Paper Technology International 2024 - Journal - Page 124
PAPERTECHNOLOGYINTERNATIONAL
F
Fantasy CIO: How to choose an ERP
for the paper/packaging industry
Dr. Constantine Goulimis, Chief Strategy Of昀椀cer, Pulp, Paper & Fibre, Tietoevry Industry
INTRODUCTION:
The lifetime of a successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system easily exceeds a decade. Yet the selection and
implementation of such a system is highly risky and quite expensive. We discuss here what to look for and what to avoid.
Dear reader, you are probably thinking
“no, spare me, not another article written by a
management consultant with an axe to grind,
sprouting content-free generalities and talking
about change management”. Well, I am not a
management consultant, I abhor generalities and
have nothing to say about change management.
The accusation that I am biased, though, would
be hard to deny. But then again, I would say in my
defence that, at my advanced age, one is conscious
of legacy and I feel it’s important, if immodest, to
pass on lessons from a life spent in software for
the paper/packaging industry. Bear with me while
I fantasise that I am a newly appointed CIO in
our industry, tasked with replacing an aging ERP
system.
So, let’s break it down. What are we
looking for in an enterprise planning system (ERP)
in our industry? There are four basic functional
components, which are the sine qua non:
1. Order entry (if necessary
complemented by order estimation)
2. Planning & scheduling: functionality that looks after
both the geometric and time optimisation, translating
production orders into workcentre schedules. I would
also include logistics planning, which encompasses
aspects such as truck / container loading, transport
booking and routing and even core cutting optimisation
(cut-to-length).
3. Manufacturing execution system (MES): functionality
that displays the schedules, monitors / records
production and provides data for invoicing. Depending
on the needs, it may also load the trucks / containers
with the 昀椀nished goods and provide warehouse
management.
4. Financials: the overarching 昀椀nancial accounting system
The interesting thing is that, even after 40+ years that I
have been involved in this sector, there is no supplier anywhere in
the world capable of providing in-house all above elements. On the
one hand, the biggest corporate ERP suppliers such as SAP rely
on external systems for at least (a) the geometric (trim) optimisation
and (b) the MES. Time-scheduling functionality, even if provided by
the same company is usually based on a separate code line. On the
other hand, and as far as I know, none of the industry-speci昀椀c suites
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have their own 昀椀nancial software (which, in any case, tend to be
region-speci昀椀c, as anyone who has implemented such a system in
Brazil (nota 昀椀scal), or Germany will tell you).
In addition to these four core functions, there is a whole
collection of what I would consider as auxiliary functionality,
including but not limited to:
•
Human resources
•
Asset management and planned maintenance
•
Customer relationship management
•
Web portal
•
Energy management
•
Procurement
•
Carbon reporting
Decision framing
My starting point as a new CIO in paper / packaging would be
a recognition that our in-house capabilities have evolved. Gone
are the days with a large and strong IT department that could be
relied upon to integrate many disparate systems together, or even
write software to 昀椀ll known gaps. For better or worse, professional
software development is now only viable in software companies.
A related consideration would be to recognise that, whether we like
it or not, paper / packaging is not the sexiest and most attractive of
industries. IT suppliers and highly-skilled people are not 昀椀ghting
