Is Your Team Comfortably Uncomfortable?

Global industries are notoriously underserved by legacy ERPs and procurement products. These systems are built to look back in time, buy from a catalog of known cost items, and facilitate financial reporting. They are not built for operating an industrial facility and purchasing from an estimate of contracted services that leverage union labor, all for an event where the cost will only be known in the future.

The result is a fascinating display of too many players who are comfortably uncomfortable, as departmental politics loom on the sidelines.

What Does it Mean to be Comfortably Uncomfortable?

It depends on the role.

Controllers.

Controllers struggle with the accuracy of accruals and constantly chasing service providers for their accruals of costs to complete. Then, there’s the dreaded “surprise.” It’s completely counterintuitive for a controller to close a PO, a project, and the quarter, only to receive a huge unexpected work invoice months later.

“But will I be found responsible for it this time…”

Maintenance & Engineering Managers.

Maintenance and engineering managers struggle with routing costs to the proper work order owner so area managers can properly manage scope and cost. Charged with safety, quality, and schedule, it's astounding these roles also hold the responsibility to review hundreds–if not thousands–of daily cost elements for accuracy with gate, contracts, union agreements, and previous invoicing. These folks often sleep well at night simply knowing nobody’s hurt and production’s on time. Being the scapegoat for the impossible should a PO budget be blown, invoicing review is the least of their worries but they are uncomfortable with it nonetheless.

“I hope nothing I miss becomes a big financial mess or damages a key contractor relationship…”

Procurement & Contract Managers.

Procurement and contract managers strive to negotiate the best contracts with vendors, working to make the process of formation and execution as competitive and streamlined as possible. But when it comes time to ask the WO owners to review costs and ensure terms and conditions are met, they’re often unable to share the actual contract due to the sensitive nature of the agreements being siloed off in the facility.

“What if somebody comes and asks, and I have no way of sharing the info… “

General Managers.

General managers are often caught in the middle between corporate lists of performance relative to other mills. With questions around cost performance, production, and spend, they have limited visibility into the source of the cost to make changes and adjust for it. No general manager wants to be ranked last in the list of corporate performance metrics.

“What if I end up at the bottom of the list and it becomes clear that I have no visibility into the cause of the gap in order to fix it…”

Corporate Leaders.

At the corporate level, a lack of visibility with how mills operate is not uncommon. “We don’t know,” quickly becomes, “we don’t have this issue” as a shield against criticism and blame; this sentiment amplifies as mill managers hold substantial autonomy to meet their objectives within their assigned budgets. A corporate initiative that’s unpopular among facilities has little chance of success.

“What if I expose my limited ability to control what mills do and erode my position of power…”

Comfort Comes with Confidence.

And confidence comes from data that decreases the risk of making the wrong decisions.

Maintenance & Engineering: “I did my best with the tools my managers gave me but I know I am leaving money on the table. What they’re asking in terms of financial review is just not feasible.”

Pick that money back up off the table with a daily visibility into contractor spend, continuous budget monitoring, reporting, and documentation. Make easy comparisons between spend and actual performance, including gate accuracy, contract terms and rates, union agreements, and previous invoicing.

Controller & Procurement: “It’s their fault. They’re not properly managing contractor spend while coming to ask me about any new contract clauses.”

Take blame out of the game. Leave contract terms and compliance to PayShepherd for continuous automated validation. The platform’s contractor performance data and daily visibility into spend are your ticket to peace of mind.

Management: “Corporate holds me accountable to these metrics but doesn’t give me the budget required to secure the tools I need to achieve my goals.”

What if the right tool paid for itself many times over in cost savings while acting as your centralized command center for contractor management? PayShepherd is your automated, continuous monitoring tool that provides a system of records that informs and backs up your management decisions. Best of all, it’s easily integrated with your current ERP.

Corporate: “The mills need to own and solve this problem by themselves.”

Ensure the mills can effectively problem solve with daily data and performance reporting on their contractor spending. Take comfort in knowing PayShepherd delivers an average of 15% cost savings on company-wide contracted services spend.

How about being comfortably comfortable?

Learn how PayShepherd can empower your team to make the right decision every time when it comes to contractor and contract management.

Let’s talk!

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