationally known in the field of Enterprise Architecture and has significant breadth of experience across industries and business functions and high-technology products and services. She also is the author of Building Enterprise Information Architectures, published by Prentice-Hall. World Headquarters Cincinnati, OH USA US International info@cincom.com cincom.com Americas: Brasil cincombr@cincom.com Ontario, Canada NOBrien@cincom.com Quebec, Canada infoquebec@cincom.com Europe: Brussels, Belgium Lyon and Paris, France Schwalbach/Ts., Germany Turin, Italy Monaco Culemborg, The Netherlands Madrid, Spain Maidenhead, United Kingdom InfoEurope@cincom.com Greater Asia Pacific (GAP): Sydney and Melbourne, Australia info@cincom.com.au New Delhi, India info_india@cincom.com Tokyo, Japan info@cincom.com Cincom and the Quadrant Logo are registered trademarks of Cincom Systems, Inc. Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies Cincom Systems, Inc. FORM MBSUS /15 Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved