Changeability of Production Management Systems

Modern production management systems consist of transaction processing systems and decision enhancement systems. A clear example of two such components are an ERP systems and APS systems. These systems are often standard software systems, and therefore suitable for many different situations. This paper analyses the combination of ERP and APS from the perspective of change. The paper builds on a classification of ERP-APS integrations and an analysis of changeability of ERP systems. The paper elaborates on issues encountered when changing ERP-APS integrations. The main conclusion is that such changes are technically complex because of different technologies and different data models used. Therefore, end user education and training is emphasized Moreover, they are organizationally complex because many stakeholders are involved.