Situation

Here’s an example of a task that is reflected in the ERP system as a single document but actually involves a lot of work and many performers. The main office of a company selling canned goods is located in Moscow, and the warehouse is in Novorossiysk. Accordingly, the next batch of canned peaches from Greece arrives at the warehouse in Novorossiysk.

Next, for clarity, let’s break it down point by point.

In Novorossiysk, at the warehouse, they open the box and see that the peaches in the jars are not in good condition, green in color, and of an unclear consistency. The warehouse manager calls the director of procurement in Moscow. The procurement director requests photos of the goods and other relevant information. He delegates to his assistant to send a complaint to the supplier. The supplier blames the transport company for everything.

Logistics specialists get involved, requesting information from transport logistics, who, in turn, request information from the transport company.

The transport company assures that there were no violations on their part.

All questions are redirected to the supplier again. Experts and lawyers get involved, preparing a legal claim.

The supplier admits fault, apologizes, and refunds the money. This entire lengthy story in the financial accounting system is recorded as a single document! «We got our money back.»

Solution

In Megaplan, in such a case, a task is set, for example, «Receive compensation from the supplier for poor-quality goods,» and the director of procurement is assigned as responsible.

Next, the person in charge breaks it down into subtasks — prepare a complaint, request data from the transport company, etc.

All participants in the process see the development of events and report on their actions. At any moment, if there is a delay, it can be immediately established for what reason.

Result

The leader needs an aggregated assessment of the situation. To get it, you need to ask all participants how things are going. In Megaplan, the leader sees the entire situation by simply looking at the task. In addition, there are additional tools for control. Key points in the course of solving the task can be marked as milestones — for example, in our case, you can set a milestone «the legal claim will be ready by a certain date.