This manufacturing ERP data migration scenario shows why product, supplier, stock and finance data should be inventoried, cleansed, mapped and reconciled before ERP test loads or cutover pressure starts.
This manufacturing ERP data migration scenario shows why product, supplier, stock and finance data should be inventoried, cleansed, mapped and reconciled before ERP test loads or cutover pressure starts.
This anonymised scenario is typical of an SME manufacturer preparing to move from a legacy ERP or finance system into a newer platform. The project is not blocked by software selection. It is blocked by years of product, supplier, stock and finance data that has grown around workarounds.
The company has product codes with inconsistent units of measure, supplier records with old payment terms, inactive items still used in reports, spreadsheet-based stock adjustments and finance dimensions that do not match the new reporting model. If those issues are discovered during cutover testing, the project loses time and trust.
Bad manufacturing data can delay go-live, damage purchasing, weaken stock reporting, create finance reconciliation problems and force users back into spreadsheets. The business ends up paying for a new ERP while still operating around the old data problems.
The first step is a source inventory across ERP, finance, stock records, supplier files, spreadsheets and reporting extracts. The next step is a data-quality review focused on the records most likely to break migration: product master, supplier master, stock categories, finance codes, open orders and balances.
From there, the business needs source-to-target mapping, owner decisions, cleansing priorities and reconciliation checks before test loads begin. Not every defect needs to be fixed before go-live. The important point is knowing which defects matter, who owns them and how they will be validated.
Matty Hatton is the founder of Digital Adaption, an ERP and data consultancy based on the Wirral. He has spent 15 years delivering ERP transformations for manufacturers, including leading the data migration on a £4.5m consolidation of four legacy systems onto a single Infor LN cloud instance for a 220-user group. He holds an MSc in Digital Transformation and IT Strategy from Manchester Metropolitan University and is Microsoft PL-200 certified.
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