Games Workshop once again battles scariest monster of all: ERP gone wrong UK tabletop wargames maker Games Workshop's seemingly neverending battle with its own ERP implementation has entered another chapter, as global projects are delayed owing to the difficulty integrating the new system. In 2020, The Register revealed the Warhammer manufacturer was struggling with a Microsoft Dynamics ERP …
It'll be the same problems that afflicts many organisations implementing ERP, each department will have it's own requirements that either contradict other departments or pulls the implementation team in too many directions.
It's almost certain that most of the time has been wasted focusing on integrating legacy technology, so that the new technology can come online for one department, without the other departments shifting because they're not "ready" yet.
You are lost and entangled in a thick dark forest of poorly integrated business systems. Roll the dice.
1 - 5 : You spend one million gold coins to break free but end up even more entangled. Roll again.
6 : You free yourself and then step straight into a new trap. Roll again.
The problem is ERP is supposed to be the be-all , end-all, the way and the truth within any company, however name me one software product that's perfect and does exactly what's needed. Very few as compromises are always made, most are acceptable 'cos the implementation is often small scale and can survive. ERP however has to be "all things to all men", put up with people who've organically created the most horrendously intricate mess of processes and then you realsie that's happend across 17 unique depts in your own company!
Almost any ERP solution is screwed from the get-go as it's about to be dragged, beaten, torn, shredded, sewn back together and then finally put to work in a state that it can only just about function.
Someone from the C-suite can be the visionary while collecting requirements. No need to bother any workers about it.
Then the project can be wound down in complete silence when the implementation starts and people realise there is nothing they can do with multi-million system.
Properly handled ERP project takes years. Temptation to just quit it and purchase something that sounds easier from snake oil salesman is real.
Organisations will have to change the ways they work if they want full benefits from PDM. You can pick your poison but it will be painful anyway. If CEO is not a visionary that understands the value of the system, glhf.
Btw do you have time to talk about PLM (ERP+PDM)?
As it is they are now perpetually dependent on third-party VAR's to integrate with a system that is going to break at every update, or be made obsolete at the whim of MS.
Yes, initial costs would have been higher, but in the long run they will have been beholden to nobody, not to mention owning their own intellectual property rights. (Shareholders would approve).
Remember, this is a company that has been a game-changer in innovation, why couldn't that have extended to their IT?
This applies just as much to third parties brought in to implement such a system. Only more so, as GAW have absolutely no control over the comings and goings of said third party employees. Yes, they can put penalty clauses into contracts, but history is littered with examples of this going pear-shaped. I would think management would have no qualms in rolling their own.
IMO ERP systems are terribly complicated, it may look like a bunch of different databases stuck together with connectors, some predictive analytics and so on that make changes in other databases e.g stock is down, lead time is x, manufacturing needs y amount to meet demand, therefore order z now, but sales is expecting maybe a, from predictions b, .
But in reality it's likely that each of those sperate modules is going to have to be designed not just by software engineers but someone that understands the type of work and process that go into each space as a SME, i.e your manufacturing guy is not just going to need to know your processes, but everything about manufacturing engineering thgeories including edge case scenarios and how to work with software devs and architects. Decent size companies will balk at manufacturing their own CRM because of how tricky it becomes, thats just one module working alone, not slotted into a ERP system.
By the time you have done that your probably more a massive software house than an actual manufacturer of plastic monsters.
I greatly appreciate the humour behind the "injection moulding specialists" line.
Really gets to the core of the business - for all the grimdark, all the retail operations, all the multi-platform videogame licenses, GW makes plastic into shapes, with sidelines in book publishing and sublicensing their IP.
ERP never works properly, period. I'm not aware of any business that has ever successfully migrated or ran with an existing ERP without a whole bunch of bodge. Of course, crap being broken sells more software, too much reliability and one would go out of biz.
An org I'm not too far removed from managed to get to a point where it couldn't pay the payroll for multiple months, with obvious consequences.
So much depentds on the common sense approach. Resist the urge to do shortcuts and code changes. If you find yourself in a position where you don't even know what the implementation partner is talking about, change that first before making crippling decisions. Usually you're not the first company with this issue, find out what others did to solve it.
My diagnosis of ERP problems is that the Accounts Department are the problem.
Either they are narcissistic megalomaniacs who put their administrative convenience before what the organisation needs to do, or, the rest of the organisation are lazy luddite fuckwits and Accounts end up implementing it by default. Either way, the tail wags the dog.
Quite. Most of the original staff have long gone and moved onto other ventures, mostly for falling out with the corporate BS.
I'm old enough to remember when GW were a generalist provider, and both acknowledge and retail the existence of wargaming and RPGs outside of their own cult.
Homebrew is the very lifeblood of wargaming, and issuing cease-and-desists to those is ridiculous. Why shouldn't one produce your own scenarios for the game and stick them on the internet? Or army lists?
Hasbro of course are going the same road of nonsense with D&D, which is even more dependent on homebrew.
GW do have some good games, figures and designers; but the corp rubbish is what it is. Support other developers!
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