ERP - Continuous Degradation System

Founders of companies do not like ERP?

Now it is clear why, after unsuccessful implementations of ERP, not a single hair fell from the heads of IT directors, project managers and no one was hurt by the owners of the companies where I had to work. The picture was made up of coincidences and successful coincidences.

In both coal holdings, the owners were not mythical characters, but real real dudes. This is in EVRAZ and SUEK, except in the photo and on TV, 99% of the employees have never seen or heard them. We felt our constantly. Feelings are pretty ticklish when you work side by side with the owner, the creator of all this from scratch and the billionaire in the end. All feelings are sharply exacerbated when he asks exactly you at the meeting, sets an example or scolds or shakes hands in the corridor and says “how are you?”.

Both there and there I was fortunate enough to attend precisely these landmark meetings, when the owner, with all his directors and representatives of the chosen ERP, announced the start of implementation. Unlike all those who were present, the host remained skeptical until the end, surrendering to the virtuoso lies of the ERP messiahs and the convincing arguments of his zombie assistants. I was one of them - a jerk inspired by the great ERP-idea. Courage and dedication overwhelmed me. From the perspectives drawn in the sky, a pulse beat in my head, but despite the universal rejoicing, there was some kind of hopelessness and emptiness. As if the founder of the company gives up his powers and leaves. Five minutes ago, he was at the helm, and now management is beginning to move on to what is not yet known what is called ERP. Nothing terrible happened, of course, but the sediment remained.
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Why do we need these rules?

Once, when trying to sign another regulation, the second chief told me something like this: “Why do you need this regulation? On the contrary, everything should be simplified, but correctly, without loss of efficiency. Situations are different. Every time you have to think, consult with colleagues and find the most profitable solutions. ” To put it mildly, I was not ready for such a turn. From the fifth time, I still got my way and was very proud. However, a grain of doubt was thrown at me, although at the first enterprise the regulations were holy. Stop! Indeed, no matter what happens, we have to fit into the established order. And if it didn’t work, then I had to go to the boss. But not everyone walked, but simply let go of the brakes or shifted their problems onto other shoulders.

What is our goal?

The next sign was the book "Goal". She fell into the hands quite by accident. Read with pleasure. The meaning embodied in it became the main principle in the work - continuous improvement. Fortunately, the position allowed to alter the regulations, develop and implement instructions, that is, not to justify myself: “We have such an order!”, But to reveal a bottleneck, invent a solution and immediately implement it. Thanks to those words of the second chief, it was the simplification of the processes that formed the basis for the changes, which brought real pleasure from work and a quick effect. Somehow everything began to turn both in me and in adjacent departments. Positive. Drive.

Of course, in Evraz such a number would not have passed. “Let it be difficult, tedious, but according to the regulations. Want to improve? You will become the director of the division, and then you will improve, ”they argue. And for sure. Already after working in those holdings, a similar letter arrived: “We all like it very much, but we have ERP and CRM”. “Yes, you said that IT doesn’t work for you in them?” We were surprised. "Yes! There is something to work on, ”they proudly replied.

And again we return to the "Goals". I was very lucky with the edition that I read. Unfortunately, in others, less valuable additional materials were attached, and in this was the afterword as the author came to the idea of ​​writing the book. It turns out that before Eliyahu Goldratt worked in the company in the field of software to optimize production technology. Oops! From the afterword (from memory): “Passing past the enterprises of my former clients, I began to notice that many of them went bankrupt, one by one, and were put up for sale. After all, the optimization of technology was successful. Why did they go broke? ”So here he is the second hidden meaning of the ingenious book! Goldratt deliberately left the ERP implementation to create a process of continuous improvement.

Well? Screwed up?

Fortunately, we didn’t succeed with ERP implementation. At the first enterprise, quietly peacefully signed interim acts, paid for and parted friends. On the second they parted enemies, but nothing terrible happened either. The owners didn’t tear their hair and didn’t touch us. Although it is not surprising. Entrepreneurs of this level are very interesting and unusual people, but sometimes they are very difficult to understand. They have a different type of thinking. You need to be able to decipher their message, which can fit in a couple of phrases, but will not fit into the ten regulations and the whole ERP.

Or maybe they were not upset at all? Maybe they were glad that the squad team was unable to beat their teams. Their native teams, with whom they started, experienced difficult times, developed and became what they are now - respected, wealthy people who gave decent work to 5 thousand people. After all, their teams somehow managed resources without ERP? More precisely not somehow, but very much even nothing. If "what", then the IPO would not be placed. It used to happen that even for a trifle could flare up, but here the whole ERP could not be implemented. For sure! They were glad. Enterprises create strong leaders, not ERP.

Thanks to the joint efforts of the owners, Goldratt, as well as a series of described events, the picture has developed. So, the implementation of the ERP system concretes existing processes, including inefficient ones. And if in the process of implementation it was possible to build effective ones, then it concretes them. And then what? And then everything is changing rapidly, and the Procrustean bed of the ERP-system pinches us and drags us towards long-forgotten goals. All attempts at improvement are faced with a deaf wall of the high cost of improvements. Initiatives are stopped at the root and are reduced to nothing. Only that without which it is impossible to work is being finalized. ERP interferes with making money to refine itself ...

It turns out that ERP is a good cover for bureaucrats, idlers and slow managers. Want to change - pay. Excellent business, but a harmful system for the process of continuous improvement, and the one who is not improved, he is degrading.