The average ERP implementation takes 17.4 months. Your business case assumed 90 days.
You signed off on a plant management platform expecting results this year. Then discovery runs long, configuration turns into a project, and the first operator doesn't touch the system until month seven. This one-pager shows what a 90-day deployment looks like in a food and beverage plant, week by week.
What 90 days actually looks like on the floor
Weeks 1 and 2 cover discovery and configuration against the forms your team already runs. Weeks 3 and 4 put the system in your operators' hands. By day 90, audit readiness is part of a normal Tuesday.
What's inside
- The 90-day timeline: what happens in weeks 1-2, weeks 3-4, and by day 90.
- Day 40 go-live: how one pet food plant launched 50 days ahead of a hard deadline.
- Week-one output: 2,180 quality records logged across 20 forms in the first week live.
- Floor-level proof: end-of-shift reporting cut from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes after paper.
- Three vendor questions: what to ask before you sign, and what the answers tell you.
The BRC auditor said this was the smoothest and easiest audit he has ever conducted.
Why the implementation timeline is the whole business case
A 17.4-month go-live means your ROI clock doesn't start until year two. Nucleus Research puts median payback on a typical ERP investment at 2.5 years. Every month of configuration before go-live is another month your plant runs on the process you were replacing.
Three questions for your next vendor evaluation
The one-pager closes with the three questions that separate a 90-day deployment from a 12-month one. Ask them before you sign.
