Pick a Software Champion to Lead the Charge for New Manufacturing Software

Like all business plans aimed at improving operations, when you go through the process of selecting new manufacturing software for your business, you must be 100% committed to the cause.  As such, one of the most critical aspects of picking new software is starting off on the right foot by identifying and selecting the right person to lead the charge.  Only by doing this first will you eventually arrive at the ideal solution. 

History is full of examples of companies in the manufacturing industry that have chosen the wrong person or team to lead the software selection process.  As a result, these companies have not thoroughly evaluated and tested various software rigorously enough, nor have they considered what company processes and practices need to be modified to make the most of new software.  The result was a decision that the company quickly began to regret and it is possible that the company would have been just as well off, or even better of, if they had chosen to use free software that they downloaded from the internet. 

That is not to say that some companies would benefit from freeware or shareware.  In fact, some small operations that are simply looking for their first basic piece of software to improve their processes as they grow the company may be just fine.  However, large corporations that have advanced processes and do millions or billions of dollars worth of work each year almost certainly need a dedicated, industry-specific manufacturing software package. 

Therefore, significantly sized operations (i.e. those with different departments like PR, legal, accounting, IT, and so on) absolutely must be sure that the software they choose is the right software for them.  Given the dramatic impact that good software can have on your bottom line (in terms of improved reporting, accuracy, automation, and efficiency), the process of selecting new software should be viewed as a profound and significant undertaking. 

For companies in these situations, there are a number of interactions within the organization that must be kept in mind when you are evaluating various software packages.  For example:

• The executive team/administrative department will need reports that are geared in such a way that they can quickly get an idea of the company's ongoing performance in real-time.
• Public relations departments will need to know if and when job operations will have an impact on the community. 
• The legal department will need the ability to know if any issues that arise could potentially lead to litigation as soon as possible.
• Accounting needs real-time, accurate data that will allow them to constantly monitor jobs in relation to ongoing operational costs, budgets, cash flow, and so on. 
• The engineering department needs to be able to access job data to make sure that schedules are being kept. 
• IT must have the ability to tie everything together in a functional manner
• And so on....

Since the software that large companies will choose will have an impact on so many areas of the organization, it becomes clear why the company must be so committed to the details when selecting new MRP software.  Likewise, it becomes clear why companies must take so much time and effort to ensure that the person or team that is tasked with selecting new software are the people that can not only get the job done, but can get it done well.

The individual or team (the software champions) need to have several key skills.  Of course, they need to have a solid understanding of computing and software.  They also need good communication and interpersonal skills as they will be required to interface with everyone from the end-users to high level executives to vendor salespeople.  They also need to have the business acumen and research skills to bring together the right vendors, experts, internal resources, and so on.

Finally, the software champions need to have the necessary committment to the task.  They must be able to see both the big picture as well as the details and the ways that each piece of software they evaluate will impact all areas of the organization.  This not only requires experience with software, but also a familiarity with all areas of the organization.