Talent Management (Discipline)       

“Discipline is the force that prompts individuals or groups to observe rules, regulations, standards and procedures deemed necessary for an organization.”

Discipline means systematically conducting the business by the organizational members who strictly adhere to the essential rules and regulations.

Richard D. Calhoon

Business Discipline: How to implement Business Discipline with ERP?

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day – Jim Rohn

Your level of success is determined by your level of Discipline & Perseverance. This is so true! Not only in the case of individuals but also for businesses! It is often said that business discipline is a good measure to judge whether an organization can be successful or not. Why? Because, just as you need a great product and a great team, you certainly need great discipline at every stage, right from business commencement, to survive competition, and later to scale & grow your organization.

Let us now understand what is Business Discipline with reference to Manufacturing companies & How to Implement Business Discipline with ERP.

What is Business Discipline?

Business disciplines are the functions or operations that are crucial for organizations functioning. These are the foundation stone on which you build your business.

The major functions of a manufacturing company are Production, Procurement, Inventory, Sales, Plant & Asset Maintenance, Finance, Quality, HR & Payroll Management, etc. It is therefore strategic to determine what business discipline to follow in each of these areas in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the company.

Why is Discipline Important for a Business? Why Implement Business Discipline?

It is said “Discipline is the ability to do what is important before it becomes urgent” Let me share a small example of how this is true.

One manufacturing company, which produces rolled steel products ran out of stock of commonly used bearings. The requisite quality bearings were not available in the local market and had to be sourced from other nearby locations. As a result, the production was stalled for almost 12 hours!  Although the cost of bearings was minor, the loss caused due to production halt was huge.

How could this situation have been prevented? This situation could have been prevented if the company had clearly defined business disciplines for inventory control mechanism and defined re-order limits, as well as what to purchase, when to purchase and from whom to purchase. They could have avoided the loss of time, productivity and money.

An organization that sets up business discipline by defining clear guidelines, processes and standards for Production, Inventory, Sales, Procurement, Finance, Quality will be able to achieve consistent results, identify & eliminate problem areas, make optimum utilization of resources, improve efficiency & profitability of the company.   

How to implement Business Discipline with ERP?

ERP software integrates all important processes of an organization such as planning, production, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources into a centralized system. With ERP, organizations can connect various departments, locations, business verticals, and obtain real-time data with detailed analysis reports to make informed decisions. This serves as a facilitator for establishing and rolling out business discipline in an organization.

With the help of ERP, it is practically possible to define and implement business flow, to define rules & guidelines as well as implement validations and checklists for almost every activity in the manufacturing organization. You can also implement approval workflow, and set up notification & alerts to be sent when there is a deviation from the defined business flow or guidelines.

You can set up Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to define and monitor success criteria for each function. With the help of detailed analysis reports, you can determine if the process is functioning optimally or there are shortcomings and accordingly devise an action plan on how to overcome them.

When Business Discipline is implemented and rolled out using an ERP, managers can perform day to day checks to ensure if the disciplines are being followed or not. Senior Management can also check the impact of their strategies implemented using various business disciplines, to understand whether there is any improvement in business or not.  This becomes the basis for making informed decisions for carrying out continuous improvement.

 Advantages of implementing an ERP system for Management Discipline

When implementing ERP systems for Management Discipline, the organizations rely on an ally for making informed decision. This, because ERP registers and process all the events that occur during all the phases towards the achievement of objectives to accomplish a prompt response.

Thanks to this, the following advantages are achieved:

• Considerable Increase in Productivity. The processes are optimized to the point that they influence over the time and quality of the final products.
• Reduction of Production Cycles. Planning generates the added value of decreasing almost to zero human intervention in the production processes and cycles.
• Malleability and Flexibility. ERP adapt to the always changing conditions of markets and businesses. The ERP tools create and organize the requirements and conditions to adjust the business processes in a dynamic manner.
• Transparency. Establish the document and knowledge bases for business intelligence.
• Continuous improvement and compliance. When establishing policies and due dates for each activity and task, ERP improve the achievement of objectives; that at the same time, promote continuous improvement of processes.

When an ERP is implemented, you considerably improve the way you lead your company while you wisely face each one of the challenges that it represents. Your daily work in the company will improve to achieve the correct way of accomplishing the objectives and your activities will be aligned to the national and international legal requirements.

 Summary

Business disciplines are a way to transform your business strategy into an action plan. With ERP you can effectively define your business disciplines, rules, guidelines and roll out across locations and organizations. You can also use ERP to monitor the impact of your strategy and can decide and roll out corrective actions through ERP.