Train Your Manufacturing Erp Software Users to be Successful

Jul.25, 2009 in Computers

The word “potential” is rarely used to describe the amount of success that implementing new software can have on a business. Many companies assume that they’ll be able to purchase and install new software and that they will immediately have new found success as a result. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. The truth is that the best manufacturing software in the world is only as good as the people that use it. In turn, the people that use the software are generally the best suited to use the software if they are properly trained.

The problem or concern is the fact that data can be input, edited, and processed any number of ways. Depending on what you’re talking about (project management, financial accounting, or more specialized applications), systems will vary drastically, so even those trained in old packages must be retrained when new software is purchased.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the quality of training and implementation may actually be more important than the software itself!

So how do you make sure that your end users are properly trained?

Essentially, there are three main ways that vendors offer training on their products. Of course, training can also consist of a combination of the following three methods, but for the purpose of this article, I will focus only on the following three training methods:

The three most common modes of training offered by most vendors:
1) On site (you company’s office)
2) At the vendor’s facility
3) Online, or a combination of online and one of the above.

On site (user location)

The main argument for on-site is simply that your company location is where the MRP software is going to be used and it makes most sense to train people in their home environment. You can also “read” people better as to how they are catching on to the new software?as well as their openness to new software. There is total focus on you and communications between staff are optimal when questions come up as they always do. You can also have hands on access to old reports, information, etc that is needed for setup and training. If you are away at a vendor’s location and only certain staff is there for training, it’s a lot more difficult to, say, get answers from executive management on how certain things must be done.

Additionally, a number of decisions must be made during the initial software setup that are much easier to accomplish when training takes place on-site. Things like job-cost or project-cost coding, payroll accounting, and purchase order tracking are good examples. A number of these decisions require specific information, which is, of course, much more readily available at the headquarters of the business that plans to use the software.

However, on site training has some disadvantages, namely cost and time lost. Since representatives from the vendor have to travel to your office, the training is usually scheduled for multiple consecutive days to accommodate their travel. This can be overwhelming to staff who will be short on time to complete their necessary daily tasks. Several days in a row of training also can result in a burn out where people don’t absorb all the necessary information after sitting in multiple days of intensive training sessions.

Vendor headquarters

Some vendors will not give you the option to do the training at your location and will require that you go to their headquarters for training. This can be successful if all key personnel are involved in the training and that the company can afford to pay for all their travel expenses. The vendor’s technical staff will be available if and when difficult questions come up.

Additionally, completing training away from home has the advantage of reducing the distractions that arise at the corporate headquarters.

Online Training

The final option is to complete the new software training online. This has the main advantage of being flexible in regard to scheduling the training sessions. Training can be scheduled when it won’t interfere with staff’s daily responsibilities and can be spread out over a longer period of time. Online training also allows users to advance through the training at their own pace - only moving on after they’ve mastered the previous principles and techniques.

In the end, there is not rule for determining which training method is best for your company since they can all be useful ways of preparing company personnel for software success. They key to making it all work is unqualified employee and management commitment based on realistic expectations of what has to be done and allocating the necessary resources to do it. You may also consult manufacturing software reviews for recommendations for the best training for the software package that you plan to use.