Why ERP?

What is Enterprise Resource Planning and why does it matter? Like The Goal, Why ERP? is a short novel about a manager in a furniture manufacturing business who is charged with learning about and implementing a new ERP system, SAP R/3. The story tells of his experience and provides a non-technical, non-programming introduction to the basic concepts and architecture of ERP systems.

• Preface to Why ERP?
• Acknowledgments
• I. Introduction to ERP
1. The Vacation Is Over — What Is ERP?
2. At the Plant — A New Opportunity
3. The Next Morning — It's Sinking In
4. Information Crisis — The Missing Desk
5. The Truth Is Out — It's Not the Software
6. Ohio Has SAP — Off to School
7. ERP Implementation? — A New Reason!
• II. The SAP School
1. First Impressions — Donuts!
• What Is SAP R/3
• What Resources Are Managed?
2. Introduction to R/3 — It Looks Familiar
3. A First Use of R/3 — Room Reservations
4. ""Best"" Practices — Business Processes
5. The War Stories — Why Implement SAP?
• The Jobs May Change
• Data Entry Issues
6. SAP Implementation — Accelerated R/3
• Project Preparation Phase
• Business Blueprint
• Realization
• Final Preparation
• Go Live and Support
7. The R/3 Views of the Firm — Some Detail
8. A Diversion — Dinner With Amanda
9. At Last — A Customer Order Demo!
10. Another Demo — Procurement
11. For Management — A Financial Application
12. Just For Billy — A Manufacturing Example
13. Crunching the Numbers — The Hardware
14. Providing Support — The Software
15. Course Wrap-Up — A Sales Pitch
• III. Back at the Plant
1. The Questions Continue — SAP in Carolina?
• Functional Integration
• ERP Implementation
2. Back at the Plant — Things Heat Up
3. Information Integration — Off to Ohio
• IV. A Different Business
1. High-Volume Efficiency — The Ohio Plant
2. An R/3 Success — A Pleasant Lunch
3. Back in Carolina — Ruth's Vacation
4. Decisions at the Top — A Mandate for the Plant
5. It Happens — Starting the R/3 Journey
6. The Aftermath — Ruth's Café Reopens

A good primer on the subject, which is written like a novel (the authors will never receive the Pulitzer or Nobel price), but in all, a decent book.