Managing ERP Implementation Using Basic Software Tools

MANNAGING ERP IMPLEM G I MENTA ATION U USING B BASIC SOFTW WARE TOOLS AND W S WEB BA ASED SCHEDU ULING CON NTROL Ric cardo Viana Vargas, M a MSc, IPMA A-B, PMP Professor – G Getulio Vargas Foundation (F FGV) – Brazil Professor – Fun P ndação Institut de Administ to tração (FIA – U USP) - Brazil Partner – Macrosolutiions – Brazil r ricardo.var rgas@macrosolu utions.com.br © Ricardo V Viana Vargas. All R Rights Reserved Pub blications PMI Global Congress No America orth Philade elphia – PA – U USA – 1999 1/7

ABSTRAC CT This paper presents a fast, inex r xpensive an safe process to pla and mon nd an nitor ERP implementa ation proce esses like S SAP R3. Baased in conncrete expe eriences at industrial unities of m multinationa companie the proc al es, cess is con nsidered sim mple and efffective to control this kind of dyn s namic projec cts. (ERP) ENTERPRISE RESOURC PLANN E CE NING The systems for En nterprise Resource Planning, kn nown as E ERP, are a set of interdepend dent eleme ents organiz zed into a single and complex w whole that seeks to capture and globally m manage the business. D to the c Due complexity o the implem of mentation and to the dynamics of the bus e siness enviro onment, it iis necessar to ensure that the ry e deadlines, the scope, and the cos of the pr sts rojects are g guaranteed, with the low west cost control pos ssible. The main stages of the process are de s escribed belo with suggestions ow, for fast, inexpensive a and safe immplementation, based on our con ncrete expeerience at industrial units of multinational commpanies. The main p processes are: → Tea division and stratification. am a → Imp plementation Methodolo n ogy, Definitio of Scope and Deadllines on e → Pre eparation of Network En nvironment a Creation of Resour Pool and rce → Def finition of the Web Envir e ronment → Con nsolidating the Macro P t Project and Integrated M Managemen nt TEAM DI IVISION AN STRATI ND IFICATION N The first step in th solution is to stra he atify the te eams, takin as a base the ng Communic cations Planning and th company organizatio he y onal structu ure. Three levels are created for the projec control. They are: production productio managem r ct n, on ment, and coordinatio (Exhibit 1). on Coordin nation Produc ction Manageement Produc ction Exhibit 1 – Team stratification for project control m 2/7

IMPLEME ENTATION METHODO OLOGY, DE EFINITION OF SCOPE AN DEADL ND LINES Most of the time the m e methodology to be used in the impllementation is that deve y d eloped by the actual s software ma anufacturer, such as AS SAP for SAP R3 (Exhibit 2). P t Exhibit 2 – Ac ccelerated SAP Implementation Assistant for project sc cope definition. The level o detail of the methodology, which will be universally applied in all of the of modules, should be d s defined toge ether with th implementers, as w as structuring the he well generic content of the work that will be con e ntrolled by th project, and creatin a basic he ng Work Breakdown Structure for all of the modules. From there each mod e, dule is detailed until the work pack e kages are es stablished. The work packages a controlle by the p are ed project team themselv and, upon being co ms ves ompleted, reflect the e execution of the methodology activ f vity. The group using m p, mainly the eexpert judg gment of c consultants and imple ementers, determines the deadlines for eac work pac s ch ckage. A fu undamental considerattion is the simultaneous executio of the me on ethodology a activities in each moduule. For exa ample, the prototyping of the fin g nancial and production planning, etc., should be carrie out in n ed parallel. If a module has compleetely differen features from the re which im nt est, mpedes it from fitting in with th standard methodology, it will be develo g he d oped separately and consolidate after the other mod ed e dules, as is the case of the Basis group of SAP R3 s f (Exhibit 3). 3/7

Global Project Sales an Distributio (SD) nd on Accelerated Material Managemen (MM) nt ABAP 4 Basis SAP and IT Product tion Planning (PP) Finance (FI) F Con ntrolling (CO O) Resourc Pool ce Exhibit 3 – S Structure of Implem mentation in Parallel and objects for Global Project. PREPARA ATION OF N NETWORK ENVIRON K NMENT AND CREATION OF RESO N OURCE POOL Parallel to t group w the work in the modules, a computer n network infr rastructure iis created for remote manageme ent. Taking advantage of the computers made availab for the g e ble project teaam, a set o directories is created at the server, which will file the projects of s d e relative to each group in distinct folders, wiith access c p control pos ssible for ea user . ach Each team will have user acces to the se m ss erver, separated by grroups of us sers, with access privvileges defin beforeha ned and. All of those users will c e constitute p of the po of resou part ool urces that w now be c will created as a new projject file containing a lis of the sys st stem users, as well as a set of all the other resources to be used in the projject. The list should include the E-mail add d dresses of each resou urce so that the electro t onic mail se erver directs the messa ages, thus in nstalled in that same server. Wit the pool defined, ev th very project file of every module is linked to y s the pool of resources, creating a n network. The greate benefit of this structu is the ce est f ure entralized mmanagement of the team and the t m better visu ualization of the effort and the a f availability o each resource of the pool, of independen of whic module it actually belongs to. With the links estab ntly ch . e blished, it becomes necessary to allocate th resource in the pro n o he es oject activitie allowing all of the es, g responsibilities within e each module to be esta e ablished (Exh hibit 4). 4/7

Exhibit 4 – In ntegrated Resourc Pool control. ce DEFINITIO OF THE WEB ENV ON E VIRONMEN NT The web e environment is created through a w server to be installed in the s web server. All information about the project can be publish as a we page us n n hed eb sing pre-defined Web Pages (Exhhibit 5). Exhibit 5 – We page with gener information abo a functional gro in SAP/R3. eb ral out oup Through m mail box p programs fo the we or eb, which are include in mos project ed st manageme software such as T ent e, Team Inbox of MS Pro x oject 98, the are installled in the ey computers of production member of the pro rs oject so that these can update their activities t r without hav ving to direc access the project manageme software saving the need to ctly ent e, e acquire sof ftware user licenses and making it much easie to update the team (E d er Exhibit 6) 5/7

Exhibit 6 – Micro osoft Team Inbox f Project Control by e-mail in a We Environment for eb These resu sugges an appar ults st rent gain ac ccording to the scores obtained by these o s participants although the study must be deepened with other groups a s, h y and other companies to produce a working result that is more scientifically pro s e s oven. CONSOLID DATING TH GLOBA PROJEC AND HE AL CT INTEGRAT MANA TED AGEMENT Finally the project files of each mo s odule are consolidated filtered, an classified forming d, nd d, a global file of the pro e oject that in ncorporates and compares the modules item by item, m allowing th total con he ntrol of the project, at the detail level desire and to the extent ed necessary, with a simp mouse c ple command (E Exhibit 7 and 8). d Exhibit 7 – Glob Project View bal 6/7

Exhibit 8 – Integrated Cost in Global Project n CONCLUS SIONS The greate objective of this study was to f est e find an inex xpensive, sim mple, and v viable way that can be employed to set up c e complex and large scale ERP syste d e ems, withou causing ut any loss of reliability in regard to h how it functio and the failures of t program ons e the ms. 7/7

http://www.lmodules.com	10
http://localhost:49598	2
http://www.granger.eu.com	2

Managing ERP Implementation Using Basic Software Tools

by Ricardo Vargas on May 07, 2009

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 14

Statistics

Managing ERP Implementation Using Basic Software Tools — Document Transcript