Many of the decisions that are made in a business depend on the information that is currently available. If this is not updated, the decision may not be the most correct.
Besides, the managers of each of the areas of the company, when it is not a real-time business, feel that they have an added value that makes them “important” in meetings with other managers, since only they have the information of their “most recent” area they were able to get, although it is not necessarily up to date.
I have been in meetings where the Production Manager affirms that a particular item will not be able to start production until the following week due to lack of supply of the raw material, and immediately be denied by the General Director who comments that before entering the meeting, I pass through the reception area. The raw material had an hour to have arrived.
In addition to being embarrassing, these situations could be avoided if the business has a system that provides information in real-time and is available to all users who have to do with the subject so that the decisions, they make are more accurate.
Maintaining a business in real-time requires having a system that can provide this type of updated information and adapt the processes and procedures so that this is achieved and motivating the personnel mentioned above about the benefits obtained by having updated information and making them participate.
The company must provide the necessary elements to the personnel to have timely and correct information.
Example 1
(Why is a business that is not real-time, you cannot have confidence in the accuracy of the information)
The Storekeeper in charge of receiving the items issues a receipt to the carrier said receipt is filled out by hand, with the idea that later the copy of this receipt is captured in the system. Now, if the reception was made in the morning shift and the capture is made in the night shift by a person who was not a witness to the delivery, when capturing all the receipt receipts in the morning, you can make mistakes either in the capture of the item code or in quantity received, since the numbers are not legible, or due to a finger error when typing the number.
Example 2
(Why in a real-time business you can have confidence in the accuracy of the information)
In a real-time business, the errors mentioned in Example 1 would not occur, since the receptionist has to capture at the time of receipt, only if there is a purchase order that guarantees delivery, the amount received in the system and issue the system’s receipt for the carrier, which would not accept it if the materials or quantities delivered that are indicated on the ticket was not correct.
Other problems that occur in businesses that are not in real-time:
A buyer who consults the stock in the system cannot issue his purchase order until he verifies with the storekeeper if the existence that the system says is correct. If he is lucky and the storekeeper knows the presence of his store, he will respond immediately. If not, you would have to wait for me to check for existence.
A salesperson on a call with the customer requesting a product would have two options:
- Risking offering the amount indicated by the system so as not to make him wait. You will probably have to call him to inform him that the delivery time will be longer than initially offered because the product is not available.
- Ask for time to confirm the existence with the warehouse.
In both cases, a good image of the business is not reflected. In general, examples such as those mentioned in the previous paragraphs of businesses that are not in real-time can occur in any other company area.
In the case of Enterprise Operating Systems (EOS), it does not present any of the ERP problems that were mentioned in the previous paragraphs because they are systems that are based on the operations of the companies and are integrated into them, so when being part of the process, the information flows in real-time.
Another problem that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) presents is the interconnection of the information that the different areas have, which are done by batch and not immediately and continuously as it happens with the Enterprise Operating Systems (EOS).
Alfredo Velasco
BI Manager
