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C&D Foods Ltd

6 Lessons learnt

There were a substantial number of lessons learnt during the implementation to date of this project.

Running the project out of the Administration Office.
Terry Carr commented on this learning as follows:
“Because there was a major product line installation ongoing at the time we tried to run the project out of the admin office, in the mistaken view that it would be easier to implement that way and then roll-out to the business. I put my hands up. I think that was a mistake.” In fact Terry believes this to be the single biggest mistake that was made at the start of the project. If the project team had been broadened to include representatives from manufacturing it would have been possible to capture some of the business process improvements in the production and distribution processes at an earlier stage. It would also have enabled Terry to capture buy-in from the wider business to the project and its aims. A broader and better-resourced project team would also have ensured a quicker implementation. A larger project team may cost more in the short run but may save money in the long run if the project is concluded sooner. A project manager needs to be explicitly aware of this trade-off between cost and time.

Outsourcing IT vs. retaining skills in house.
One of the negatives of the successful relationship that C&D Foods has built over the last twelve years with Task has been an over-reliance on Task for all their IT development. Terry expressed regret regarding this and suggested C&D Foods should have developed a greater depth of internal IT capability over the years. This has hampered them to some extent in the current implementation. They would have been better able to evaluate a number of decisions if they had had that depth of internal technical capability. Terry and Jimmy both maintained that firms looking at outsourcing of their IT function should consider the down sides of losing depth of expertise in house.

(Supply Chain Management)

A key challenge to all businesses today is delivering new and enticing value propositions to customers. To support the new value proposition, companies need rapid demand fulfilment that is cost-effective and flawlessly executed. With ecommerce, the process focus has shifted outside the organisation’s four walls. Whilst business process reengineering and quality improvements have delivered the required internal process improvements, the focus is now shifting to the fusion of a company’s internal systems with those of its suppliers, partners and customers. This fusion forces companies to better integrate the intraenterprise processes to improve manufacturing efficiency and distribution effectiveness.

In a nutshell, SCM is the coordination of material, information, and financial flows between and among all the participating enterprises.

• Material flows involve physical product flows from suppliers to customers through the chain, as well as the reverse flows via product returns, servicing, recycling and disposal.
• Information flows involve demand forecasts, order transmissions and delivery status reports.
• Financial flows involve credit card information, credit terms, payment schedules and consignment and title ownership arrangements.

Level of skill required of developers in a Visual Basic environment.
It has proven to be much harder to find first-rate programmers in the Visual Basic environment than in the Cobol environment (see Visual Basic sidebar). There have also been greater demands on internal users of the new system who need much greater knowledge of Microsoft products, in particular Excel and Access. The learning has been that the new platform has meant that it has been harder to find the calibre of resource required, both in terms of systems development and at the user level.
Matching internal to consulting resource.
Jimmy mentioned a recent report he had come across that recommended allocating three days of internal resource to every consulting day you purchase. C&D Foods did not have that resource in place. By trying to run the project out of the administration office it meant there was insufficient capacity to ensure a smooth and speedy implementation. It was also felt that insufficient internal resource could offer suppliers a convenient excuse for failing to deliver.
Fitting in with customer’s business processes.
Another key learning was the need to be pragmatic and fit in with customer’s existing ways of operating. Whilst the initial plan was to move to Internet -based EDI it soon became apparent that this was a “red herring”. Terry commented as follows: “You would not go for EDI via the Internet unless your customers push you that way.”

The retailers in the UK had a lot of money invested in their current EDI systems and were in no hurry to move to an Internet -based solution. It was a practical lesson in designing a solution in a customer-focused way rather than focusing on “leading edge” technology.
Ensuring the quality of third-party suppliers.
Both Jimmy and Terry were clear that one of the keys to successful implementation is in ensuring that all suppliers are of the highest quality. The skill is in evaluating the quality of the individuals that you will be working with. Without a doubt this takes experience but any firm should ensure that they obtain references from previous customer engagements to get a feel for a supplier’s implementation record.

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