Does your ERP system leave operational blind spots? 3 ways to overcome the gaps
With the ever-growing complexity of construction projects, many companies are increasingly turning to different technologies to try to keep up.
In recent years, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have become increasingly common. With such systems being able to help across multiple sectors, from finance to supply chain management, ERP systems are becoming central to how construction companies are run.
However, companies are finding that simply implementing an ERP system doesn’t fix everything and are finding that there are still blind spots within the system. Issues with workflows, data handling, and visibility can all be common, and can all cause inefficiency, boost the risk of delays, and increase the challenge for decision-makers.
With this in mind, it’s important for companies to understand and tackle these blind spots. If you are thinking of improving your ERP within your business, here are 3 dangerous gaps, why they happen, and ways you can overcome the problems they create.
Limited visibility across operational workflows
Most ERP systems help with the collection and storage of data as a project progresses. When progress is smooth, this goes well and can seem comprehensive and clear. However, because construction projects are fast-moving, it can be tough for ERPs to keep pace. As well as this, ERPs’ ability to collect and update field agents’ status and cross-team co-ordination can be fragmented and out of date.
This means that information within the ERP may miss vital updates or key changes. Not just this, but if information is siloed due to technology constraints, blind spots can be created as teams work under the impression the system contains all of the information.
A solid way organizations can overcome this is by ensuring operational workflows are connecting and visible across teams. It is also important for project managers to operate with ongoing real-time visibility for both field agents and office teams.
Boosting visibility throughout the workflow, as well as reducing a team’s reliance on isolated systems, ensures that the information within the ERP is up-to-date and comprehensive.
Slow adaptation to changing processes
Many ERP systems are highly structured, and although this is good to help bring control and order to how projects are managed and processes are done, it leaves them at risk of becoming outdated and inflexible. This can be particularly high risk as the landscape within construction continues to change in response to world events.
The blind spots start to appear because of how teams respond to the inflexibility of these systems. As changes force the staff to find unofficial workarounds outside of an established system, it can leave the older systems behind, and processes evolve faster than the ERP itself.
To combat this, it is important that organizations operate with some level of flexibility in their workflow and workplace management. This will help them protect against an uncertain future. It is also important that operational systems are chosen with adaptability in mind, not just the number of features.
It is better to have a solid structure that has the capacity to change, than a static system that locks your company to its current state.
Delayed or fragmented decision-making
For employees who need to make decisions, they are highly reliant on information being current and updated as close to real-time as possible. Having an ERP in place helps transfer the information, but if there’s no information to be given, that won’t change, and ERPs cannot highlight missing data. This means that decisions can either be made with a limited understanding, or delayed, both of which carry risks to a project.
This uncertainty and inability to proactively highlight potential issues creates blindspots. By the time decisions need to be made, the operational problem that may have caused it might have escalated. This escalation can cause greater delays and greater costs.
For businesses to overcome this, they will need more information integration and try to boost reporting visibility. By doing so, they can ensure faster and clearer updates across teams. It is also important for project managers to promote better alignment between departments through easy and consistent communication.
By boosting team alignment and promoting reporting visibility and punctuality, businesses can remove friction from the decision-making process and remove the blind spots slowing down their management.
Overall, ERP systems are and remain a valuable foundational system for many construction companies. But they are vulnerable to blind spots that come from poor core processes that are still in use.
If an organization operates in a way that limits project visibility and has a high amount of friction in its day-to-day running, implementing an ERP isn’t enough. Construction companies need to work with connected operational visibility alongside the expanded functionality ERPs can grant to help reduce friction and improve their responsiveness.