IF THERE'S A TECHNOLOGICAL "SILVER BULLET" OUT THERE, NOBODY'S FOUND IT YET. For years, manufacturers anticipated instant benefits when they installed new software packages. ERP, CRM, SCM-all seemed to promise a world in which production bottlenecks and late shipments would be eliminated by the powers of technology, and the lofty goal of pull-based manufacturing would be made easy, if not painless.

Wake up and smell the machine oil.

While new technologies can be helpful and sometimes empowering for production workers, they generally are anything but easy or pain-free. Many companies found that installing these complex systems, getting them to talk to other systems already in place, and then getting people to understand and use them, was a challenging and costly undertaking.

By contrast, process changes, both across-the-board as well as those made in continuing increments, often yield real gains in productivity, operational efficiency and expanded capacity.

Although some ERP buyers expected a magic transformation of the business, most found that the real payback came from longer-term process improvements. Because ERP systems were designed for the business top-down, they had scant real-world connection with the plant floor. By contrast, the plant was the setting for lean manufacturing initiatives and other process improvement efforts that were yielding their own significant gains, usually sans technology.