Food companies turned to technology in 2021 to enable pandemic pivots, streamline operations, address supply chain issues, expand and diversify their roster of suppliers. The manufacturers and distributors that did not make changes continued to struggle. And this will be the case for 2022 as well, as demand, especially in e-commerce, is expected to increase.
Like many mid-sized distributors, Pacific Plumbing Supply Company chafed against the limitations of its legacy management platform and scraped by with a number of time-consuming manual workaround processes. Owners and managers knew it was well past time to implement a modern ERP solution and gain the advantages it would offer.
Of all the possible errors you can make, poorly executed change management (or none) is perhaps the most avoidable cause of project problems and failure. Resistance to change, even positive change, is normal and expected human behavior – and plans must be made to minimize its impact.
A scenario that happens more than it should: A company invests in and implements a new ERP system, but its users don’t fully adopt it.
Establishing accurate requirements and relevant priorities
Incorrect requirements will yield the wrong software choice, and faulty priorities direct attention and effort away from core issues.
Most Food & Beverage organizations start ERP selection with a list of the biggest and best-known names in the ERP software marketplace, then research features, functionalities and total cost of ownership, and then schedule multiple rounds of sales presentations and demos.
Poor change management is perhaps the most avoidable cause of project problems and failure. Resistance to change, even positive change, is normal and expected human behavior – and plans must be made to minimize its impact.
The IT department and the C-suite do not own (and may never interact with) your core business processes. So the project team should include key people – end users and functional managers – from across your organization who are regularly involved in those processes.
Organizations invest in ERP to enable greater execution and efficiency. So it makes no sense to implement a solution that simply automates your existing processes.
Pacific Plumbing Supply is a 71-year-old, family-owned and operated company, with 14 branch locations and 200 employees. We weren’t looking to spend the kind of money it would take to implement a modern ERP solution,” Stafford continued, “but we understood that the ROI is in new capabilities and new tools we can use to operate more efficiently.”
