All Book Reviews.

Book Reviews: Why Systems Fail: And How to Make Sure Yours Doesn’t, by David Turbide

This is a book about MRP II installations. More generally, it is a book about complex system implementations. Many of these implementations fail, many more fail to achieve the lofty goals originally promised. Turbide sets out to explain why so many fail, and how to maximize the likelihood that yours won’t.

MRP II (Manufacturing Resource Planning) includes the original MRP (Material Requirements Planning) plus a host of linked modules (production planning, customer service, and financials). The term MRP has fallen out of vogue, replaced by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), but the core functionality remains the same, as have the implementation challenges:

Extended implementation schedules (1-2 years). The long schedule makes it difficult to keep up the enthusiasm required of everyone in the company to perform not only their regular job, but also the extra work required to bring the new system online. And, it means that whoever you assign to lead the project full-time will need a new job upon completion of the project, since their regular assignment could not go unfilled for such a long time.

Extensive business process changes. These large systems touch every aspect of a business, and consequently require widespread retraining. Many times employees have to adapt to fit the system, rather than the system adapting to fit the employees. These changes are stressful, and can lead to resentment and disuse of the new system.

For those not interested in the details of MRP II systems, Turbide does a good job of distilling his experience into a few concrete recommendations, and then backing these recommendations with examples from his consulting practice. Some of these recommendations will be very intuitive to you:

Successful implementations have strong and visible executive support from start to finish.

Successful implementations avoid mission creep and schedule slippage.

Other recommendations may not be so intuitive:

Successful implementations have a team leader that is from a user department (e.g. production, customer service, or accounting), not from MIS. Turbide specifically recommends that MIS be involved in the system selection process, but only serve in an advisory role during the implementation. And, he recommends that the team leader always be a company employee rather than a consultant.

Successful implementations focus a disproportionate amount of time and energy on education and training. Turbide recommends that you make a reasonable budget for education and training, then double or triple it. With sufficient training, he argues that any shortcomings in your software (and there will be areas where the package does not fit your needs) can be overcome.

Successful implementations use packaged software with minimal aftermarket customization. Turbide believes that to do otherwise is to invite long-term system support headaches. His thesis is that several systems will fill 80% to 90% of your requirements, and the choice among these systems is not nearly so important as how you implement the chosen system. Modifying your system during the installation makes it much harder to upgrade, and harder for your vendor to support you.

For wafer fabs, the closest parallel to MRP/ERP is your choice of MES. If you are thinking of replacing your MES, you should definitely read this book first. It could make a big impact on the way you view the implementation process, and save you significant headaches in the process.

If you would like to buy this book, just click on the following link to open a new window and go directly to Why Systems Fail on Amazon’s website. FabTime is an Amazon affiliate.