Maximizing Return on Investment Using ERP Applications

THE STORY IS ECONOMIC

The key in this process, as in the story in Chapter 2 of the CIO who led by limiting the cost of IT applications, has to be an economic one. If there are really no tangible business benefits from doing something, what in the world would be the argument for doing it? Whether this involves cost reduction, manufacturing efficiencies, improved market conditions (either offensively or defensively), or something completely different, there is always a way to define the financial incentives to invest in any program of this type. If business leaders give themselves a pass on this because of cultural/political issues, they will always subvert the process of change that is necessary to achieve results. So, if this is true, we need a better way to manage the continuous improvement process that incorporates not only all of the disciplines involved but also provides a means to work through organizational issues that are raised at the highest levels of the enterprise. That is the model presented here.

More than three decades ago, Phil Crosby, in his book Quality Is Free, listed his 14 steps to a quality program, with the fourteenth step being “Do It All Over Again.”5 Dr. W. Edwards Deming, in Out of the Crisis, in his 14 steps, concluded with “Establish a Continuous Improvement Program.”6 The additional value in Dr. Deming’s approach is that it turned the introduction of quality programs into a process, rather than a series of events. As the quality programs of the 1980s ...