Logistics Case: Walking out of the "Black Hole" with Yili

The "E" of traditional enterprises has always been a hot issue. The government is saying, the media is saying, and it vendors are saying that only traditional enterprises keep silent. There is a simple reason. Most of them are empty theories, and there are many problems when they are combined with the actual situation of traditional enterprises. Therefore, some people put forward the view that enterprise informatization is a "black hole": some enterprises have invested money in informatization construction, but the results are not satisfactory. No one knows what kind of return money will get, how much benefit it will receive and how much efficiency it will improve, which obviously violates the principle that traditional enterprises have always followed, that is, input will have expected output.

Recently, the reporter tracked and interviewed Yili's inventory and distribution system information transformation project. Through this example, we want to deeply analyze why traditional enterprises should adopt information technology for management and business process transformation, and how to "e". We believe that many problems encountered by enterprises in traditional industries such as Yili in the process of informatization construction are similar to those encountered by other traditional enterprises, so what Yili has done in dealing with these problems may be something they can learn from.

"urban farmers"

Before entering the topic of the transformation of Yili's inventory and distribution system, we have to talk about Yili's "MRPII exercise" in 1996, because this exercise close to information construction has brought too much thinking to Yili.

From the advertisement stickers of Yili ice cream, milk and yogurt that can be seen everywhere in the streets, to the series of dairy products such as Yili ice cream and fresh milk filled with shelves in supermarkets of all sizes, Yili's brand is almost a household name. Although it is in the traditional industry of dairy processing and manufacturing, Yili's management ideas and concepts are not as backward as those of traditional enterprises, which can be seen from the installation of MRPII system in Yili 1996.

From 1992 to 1996, Yili's products are mainly ice cream, and the production of ice cream accounts for 85% of the whole group's business. Because the commodity of ice cream has obvious seasonality, and the off-season and peak season are distinct, Yili is an enterprise without "buffering power" during this period. At that time, a couplet was popular in the group: the first couplet was "the wind is halved" and the second couplet was "no rain", criticizing "urban farmers" Yili thinks of herself as an urban farmer. Although she works in the city by mechanical production, she still depends on the weather like a farmer. This fully exposed the weakness of Yili Group's single product line and the lack of enterprise's ability to resist risks. Therefore, after the listing of 1996, Yili invested in the construction of the national cold drink production line at that time, and began to rapidly expand the scale of the enterprise and become bigger and stronger. In fact, Yili really became a national brand in 1996. At that time, Yili made an advertisement in CCTV, the brand was rapidly promoted, and Yili's cold drink products were gradually selling well. With the sales of products in different off-seasons all over the country and the establishment of cold drinks and milk powder business blocks by Yili, Yili got rid of the hat of urban farmers, and enterprises also had corresponding "buffering power".

With the growth of Yili Group's business and the expansion of enterprise scale, the number of employees has increased significantly, and Yili has become a completely labor-intensive enterprise. After listing, Yili began to consider moving towards high-tech enterprises. Of course, there is not much technical content in making ice cream and cold drinks. Yili is mainly from the perspective of improving production efficiency and saving resources. Thus, from 65438 to 0996, Yili caught up with the fashion and introduced and installed a set of MRPII (Production Resource Planning System). The system mainly helps Yili to realize the information management of purchasing, selling and storing and solve the supply management problem. Yili Group is still using this system, but there have been problems since its installation. According to the person in charge of this project in Yili, just like enterprises that have implemented similar software, there are problems of software adaptability and enterprises' own problems. This system cost Yili 2 million real money, although it solved some problems of raw material procurement and inventory, but it did not fully achieve the expected goal.

Looking back now, Yili Group implemented this ERP MRPII system in 1996. We have every reason to think that this incident shows Yili's "foresight" and pioneering demeanor in leading enterprise informatization construction, but according to the reporter's understanding, in fact, the implementation of this system does not proceed from the height of enterprise informatization construction, but only wants to improve work efficiency and reduce labor force. Therefore, the implementation of MRPII system should be regarded as a drill of Yili informatization construction, which really made Yili people spend money to buy "lessons". Yili management began to think seriously: where is the starting point for enterprises to carry out scientific and efficient management? What is the appropriate way?

The black hole of "Tiantiao"

"Southern Tour" made Yili's managers begin to consider and solve the problems faced by enterprises from the height of information construction.

Before 1998, Yili was in the stage of rapid growth. On the one hand, it benefits from the growth of the entire industry market; On the other hand, it is also very important, that is, Yili's capable leadership. Yili's management team consists of only four people: the President, the Vice President, the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, which makes the decision-making within Yili Group quick and concise. This kind of competent management directly determines Yili's unique management system. For example, Yili's "settlement center" and "business intelligence center" are all departments that can fully reflect this feature. According to reports, Yili's settlement center is an internal bank, and its function is no different from that of ordinary commercial banks except that it can't provide services to people outside the enterprise. There is also a typical example of Yili's management characteristics, that is, Yili's 20 "dogmas", which are formulated by Yili for internal employees. The first two words are almost "no" and are punished in strict accordance with the system, so Yili people call it "dogma". It is under the leadership of this capable leader that Yili has maintained rapid development and established a strong brand of domestic dairy industry. But readers must have noticed that at first, the reporter emphasized 1998 before. Why did he emphasize 1998? In fact, Yili still maintained a revenue growth rate of 30% in 1998, but this growth rate is somewhat insufficient compared with that before 1998. Yili strongly feels that the development of the enterprise is slowing down, and the problems exposed in the production planning and sales process are becoming more and more obvious. An example can well illustrate the problems exposed in the production plan: when middle-level leaders of Yili meet to discuss the production and marketing plan for the next quarter or year, the most common ones are lack of confidence and insufficient arguments. Because some people think that it should be increased by 40%, while others think that it should be increased by 50%. When asking the reasons in detail, they basically said, "The sales situation last year or last quarter was good and the development trend was good. It should be better than last year or last quarter! " On the playground.