Why integrate planning and execution in digitalization

Imagine a clean India initiative being planned and implemented in silos. A town may collect all the garbage, clean up its environment and dump it all in the next town. Its only when they have to plan collectively that they would think of sustainable solutions to disposing waste or recycling. Comparably, digitalization on silos in organizations is futile. An integrated approach to your digital initiatives ushers new dimensions to the objectives, requirements and implementation. I am writing this article to attract attention of anyone who is leading or is a part of a transformation initiative. While this may also extend to other industries with a similar conclusion, the example I take are from manufacturing.

To start with, let me point towards ERPs that have now existed, for large manufacturing organizations at least, for a significant time now. Even SMEs have some toned down or bespoke versions of these transactional solutions. Yet most manufacturers, I have come across, in the past few years have merely been using it as a database for information they may need to create PRs or POs or invoices.

S&OP as a function has also existed for a long time now. Technology solutions that support these functions with automation of various processes, algorithms to enable planning in complex scenarios have also existed for quite some time. While some of you have already implemented, there are several SMEs and even Large scale organizations who still plan and execute on silos using spreadsheets at best. S&OP and ERPs when on silos lead to the "garbage exchange" situation when your planned production and procurement is out of sync.

MES solutions have existed for quite some time as well and have found large scale implementations even in India. Whether cloud is able to stake its claim in the game and make IoT not just a "buzzword" is a topic for separate discussion. However, if you implement these systems only in silos they will at best give the present picture of operations only. Just looking at OEEs may not suffice the criteria for to make decisions (short or long term). These need to be pitted against the baselines set by planning systems which can then determine if there is shortfall of capacity or demand in pure business terms which makes sense to the top management.

What we must look at is an integrated system where these individual tech platforms talk to each other. When we think holistically of the entire organization, we can easily see that demand when better forecast can form a baseline for inventory and production planning, dispatch and actual sales. Procurement, production, dispatch can be further planned better with actual and reliable data from execution systems like MES. In sync, these systems can assist in elimination of the seven wastes and make for a cleaner, more efficient organization.

While it may not be feasible for you to implement all solutions in one go, there is a need for a long term roadmap that features in these components as a requirement to address business needs across verticals and horizontals of an organization. Only then can implementation of each component factor in the requirement for the next phase. An ERP implemented without ability or financial feasibility to integrate, an IoT project that may restrict itself to only dashboards and reports are recipes for abandonment in the short term and worse hesitance for competent solutions in the long term.

To summarize, you must discuss needs with all stakeholders, loop in the existing and prospective technology solutions vendors to ensure a holistic approach and enable integrations. Most importantly, have a clear roadmap with FMEAs that you can commit to.