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What is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)?

The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software market has grown from it's early roots in MRP (Manufacturing Requirements Planning) in the early 1970s. These early stand-alone packages aided the procurement process by managing bills of material but fell short of process visibility and scheduling issues. The next generation of software in this procession (MRP II) provided some of the scheduling tools but fell short of real time integration to the financial systems and business processes. Currently, the ERP products have integrated CRM (Customer Relationship Management) features that centralize contact / sales data and even give clients visibility / query capability to monitor their deliverables through order entry, manufacturing and on to shipping tracking. The following chart shows the major suppliers of such systems:



It can be observed that a large proportion of the implementations are being conducted by "second tier" integrators. This chart shows thereare a lot of choices available to the user base, especially in the medium to small implementations.

Special attention needs to be paid to requirement evaluation and implementation logistics when selecting one of these systems. The amount of resource required to integrate these systems into business processes is often underestimated.

The "end of the line" is often found at the warehouse shipping dock and the Distribution Center processes. Ultimately orders need to be filled and moved "out the door". This is where the ERP systems often lose the ability to utilize appropriate technologies and closely coupled computer assisted picking systems are required.
*from erp article

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