Prd 023 The Principal Components of Precision Configuration Created by James on 6/26/2013 5:07:10 AM
By
Dr James Robertson
The principal or fundamental components of Precision Configuration are:
1. Software settings
The basic software configuration settings that cause the software to behave in potentially very different ways and which can turn on or turn off large chunks of functionality or simply change small defaults or micro detail.
2. Cubic Business Model™ in the General Ledger
The Cubic Business Model™ in the General Ledger is the component of Precision Configuration that will be common to every implementation where full Precision Configuration is applied.
The full multi-dimensional cube logic must be carried through absolutely consistently into the Assets Module, the Human Resources Module, the Production Module, etc, etc.
3. Asset classification
Asset classification occurs in most installations, the classification here must correlate with the summary headings in the Chart of Accounts, the plant classification logic in the Fixed and Mobile Plant modules, the spares classifications in the Product / Material / Item master files, etc.
Typically there are some challenges in harmonizing the hierarchy and coding of assets across all the other modules that reference assets in some fashion.
4. Product / Material / Item classification / catalogue
The Product Master / Material Master / Item Master master files contain by far the largest and most complex taxonomy in any ERP installation in the form of a catalogue. The logic of this catalogue can be very different depending on the nature of the business such as mining, manufacturing, distribution, services, etc.
In order to achieve a high value precision configuration it is vital that this element receives considerable attention – in many cases this will be by far the most time consuming and onerous taxonomy to develop and the one that can have the biggest impact on the effective or non-effective operation of the ERP.
5. Classification of Personnel
The classification of personnel, not just in terms of employment categorization and grades but also in terms of knowledge and experience (competence) classifications is generally overlooked and under estimated in terms of its ability to add value to the business, for this reason this aspect is generally hacked and gets in the way of adding value.
A comprehensive precision configuration should address all facets of Human Resource categorization and particularly competence classification.
6. Other specific classifications
All ERP systems contain other classifications such as the Customer Class, Supplier Class, etc and in industry specialist modules like the Mine Resource Management module, specialist manufacturing module, advanced warehouse management module, etc there will be any number of classifications, drop down lists, etc.
These must all be carefully analysed and structured in a comprehensive Precision Configuration.
7. Unique attributes on Products and other classification master data
A special aspect of Precision Configuration that is little understood is the development of client specific attributes as user defined fields on the master tables, particularly on tables such as the Product Master, Customer Master, etc.
These attribute lists can be quite detailed but in many cases can have a limited number of values but they describe, for example the product, more precisely relative to the operation of the specific client business under consideration.
It is vital to engage with executives, managers and staff in the client organization in order to understand ALL the possible attributes that apply.
It costs very little to add these user defined fields and it costs very little to acquire the extra data and maintain that data in the average organization but these custom fields can make the difference between an ERP or other system implementation that can answer obscure little asked questions and one that cannot.
Clever use of these attributes also allows small clever custom functionality to be added to the configuration that allows the values of these customs attribute fields to be used to drive data acquisition logic and data processing logic.
A significant investment in this area is particularly important and typically falls into the category of items that form part of the 20% of the effort that will deliver 80% of the investment value.
8. General record level attribute settings
Every record of every master file contains some number of standard attribute and other settings and values. The standard fields on a large international ERP Item Master or Materials master file can run to hundreds of fields ranging from item mass through to general ledger integration account codes.
With a well-designed hierarchical Item / Materials / Product catalogue it is possible to build custom functionality that will add considerable intelligence onto the maintenance of these master file records and the addition of records which will result in the entire operation of the system becoming more effective and efficient with benefits rippling through to the business, sometimes in dramatic ways.
This precision in turn opens the door for other bits of limited scope clever customization to add considerable value, even to the point of creating a framework to create pseudo integration between two otherwise completely unrelated modules like modelling the product logic in the projects module so that product marketing costs can be managed using the project module in a way that it seems that the projects module is a seamless extension of the product master.
In one case this type of pseudo integration opened the door for a client organization to grow their business by 25% by gaining the distribution and marketing account of a major international manufacturer because they were able to do things in terms of brand management that no one else could do.
9. Other configuration settings
This last category includes the vast array of other configuration at the operational level including things like workflow / business process automation, bill of materials, etc, etc.
Note that many of the above items are frequently configured and set by business staff at an operational level who do not have a strategic view and who see retention of comfort with legacy data as first priority. These personnel are frequently facilitated by mid-level or even junior implementer staff who does not really understand the business or the software. Both of these are completely the WRONG things to do.
The high level design of these taxonomies should be developed by an executive level facilitator working closely with the executives of the business and even the full detail of these lists should be reviewed and approved by these same executives and executive level facilitator.
I hope that this catalogue of the different components of Precision Configuration facilitates a better understanding of the full complexity of the concept.
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