[...]... site near the major customer base However, this DC should be largely a cross docking facility where the product never stops but simply moves from a supply truck to a delivery truck for a specific customer or customers Every time you see a DC that is full of inventory, it is badly named DC’s need to be distribution points and not storage facilities Can companies with seasonal business ever operate without... answer to connecting your customers and suppliers Typically, we are supportive since the Internet offers such great capability to link dis- The Strategic Future (Phase III) 325 parate operations and companies with real time connections However, without the knowledge and time offered via ERP, the high speed of the Internet can simply raise expectations with limited ability to satisfy those expectations With. .. absence of the great flywheel of inventory means that any promotional activity can be seen virtually within the week that it happens Do you want to see a marketing manager get excited? Tell that manager what this new strategy could provide in the way of immediate customer feedback With a customer-driven strategy, customers are delighted with quick delivery or availability of their order, the supply chain... should not rest on their laurels after reaching Class A with ERP Don’t be content with the status quo It s more important than ever to go after those additional productivity tools, those “better mousetraps,” those better and more humane ways of working with people Many of these projects can be funded with the cash freed up by the ERP-generated inventory reductions alone Look upon your excellent ERP processes... in today’s global environment is frustrating and may be doomed to failure without taking advantage of ERP and ES Speed is so limited with the old organization that it is unlikely that the rewards of a global enterprise will ever match the costs and confusion Each company needs to decide how to use ERP and ES to forge their own global organization The error would be standing pat The opportunity is to. .. adding more to customers or suppliers Your balance sheet may improve momentarily but the true cost and flexibility of the total supply chain will probably not have changed The opportunity now is to attack the current supply chain logic and move well past the inventory savings used to justify ERP and ES If zero inventory is too scary or appears to be too expensive for your operation, at least start with a... they are going to take to hit the forecast The sales planning process should result in a monthly rate of sales for a product family (usually expressed in units identical to the production plan), stated in units and dollars It represents sales and marketing’s commitment to take all reasonable steps to make sure the forecast accurately represents the actual customer orders to be received Customer Order... system, review the inventory/backlog, available capacity, and lead times, and then determine when the customer order can be promised This promise date is then entered as a customer commitment ROUGH-CUT CAPACITY PLANNING Rough-cut capacity planning is the process of determining what resources (the “supply” of capacity) it will take to achieve the production plan (“demand” for capacity) The process relies... keep ERP alive but to capitalize on the full potential that now exists in the company The capabilities that you can create with ERP, particularly when coupled with Enterprise Software, are so dramatic that failure to move to a new corporate strategy may be failure indeed For the first time, the supply chain can now be a key factor in creating corporate strategy instead of a limiting factor This new, dynamic... being able to always produce your product line at the lowest cost location for each order every time Not only will costs and inventories drop even further but customers also will be delighted with the new levels of service A company now has the choice to build a new organization that brings products to market to meet customer needs with dazzling speed Not only does this delight customers, but it reduces . running the business with the ERP set of tools, which tends not to change. However, business conditions do change. It s necessary periodi- cally to match up the tools (ERP) to today’s business environment and. their laurels after reaching Class A with ERP. Don’t be content with the status quo. It s more important than ever to go after those additional pro- ductivity tools, those “better mousetraps,” those. do you want to really know? Well, relax. We are not going to tell your fortune or your future. However, we are going to tell you that, with the tools provided by Enterprise Resource Planning, particu- larly