Following any data cleansing project, the challenge becomes maintaining ongoing integrity and consistency of the item master as new records are created and existing ones are modified. There are several strategies and solutions available for catalog management, yet the most common question companies ask themselves is, “Should we manage the catalog internally or outsource?” At first, it may seem more cost effective and realistic to manage the catalog internally, however, there

Although we constantly find ourselves promoting, educating, and focusing on the Material Master side of data cleansing, it is important to remember that the Vendor Master also plays a critical role in the maintenance, purchasing, and procurement process. Similar to materials data, the Vendor Master often becomes corrupt with inconsistent, inaccurate, and incomplete information. Through mergers and acquisitions, ERP implementations, and employee turnover, data is bound to beco

In general, most business cases for data cleansing are built upon the justification that quality data will deliver significant cost reduction and cost avoidance through the following improvements: Efficient Part Search Ability Maintenance Time Savings Accurate Reporting Capabilities Identification and Elimination of Duplicate Items Reduction of Excess and Non-Moving Inventory Reduction of Equipment Downtime Reduction of Maverick Purchases Reduction of Expedited Part Orders OE

No matter how big or small a company may be, an ERP implementation and Data Cleansing initiative can bring on a significant amount of change to all departments and individuals involved. One of the key factors to a successful implementation is to properly manage change throughout the company, ensuring a smooth and comfortable transition. 1) Clearly Define the Benefits of Change for Both the Business and the Employees When employees don’t clearly understand the benefits and

Defining a standard naming convention is one of the most important tasks in any data cleansing project. The naming convention acts as the foundation upon which all existing and future materials data will be built, ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout the item master. During the initial planning stages of a data cleansing project, it is critical that you and/or your service provider develop a standard operating procedure for naming convention and abbreviations. The sta

It’s no secret that every manufacturing organization has excess MRO inventory sitting around taking up valuable warehouse space and cost. So how do you tackle this challenge and dispose of that unnecessary overstock? First things first, you’ll need to clearly identify which parts are indeed excess and are safe to remove from the facility. This can be done through a detailed analysis of purchase and usage data. Typically the items of interest would be those that have been purc

For IMA, flexibility has always been our competitive advantage when it comes to LEVEL 1 - Cosmetic Cleanse As an primary-level cleansing service, the Cosmetic Cleanse will identify and standardize Manufacturer Names and Part Numbers, while assigning accurate Noun-Modifier pairs for efficient part identification. During the Cosmetic Cleanse, duplicate items are identified within individual sites and across the corporation, while items lacking critical information are flagged a

It’s no secret that every maintenance department has duplication within their Item Master. While some companies have done a great job minimizing duplication through limited user input, strict operating procedures and defined data standards, others have struggled to address the issue. On average, we see duplicate items range from 15-20% within a given manufacturing site, while the percentage of commonality across multi-site organizations can sometimes range as high as 25-30%.

It is no surprise that we often run into companies who have experienced a failed data cleansing project and no longer believe in the value that cleansing provides. It is unfortunate to hear about companies who have invested thousands of dollars in data cleansing projects, only to end up going back and correcting the data afterwards. When meeting with many of the materials, purchasing and procurement managers in these situations, we typically discover a few common reasons why

Selecting the Right ERP Solution With so many options available when it comes to selecting an ERP Software solution, finding the right one for your company can sometimes be a long and stressful process. Companies must first identify their own specific requirements and business objectives then determine which ERP solution offers the best features to suit those needs. Top10ERP.org offers an excellent free service, which allows companies to identify and compare best fit ERP Soft