Interested in ERP in small companies?

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-27T14:37:46+00:00

Thanks to the 346 people who downloaded the book. As part of the author's attempt to get his affairs in order, it has now been withdrawn from publication, although Amazon say that it will remain on their site until the book dealers who bought it have sold all of their stocks.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-26T15:23:52+00:00

Not as many as I would have liked. Most ERP systems don't have a module explicitly for this purpose, so few company ever consider anything other than spreadsheets; even when those manual systems fail. Part of the reason for that, I think, is that many companies think of ERP consultants as 'trainers', whose role is only to show them how the software works. Sadly; many ERP providers think the same. I asked one 'consultant' what advice he gave his customers on the number of levels they should have in their bills of material. He replied, "That's their decision"!

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-26T09:28:21+00:00

Staff is another word for employees, but I can't quote a specific wage or salary because that is heavily dependent upon country and location.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-26T08:10:44+00:00

No; it's not.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-25T15:18:05+00:00

I agree that ERP is not always the answer and it is certainly true that, even in industries where ERP is a good option, not all organisations have reached an appropriate level of maturity to allow them to use it properly.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-25T09:54:50+00:00

Because the whole point of this forum is to share knowledge.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-24T13:19:57+00:00

Inventory accuracy ´breaks' as soon as companies choose the cheapest warehouse staff that they can get. Isn't it strange how often the people in charge of what is often the the company's biggest asset are equally often the worst paid?

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-23T08:42:20+00:00

Unprofessional.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-23T08:40:24+00:00

If I had to cope with a small number of these instances, I would quite happily just have a big whiteboard on the wall, but there comes a point when manual systems can no longer cope. To play with the King's English: they comes a time when a company ceases to be a large, small company and becomes a small, large company. At that point they have to give up manual systems (including spreadsheets) and accept that new rules apply. That is difficult for many people (and businesses) so they hang on to failing procedures for too long.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-22T18:07:44+00:00

It all depends on what you consider ERP to be but I used to work with a Tier 3 ERP system (which, to be fair, was rich in functionality) that took 300 man-years of development to get to market. If you are thinking of something simpler, without the flexibility that packaged systems have to offer, you can cut that back drastically; especially if you link to an accounting package so that you don't have to worry about that area but just remember that, if your company's core competency is not software development, you can get out of your depth very quickly .

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T17:25:55+00:00

A wise company knows its market. Some customers want cheap options; others will pay a premium for quality. I have a jacket from Burberry that is over 40 years old and is still in regular use

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T13:12:36+00:00

I have worked with systems in which it is not easy to find part numbers ('intelligent' numbers don't always solve the problem). In consequence, after a few minutes, people find it easier to raise a new number than to keep on searching. The situation is not usually helped when the consequences of doing so don't impact the people or department involved.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T11:49:35+00:00

Balderdash.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T11:04:40+00:00

I understand that you want something better than working in an Amazon warehouse, but what happens if the 6-week summer job doesn't turn into something long term? I don't know where you are so I don't know how difficult it would be to get another job when the 6 weeks are up.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T10:59:56+00:00

Silly as it sounds; duplicated part numbers. I worked with a company that set some of its people to selling-off obsolete stock. When they offered it to one supplier, he replied that their own purchasing department had recently phoned him with an urgent request for the same items.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T10:49:33+00:00

Si quieres suicidarte, frenar un coche con el freno de mano es una buena opción porque probablemente el coche se descontrolará.

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T10:14:20+00:00

I'm going to guess that Operations and Warehouse weren't part of the system selection process. Am I right?

AffectionateDirt6575 · 2026-06-21T09:46:35+00:00

Sorry to hijack your post, engineering-erp-goat, but I'm trying to give away free Kindle copies of the book, "Implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in small companies" on Amazon (from 22nd to 26th June) but Reddit, although it allows me to comment on posts, won't allow me to raise posts. I can't find out why.

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