The client:
Major manufacturer, distributor and retailer of motor vehicle accessories headquartered in Brisbane. They have retail operations in both Australia and the USA. They have manufacturing and wholesale operations in Asia.
Challenge:
The newly appointed Executive General Manager was referred to me by a colleague. He asked me to help them understand what the state of play was regarding their ERP system. He was hearing a significant level of noise in the business blaming the ERP system for all sorts of troubles and ills. He wanted an independent view of what the real position was and advice as to whether they should replace the system or not, and if not, what they should do to stop the system from being a constraint to their growth plans.
Product Used:
- Supply Chain & Technology Audit
- SureSelect™
- Project Governance for recommendation implementation
Intervention:
Conducted a full supply chain and technology audit involving a detailed investigation of the ERP configuration, observations of shop floor operations and deep interviews of key personnel from both shop floor workers, middle management, and senior executives. I delivered a comprehensive report covering 65 different subject matter topics and providing 30 individual recommendations. The recommendations were broken into three distinct timeframes, Do Now, Do Short Term and Long Term. The total project took three months and involved combining elements from my proprietary Supply Chain & Technology Audit methodology and my ERP Success Formula offerings.
Result:
The EGM indicated the report, “… was the best investment in IT I have ever made”. I was re-engaged over a series of smaller engagements to help implement the recommendations. In the two years since that work was completed the company has been able to stabilise and fully utilise the MRP capability in the system, roll out the point of sale capability to all their company owned stores, incorporated the USA operations into the system providing that division with the capability to rapidly expand their offering in this new and highly competitive market. The system has now also allowed them to open a new distribution operation in Asia. The inventory control capability has vastly improved across this multinational organisation, despite having to manage the supply chain disruptions in 2021 & 2022, resulting in them being able to get back on track and achieve their five year goal of being ready to publicly list the organisation.
This work was classified by the EGM as instrumental to the business growing from $45 mil to $170 Mil.
