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not yet shown up clearly, as they could only come to the fore with smaller jobs
than Oakland is currently running. This has led to a difference of opinion with
the Financial Director, Chris Duncan. Duncan has no imagination and makes
no secret of his opinion that you are indulging yourself with expensive and use-
less toys.

>> SAM NEWTON: SALES AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
In a few minutes, you will be attending a meeting of a working group chaired
by Alex Rheingold (your MD) to discuss the possible adoption of an ERP sys-
tem in Oakland. The meeting will include a consultant’s presentation. You are
responsible for sales lead times and customer care. You are very worried about
the image the company gives to customers. There is total confusion over deliv-
ery times at present, partly because Oakland’s products are in demand. There
are often 1000 telephone calls a day enquiring when orders are going to be
delivered. This absorbs a lot of unproductive time just chasing things up. When
an irate customer phones to enquire about their order, one of the sales clerks
has to go down to the assembly shop floor and literally look for the items of
furniture, going round all the work benches asking the people there if they had
completed that order. Sometimes it is a matter of checking even further back, to
see if the piece parts required are available. Meanwhile the customers hanging
on the phone are not always too impressed.
Oakland is currently quoting 20 weeks’ lead time (an improvement on our
previous 25 weeks), but it often seems more a matter of luck than planning if they
are able to achieve that. This leads to constant interruptions of fabrication work,
and ties up a team of ten people who do little else other than progress-chase and
expedite crucial orders. However, Oakland is highly regarded for quality, and all
of the ranges sell well. Indeed you could probably sell much more if lead times
were reduced to a level similar to those of our competitors, some of whom are
quoting ten weeks. In this connection, Oakland’s bespoke and ‘specials’ service
is a nice sideline (very much Gregory’s baby) and certainly gives you market
prominence, contributing significantly to the firm’s reputation for high quality.
You are also well-aware of increasing demand for such products. But it does add
to the confusion on the shop floor, sometimes interrupts other standard batched
jobs (fitted bedroom and kitchen furniture is a big seller), and tends to take raw
material unpredictably, thus leading to shortages. Other competitors have simi-
lar problems, although some have reduced their lead times to ten weeks, while
others try to offer a guarantee on the lead time they quote. As a result of the
lead times problem, you tend to inflate sales order forecasts, so that more piece
parts stock is held. Then the final assembly stages can be more quickly carried
out. In this context, ERP is an intriguing proposition. From talking to sales
colleagues in companies that have introduced some form of ERP system, it has
both positive and negative possibilities. Speaking positively, the ERP system is
driven to some extent by ‘demand management’ where forecasts of future sales
are important. This may gave you more strategic influence within the company.

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