Information Scatter

You have until 5pm today to deliver an updated schedule and plan. Your internal team needs actionable data to decide how to proceed. Your value chain and outsource partners need an update ASAP. You have a significant investment in systems, data and processes. You need input from the whole team.

How hard can it be?

Assuming all the data to perform the task is on one place, not a difficult task. However, the information you need is scattered ... and you know it is going to take time as well as explicit knowledge of the assumptions and dependencies to deliver the new schedule and plan.

• Product dependencies, specifications and revisions are in the product lifecycle management (PLM) system (assuming you only have one system)
• The bill of materials explosion, manufacturing planning and scheduling are in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
• Procurement and delivery schedule details are in the purchasing / ERP systems; Purchase orders are raised and expenses recorded in the ERP system
• Resource and project planning is in the project management system (once again, assuming you only have one)
• Labor and time are recorded via timesheets in either the project management or ERP system ... maybe both via a recent acquisition where you are merging systems
• Contractual terms and conditions covering schedule, tasks, contingencies and penalties are in the enterprise contract management (ECM) system
• Earned Value Management (EVM) calculations are performed via another system

Finally, the only way to be able to pull all this together in the past has been to "hand-stitch" a series of spreadsheets for a summarized view.

There must be a better way than "human integration" at the eleventh hour ... and balancing the risk of capturing a real-time view of all the data, dependencies and assumptions.

Schedule visibility, predictability and accountability needs to be managed in real-time with integration to multiple disparate systems to provide continuing insight to answer the tough questions.