One Step At A Time

Szabo agrees that supply chain projects are an extremely difficultgame, and advises people to do it step-by-step, module-by-module:"Naturally when people buy software they expect all the features to befunctional from day one. I think this is probably going to kill theinitiative. The bigger the scope, the higher the risk offailure."

However, the phased approach may be difficult in practice becausepeople don't like change. "It requires an enormous amount ofindividual discipline to continue to have the feature set of theproduct you have in hand. The key is to go slowly, be very determined,and do it piece by piece," he advises.

This was exactly what Edward Keller did. It first implemented its SCMsoftware within the company to fulfil the basic needs of order taking,inventory management and stock taking; and then it slowly built upmore functionality like EDI and integration with other systems andcustomers. The modules also went "live" division by division. EdwardKeller is currently focusing on increasing its adoption rate ofadvanced planning software and getting away from manual processes inplanning, as well as on e-procurement initiatives with customers, suchas issuing POs via the Internet. "The next level is to focus on VendorManaged Inventory, as requested by one of our major customers, theHong Kong Hospital Authority. This means they will send us informationon their inventory level on a regular basis, and when we receive it,our system must digest it and recommend replenishments whenever stocksare below the safety level, for their approval before shipping thegoods to them," says Stephen Cheng, IS Manager, EdwardKeller.