Hello and welcome to the Great Question Podcast brought to you by Endeavor Business Media's Manufacturing Group. I'm Robert Brooks with American Machinist and Foundry Management and Technology. In those manufacturing sectors, our focus is always on the supply chain, and what it requires from businesses to remain competitive there, and the technologies they use to fulfill those requirements.
Recently, we published an article at AmericanMachinist.com titled, You Implemented Supply Chain Tech, Now What? The author is Tony Hueda of JBF Consulting. and I think it's worth more attention for the audience that we serve.
He writes:
When a manufacturing supply-chain technology implementation reaches “go-live” the reaction among the shop’s managers and operators typically is one of relief. Months of planning, design sessions, data migration, integration work, testing, and executive updates are finally behind them. The platform is live. The project dashboard turns green. The software vendor confirms the system is working as designed.
Then a harder question arises: Is the shop actually ready to run on it?
This “go-live gap” is what separates a technically successful implementation from an operation that is truly prepared to use the new platform, follow the new processes, make the right decisions, measure and capture the value that justified the investment in the first place.
Consider a $32-million smart home. Every system works exactly as designed. The automation is sophisticated. Lighting, climate, security, audio, and outdoor systems are fully integrated. Technically, the house is complete.
And yet, the homeowners still need three full days of structured iPad training before they can live in it comfortably. The house works; The people simply do not yet know how to operate within it.
Now apply that same idea to a $100-million machining and manufacturing technology ecosystem. A manufacturing execution system, ERP platform, or production visibility suite may be technically live and functionally sound. But if the people responsible for machining operations, scheduling decisions, exception management, and escalation do not understand what the system requires of them, the investment starts to underperform immediately.
The gap is not in the technology. It is in the handoff…
Read the full article.
