The pressure to do more with less in the manufacturing industry is not going away. Teams are being asked to improve service levels, reduce costs, protect margins, manage labor constraints, and support digital transformation, often without adding more people, tools, or resources. In the latest episode of MetaPod, Ron Crabtree speaks with Martin Rowan about how manufacturing and supply chain organizations can get more value from the ERP systems they already own.
One of the first major issues Ron and Martin explore is operational drift, which occurs when an organization gradually deviates from the way its ERP system was designed to support the business. The problem here often starts at implementation. Many ERP projects define success as simply going live, keeping data accurate enough to ship product, and avoiding customer disruption. But once the system is live, organizations often fail to keep investing in data quality, governance, user education, and change management. Over time, people return to old habits, build workarounds, and rely more heavily on spreadsheets.
The warning signs are easy to spot. If planners, schedulers, buyers, or other team members are spending most of their time in spreadsheets instead of working inside the ERP, the system is no longer functioning as the central operating platform. It may still record transactions, but it is not guiding decisions. As Martin explains, this drift leads to hidden costs. Companies start adding buffer in the form of extra inventory, extra lead time, extra people, and extra manual effort. This may feel like a short-term fix, but over time, it creates margin erosion, working capital challenges, trapped cash, and scalability issues.
A key metric discussed in the episode is the number of exceptions users are dealing with each day. The issue is not that exceptions exist. Things change constantly in manufacturing and supply chain operations. Suppliers are late, customer demand shifts, production schedules move, and materials become unavailable, so some exceptions are normal. In a well-managed ERP environment, exceptions act like alerts, telling the team when something is off, such as a date, quantity, lead time rule, or a transaction needing attention.
The real problem starts when exceptions pile up to the point where users are no longer able to work through them. Martin notes that if a person has more than 1,000 new exceptions related to their role or materials in a given day, they likely do not have control over their environment. A healthier standard is whether the person can work through their exceptions within the day, often in the low hundreds, depending on the business. This shift matters because exception-based management allows teams to fix root causes instead of constantly fighting fires.
ERP systems depend on rules and data to make recommendations. If the data is inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete, the recommendations become unreliable.
One common issue is open transactions. Old sales orders, purchase orders, production orders, goods receipts, or warehouse movements can remain open long after they should have been closed. The ERP may continue to treat those transactions as active, which can distort demand, supply, planning, and available-to-promise accuracy.
Martin suggests transactions should generally not be older than seven days in a strong supply chain or operational environment. When open transactions stretch back months or years, the system begins making decisions based on cluttered data, which directly impacts customer service. If available-to-promise dates are based on bad data, companies may overpromise, underdeliver, or rely on broad standard lead times instead of giving customers accurate, competitive answers.
Martin emphasizes that maturity is determined by how well the company uses its technology to achieve its goals, not by how old or sophisticated the company is. At lower maturity levels, companies may:
At higher maturity levels, teams can optimize, improve continuously, and connect ERP use directly to business value.
It is important to note that this does not mean fixing everything at once. Ron and Martin discuss the value of using an 80/20 approach, starting with the product lines, materials, or business areas creating the greatest impact, then iterate from there. However, the organization still needs to think cross-functionally. Procurement, production, sales, warehousing, and leadership all need to understand how their decisions affect the end-to-end process.
While ERP optimization may be seen as simply an IT issue, the reality is that it is also a leadership issue. Companies often invest heavily in technology and then expect people to “make it work,” but if teams are not educated on what good looks like, how to use the system properly, how to manage exceptions, and how to maintain data discipline, the technology will never reach its full potential.
AI will not solve this problem on its own either. As Martin explains, if AI is layered on top of poor ERP data, weak rules, and bad behaviors, it may accelerate the chaos. The better path is to build stronger governance, improve data integrity, raise user knowledge, and create clear accountability for the people managing the process.
The bottom line is that manufacturers do not always need another system, another workaround, or another software investment. In many cases, the opportunity is already sitting inside the ERP they already have, and the key is learning how to use it better. If you have further questions or want to learn more about how to get more value from your ERP system, you can get in touch with Martin by connecting with him on LinkedIn or visiting revealvalue.com. You can also get in touch with Ron via email at metapod@metaexperts.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.
MetaPod offers a wealth of knowledge and expertise for operational executives and organizations seeking to optimize their operations and supply chains, as well as common challenges such as digital transformation, the forever labor shortage, and doing more with less. Listen and subscribe today for more insightful and engaging discussions on operational excellence, leadership, growth strategies, and organizational transformation.
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