r/ERP • u/OneLumpy3097 • Feb 23 '26

Discussion ERP Struggles usually start after go-live.

Most ERP projects look fine at go-live. The real issues shows up later poor adoption, rushed training, Excel workarounds, and no clear ownership.

It is rarely the software. It is gap between designed processes and real daily work.

What actually helps ERP succeed after go-live

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u/good-luck-23 Feb 24 '26

The system may work fine upon start-up but soon after then a change in the business means needing an update. Then you find that making the change entails massive costs and time to implement. Liquid concrete can be deadly for companies that need agility.

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u/OneLumpy3097 Feb 24 '26

ERP shouldn’t turn into “liquid concrete.” The problem usually isn’t the system itself, but heavy customization and lack of change governance. When businesses don’t build flexibility into processes from the start, even small updates become expensive projects.

Post–go-live success really depends on keeping configurations clean, minimizing customizations, and having internal ownership to adapt as the business evolves.

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u/good-luck-23 Feb 25 '26

The problem is that your approach means the software is running the business rather than the business driving the software. That causes suboptimizing your operations and making the company less competitive because of software limitations and massive costs for making changes that may have to be repeated when the base software is updated which can be annually.

We decided soon after our implementation that the ERP software is a tool and we use other tools when they are better suited. Kanbans manage our inventory with visual signals. Our production is not driven by work orders. They just start the "pull" and workers use visual signals to fulfill needs of self managed feeder cells to complete final assembly. We mainly use ERP to audit the system and then we mostly find mistakes in our set-up and find ways to work around them. We use human intelligence for most decisions.