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August 23, 2005 What is the fatal flaw in software that can stop your business’s effectiveness? In reading an article from one of our guest writers Olin Thompson of Process ERP Partners LLC, he discusses how all businesses, especially food businesses, have a certain requirement that is critical to their business. However, when that requirement is not present in the software you are choosing to invest in, a “fatal flaw” can easily appear, which effects not only your ability to run your business with the software, but costs large dollars in direct labor costs from your staff. Also, the customer service ramifications can reach even higher levels of costs or lost customers. As Thompson points out in his article, the food industry is really broken down into categories, and the easiest way to understand this is to examine the supermarket. As you know, the layouts of supermarkets are broken down into categories or departments. These departments can be viewed as below:
By viewing your business as one of those segments, you can begin to see the special requirements of that category. In order to clarify the fatal flaw, I will review some fatal flaws by specific businesses. Meat products: Meat, like cheese, fish, and poultry, have a requirement to be handled by multiple units of measure, such as case (each) and pounds. Also, in many circumstances these weights can be variable where they change per each or case basis. The fatal flaw in this circumstance would be the software’s inability to handle variable weights with multiple units of measure. Without these features, perpetual inventory is impossible and customer billings would be a nightmare. Most shrunk wrap software (Peachtree, MAS 90, Quickbooks) do not have all these capabilities. They look nice on the outside in the form of easy usage and price, but when you hit the wall your investment goes down the tube and your organization has to restart with something new. Meat Processors: Unlike manufacturers of appliances, cars, and other discreet products that have a Bill of Materials; meat packers have a very unique manufacturing function. Meat guys have an inverted BOM’s. That is to say they do not start with parts and make a finished product; however, they start with a finished product (hanging beef) and end up with parts. This is considered an inverted bill of materials. A software package that does not support this concept has a fatal flaw. Cheese and butter distributor: Most cheese and butter guys use what the industry calls market based pricing. The market price is set out of the Chicago Commodities market weekly for block cheddar and block butter. Then customers are charged based on this market price. To further complicate matters, this pricing can be based at the time of order or shipment. This market based pricing can be the fatal flaw in software without that capability. These are a few examples of fatal flaws in software. You Broad liners beware; you may need multiple capabilities that can produce multiple fatal flaws in your software. To summarize: analyze your categories, determine your special needs, and make your vendor show you how fatal flaws do not exist in his or her package. Lastly, demos and references will prove that fatal flaws exist or do not exist in your selection.
REMEMBER FATAL FLAWS CAUSE MASSIVE SPENDING!
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