Intro

The aim of this website is to share knowledge about ERP. Not only ERP in general but what it is and how it is used and can be used in a better way. Some areas are highlighted more specifically because from my more than 40 years of experience as an ERP consultant I learned that there is quite some room for improvement in those ERP areas. Almost all industrial organizations world wide nowadays use ERP as a mean and tool to control and administer their primary and secondary business processes. And almost any industrial organization must have faced problems with selecting, implementing, modifying, adapting and using their ERP system in their daily life struggling to survive. That means that they have learned a lot but are probably still learning a lot how to use their ERP system in a better way. It would be a waste not to share or to try to share the knowledge that comes out of this process with others who are facing the same problems. The aim here is not to make money in the first place but to learn and to share knowledge, especially when we talk about such a rather complicated phenomenon as ERP with all its aspects. Because I believe that through knowledge about such complicated matters there will always come out a better and more controlled situation that will lead the way to better and more controlled results. And good or better results can always be expressed in a higher rate of value.

A number of functions in ERP systems for industrial organizations manufacturing and assembling products have not fundamentally changed since their inception. The limitation at the time of design of ERP systems lead to limited functionality in some important aspects of material planning and control of what nowadays is demanded by modern industrial organizations.

With the changing nature of production companies; bigger, more products, more variety, faster delivery requirements, that limited functionality has started to become a restriction in production, with potential cost and schedule implications.

This website tries to make the case for a much better way to handling the material planning and control in ERP.

For more than 4 decades I worked at the cross section of Industrial Logistics and IT. I learned a tremendous lot from the many ERP implementations I did as an ERP consultant and Project Manager. I saw many Material Planners and Purchasers struggling with the Material Functionality restrictions of their ERP system. That gave me the idea that, when adapting this Functionality to today’s industrial companies requirements a lot of people working with these systems in daily live would work with their ERP system a lot happier.

This website aims at knowledge transfer to people who are working and/or are interested in and with ERP systems and who like to use there present or future ERP system in a better way. ERP aspects are explained here and also what aspects of ERP systems like Material Planning & Control are in for more in deapth invenstigation and improvement. For example: MRP as part of any ERP system could completely be replaced by a concept and functions as Material Positioning Analysis. In this website you will find articles and explanations on this subject.

Jacques Selders, ERP consultant,  February 2021, The Hague, The Netherlands.