E9.2 MRP branch implementation

Ivan Henderson

Member
Hello,
I am an engineer guiding the branch's Purchasing and Production team to start operating on the MRP applications for our JDE E1 v9.2 system. I am relatively new to MRP as a process engineer with an industrial engineering background. I interned at this company previously, and trained, tested, and went live with full MRP - however I had to leave 1 week after going live due to school. I understand the communication between Purchasing & Production is critical, and that the MRP input data needs to be clean and precise for good messages - but I am seeking a higher-level perspective on how to approach the general process of implementation from professionals and engineers who have done this before.

Therefore I am looking for general guidance as to how my team should operate once going live and running the back-and-forth game with IT and our branch to make sure the tool is working for us. Any advice or pointers for implementation goals or communication plans would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!
 
If you don't have anyone in the organization with MRP/ERP Understanding AND Experience your organization could be in the 75% ...

"... it can be easy to underestimate the time, effort and resources needed to successfully implement and maintain an ERP. Analysts have found that roughly 75 percent of ERP projects fail."
 
Beware of the users who like to have a PICNIC - Problem / In / Chair / Not / In / Computer ..... often you will be told - especially with MRP - "that it doesn't work" - when the truth is the user is having a PICNIC ... MRP is not easy to understand and its even harder to master ... Oracle Knowledge site is essential... so are sites like JDETIPS.COM .... the resources are out there... take your time as " you can only eat an Elephant one bite at a time" ... Hindu Proverb .... MRP is one very BIG ELEPHANT ...
 
If you don't have anyone in the organization with MRP/ERP Understanding AND Experience your organization could be in the 75% ...

"... it can be easy to underestimate the time, effort and resources needed to successfully implement and maintain an ERP. Analysts have found that roughly 75 percent of ERP projects fail."
Hey Larry, thank you for your thoughts. Could you elaborate on this concept? I worked closely to the corporate IT team [that had immense knowledge of ERP and MRP implementation], and it was successful on the data/software end with forecast, item data, etc., but the bigger issue came when [as Steve explains] that team members stated that "MRP does not work". I personally find that MRP is a fantastic tool that works for those who use it wisely and follow its guidelines [just like using any regular tool like Excel], but I am trying to understand how to break through to my operational team as to how to delicately discuss and understand this while also implementing and working on the MRP module.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, Ivan
 
This article is a good starting place
 
Beware of the users who like to have a PICNIC - Problem / In / Chair / Not / In / Computer ..... often you will be told - especially with MRP - "that it doesn't work" - when the truth is the user is having a PICNIC ... MRP is not easy to understand and its even harder to master ... Oracle Knowledge site is essential... so are sites like JDETIPS.COM .... the resources are out there... take your time as " you can only eat an Elephant one bite at a time" ... Hindu Proverb .... MRP is one very BIG ELEPHANT ...


Hey Steve,
I understand what you mean, but I would not say that they are a problem, rather they do not understand the strategical planning that MRP performs under the purchasing or production end.
I am worried that the people in these positions may be used to a certain way of doing things, and therefore may not be willing to budge out of their current ways - do you have any suggestions or strategies that help open up discussion of this issue?

Thanks, Ivan
 
Hey Steve,
I understand what you mean, but I would not say that they are a problem, rather they do not understand the strategical planning that MRP performs under the purchasing or production end.
I am worried that the people in these positions may be used to a certain way of doing things, and therefore may not be willing to budge out of their current ways - do you have any suggestions or strategies that help open up discussion of this issue?

Thanks, Ivan
Hi Ivan,
You said it all when you said ...
I am worried that the people in these positions may be used to a certain way of doing things, and therefore may not be willing to budge out of their current ways ...
After 22 years of consulting in JDE at over 30 companies ... I have seen this time and time again ...
Unfortunately, the SOLUTION boils down to one very simple and very sad fact... and that is that "ADULTS DONT LIKE TO LEARN NEW THINGS"
Ive seen company after company spend 10's of Millions on Implementing JDE... and then they provide the end user no training or support on how to effectively use the JDE software. So, workers are forced to "Learn it on their own" ... which is a huge challenge ...especially when you have your daily job work to do!
If I ever get to the executive levels ... JDE TRAINING WILL BE LINE ITEM# 1 IN MY BUDGET! ...
....
And yes, you are also very correct when you say ...
they do not understand the strategical planning that MRP performs under the purchasing or production end....
JDE is a LOGIC BASED APPLICATION ...
It has been designed to perform calculations in a LOGICAL manner ... failure to understand what JDE is trying to do means the user will never understand why they cannot get JDE to "just do what they want it to do" ... MRP WORKS PERFECTLY ... YOU JUST MUST TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS TRYING TO DO FOR YOU!
....
When I provide consulting services to clients for MRP ... I tell them upfront ..
#1 this is going to take time... many months... mostly because you have to tell people again and again and just drill MRP into their brains ... we all do get forgetful as we get older ...
#2 I tell them this won't be easy .. there is going to be a lot of bitching, crying, complaining, etc... just gotta deal with it till they understand it...
#3 We will successful if we dedicate ourselves to making the effort and taking the time to understand JDE... and then... one magical day... you'll see that magical invisible lightbulb "TURN ON" above the MRP users heads and they will have a smile on their face .... because they finally "GET IT" and understand what they are looking at and what JDE is doing .. !
...Happens that way EVERY SINGLE TIME ...
Sorry for the long reply ... I guess I could have also said "GARBAGE IN .. GARBAGE OUT" ... which is sadly what also happens a lot with JDE MRP .. you can't put planning data into JDE and have MRP run the calculations while at the same time not having so many other things done exactly right ... Cycle Counting, Properly configured Sales Order Management files, even having DISCIPLINED customer service reps who take the orders and who know not to put in an order for a make date of next week when stock is too low to produce it in time! ... So many things go into a smooth running MRP ... and indeed a smooth running company ... I truly feel if executives laid down the law and said " we will do this right or else ..." a lot of headaches could be avoided ...
...
Well, I'll shut up for now ... hope my 2 cents was helpful ... if you need anything please feel free to reach out to me ... I have a giant amount of JDE training documents from many companies that spent tons of money on doing JDE right that I'd be glad to share for free ...
[email protected] ...
Cheers and Much success to you!
 
To tack on to Steve's excellent points, you need to make sure that people understand all the inputs. And, it needs to be taught over and over again. My company doesn't let people on the phones in customer management until they've passed a panel with every detailed training. But, they'll let an intern set up SKU's - and mistakes happen continually. So many times a freeze fence gets set up incorrectly or we assume the same setup applies to every branch or not understanding how branch constants work or how a hold code impacts MRP and so on.

One other thing you have to implement is a strict rule to investigate what went wrong on MRP calculations rather than just assume "the system is wrong". We've had users that use this excuse all the time. So, they'll create all kinds of reports to bypass the system, rather than fix the system. Get rid of those as soon as you can. And after you walk through what happened on MRP time and again, they realize the setup wasn't right. Plus, having it right on your "report" for finished goods, let's say, has zero impact on raw materials, components, etc.
 
Hi Ivan,
You said it all when you said ...
I am worried that the people in these positions may be used to a certain way of doing things, and therefore may not be willing to budge out of their current ways ...
After 22 years of consulting in JDE at over 30 companies ... I have seen this time and time again ...
Unfortunately, the SOLUTION boils down to one very simple and very sad fact... and that is that "ADULTS DONT LIKE TO LEARN NEW THINGS"
Ive seen company after company spend 10's of Millions on Implementing JDE... and then they provide the end user no training or support on how to effectively use the JDE software. So, workers are forced to "Learn it on their own" ... which is a huge challenge ...especially when you have your daily job work to do!
If I ever get to the executive levels ... JDE TRAINING WILL BE LINE ITEM# 1 IN MY BUDGET! ...
....
And yes, you are also very correct when you say ...
they do not understand the strategical planning that MRP performs under the purchasing or production end....
JDE is a LOGIC BASED APPLICATION ...
It has been designed to perform calculations in a LOGICAL manner ... failure to understand what JDE is trying to do means the user will never understand why they cannot get JDE to "just do what they want it to do" ... MRP WORKS PERFECTLY ... YOU JUST MUST TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS TRYING TO DO FOR YOU!
....
When I provide consulting services to clients for MRP ... I tell them upfront ..
#1 this is going to take time... many months... mostly because you have to tell people again and again and just drill MRP into their brains ... we all do get forgetful as we get older ...
#2 I tell them this won't be easy .. there is going to be a lot of bitching, crying, complaining, etc... just gotta deal with it till they understand it...
#3 We will successful if we dedicate ourselves to making the effort and taking the time to understand JDE... and then... one magical day... you'll see that magical invisible lightbulb "TURN ON" above the MRP users heads and they will have a smile on their face .... because they finally "GET IT" and understand what they are looking at and what JDE is doing .. !
...Happens that way EVERY SINGLE TIME ...
Sorry for the long reply ... I guess I could have also said "GARBAGE IN .. GARBAGE OUT" ... which is sadly what also happens a lot with JDE MRP .. you can't put planning data into JDE and have MRP run the calculations while at the same time not having so many other things done exactly right ... Cycle Counting, Properly configured Sales Order Management files, even having DISCIPLINED customer service reps who take the orders and who know not to put in an order for a make date of next week when stock is too low to produce it in time! ... So many things go into a smooth running MRP ... and indeed a smooth running company ... I truly feel if executives laid down the law and said " we will do this right or else ..." a lot of headaches could be avoided ...
...
Well, I'll shut up for now ... hope my 2 cents was helpful ... if you need anything please feel free to reach out to me ... I have a giant amount of JDE training documents from many companies that spent tons of money on doing JDE right that I'd be glad to share for free ...
[email protected] ...
Cheers and Much success to you!
Hey Steve,
Thank you very much for the feedback - your points are clear and I have internalized most of them as laws of implementing any project unless people and time aren't constraints.
One problem that we have run into is that our management has not strongly supported the implementation [and I feel] because they do not understand [like you said] the functions of what it actually does for Purchasing and Production. I have had to communicate this to my manager and I still believe I have work to do to ensure that they know how it will benefit the bottom line.
On another note I did communicate with the IT team [which I worked with heavily during testing, data entry, etc.] that I wanted to create an MRP training program for the entire company since the information that the IT team provided me was mostly over several calls and emails. The problem was that the key stakeholders [Purchasing Agent & Production Manager] did not get all those details - so I ended up being the SME - which was good and bad for that exact reason. Perhaps we could discuss this to help those on this using MRP find a path for training and implementing MRP solutions. Any thoughts?
 
Back
Top