The Tale of Two Plants

The first ERP implementation I was involved in was at a company that had two factories. Each plant had its own management and supervisory structure. And, each was allowed to dictate how the new ERP system would be implemented in their plants.

Plant A was much easier to work with throughout the implementation. The supervisors were not pushy and they did not blow up when they system had problems that might have slowed production. Instead, they looked for ways to keep production flowing, letting us sort out the problems with the implementation at our leisure.

Plant B was not easy to work with at all. They demanded many changes. They required inordinate amounts of documentation and training. And when there were problems that affected production, they refused to find ways to work around the problems. They waited on us to fix whatever the problem was, even if it meant a loss of production. You can imagine that every time the new system caused a drop in production, the executive team heard about it.
Fast forward a year….Plant A was still easy to work with. The supervisors still kept production flowing. But the ERP implementation was a mess. The support burden was higher than it had ever been. The many work-arounds created during the implementation had become cemented processes. As a result, the new system was just as inefficient and fragmented as the one it replaced.

But Plant B, with the unreasonable management, was a resounding success. They rarely needed technical support. All of their employees were well trained. There were no work-arounds to impede the flow of information. The new system was performing exactly as hoped, with some departments seeing a significant decrease in busy-work.

Plant B took the time up front to get it right. At a significant short-term cost, they made sure that the processes and technology introduced by the new system worked, and that all employees knew how to use the system. They refused to accept work-arounds, because they knew how quickly a temporary work around becomes standard operating procedure.

Due to a variety of factors (none having to do with the ERP system) one of the plants as eventually shut down. Can you guess which one?