If the senior management team does not fundamentally believe that successfully redesigning the materials process is one of the top strategic challenges the company faces, then one should not start a computerisation project. The biggest single mistake companies make is to under commit to their computerisation
initiative. Symptoms of under commitment include following :
- Lack of Senior Executive Attention : Process redesign inevitably crosses functional business areas within a company, so no middle level manager will have the clout necessary to ensure that changes are made. Executive sponsorship is required to resolve internal conflicts quickly to keep politics, resistance to change, and inertia from bogging down progress.
- Tactical Project Orientation : Instead of investing the time required to develop a comprehensive materials process re-engineering vision, a temptation occurs to look at making a series of minor tactical changes. Dramatic improvements require that one develops an enterprise-wide understanding of how things really work. Taking a microscopic view of one sub-process after another, in many cases ends up generating no improvement at all as it further complicates other aspects of the materials department's current process.
- Part-Time Attitude : Asking Information Systems (IS) to code a few screens in their spare time, or materials personnel to take a few hours to assess where their processes are failing, or asking stores department to give a little thought to what kind of feedback they need from the field to design more effective programs, are all prone to fail. A part-time approach will not generate part-time results, it will generate no results. A computerisation initiative is a major undertaking, requiring the full-time assignment of people for the duration of the project.
Successful automation projects are ones that are taken extremely seriously. The major components of a program are : active executive involvement, an enterprise-wide shared vision, full-time commitment of personnel, accountability for results, and a process-driven budget.
If one has solid business reasons that keep from making this level of commitment, then one should postpone computerisation implementation. Starting a project, before one is ready to see it all the way through, will result in the people becoming impatient, confused, and distracted, and they may conclude that materials re-engineering doesn't work. This will create a huge barrier for to overcome when one is ready to make a serious effort.
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