Minimizing the Human Capital Aspect of Productivity Disruption During Implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning System

<p>The Air Force is investing a great deal of time and money in development of the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS) an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. When implemented ECSS will completely transform the way the logistics community does business. It will reduce 400 plus legacy systems to just one enterprise wide system as well as touch every process we operate and make major changes to most of these processes (Dunn 2007). With any process change as large as ECSS there will be a dip in productivity during implementation. In order to minimize the productivity dip it is necessary to have a realistic expectation regarding depth and duration of the dip and understand the factors that contribute to the dip including how to manage them. The literature identifies what typical productivity changes look like over the duration of an implementation but does not specifically address the factors that contribute to the dip. The intent of this study is to identify human capital factors that affect the dip. Then using a multiple case study methodology the study empirically tests how well the identified factors compare to what companies who implemented ERP systems actually experienced. Finally this study identifies how companies can address human capital factors to minimize the dip.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>