Working Around Your Business Systems? That’s a Red Flag
- Kimberly Prevost
- Mar 27
- 3 min read
In manufacturing, efficiency, compliance, and visibility aren’t luxuries—they're lifelines.
So what does it mean when your team starts creating their own spreadsheets, skipping ERP fields, or cobbling together side workflows with sticky notes and third-party apps?
It means they’re working around your systems. And that’s a red flag.
It might seem like a sign of ingenuity, but underneath, it's an indication that your current business systems aren’t delivering what they should. Left unchecked, these workarounds can become costly, risky, and a threat to your long-term growth.
Let’s break down why.
🚨 Compliance Risks Multiply
Manufacturers operate in some of the most tightly regulated environments—whether it's FDA oversight for medical devices, FSMA rules for food, or ISO standards across industries. When employees go “off-system,” you risk losing the audit trail, traceability, and document control that regulatory bodies require. Liberty Grove reports that ERP systems reduce compliance risk by integrating checks and automations that flag out-of-spec activity and ensure documentation is captured at each step. If that’s happening outside the system, it’s not happening at all.
📉 Data Inaccuracy Compounds
Workarounds often involve manual data entry or disconnected tools. That means your dashboards, forecasts, and reports are built on fragmented, unreliable data.
And that’s a huge problem—especially when visibility into performance, costs, and supply chain logistics is non-negotiable.
Dean Dorton Consulting notes that an integrated ERP system eliminates data silos, providing a "single source of truth" across operations. Systems like SYSPRO reinforce this by highlighting how Embedded Analytics can enable real-time insights and smarter decisions—but only if the data is there.
🛠️ Workarounds Cost You More Than You Think
They’re inefficient. They're prone to error. And worst of all? They cost time and money.
The 2023 Manufacturing Leadership Council report found that disconnected processes were among the top five barriers to growth and digital maturity. If you’re paying for a robust solution, but people are bypassing it—you’re essentially throwing money at software no one uses. Workarounds mask system gaps, inflate IT support needs, and introduce duplicate work. That doesn’t scale.
🧭 What Drives Workarounds?
It’s easy to blame the user—but often, the system is the real culprit. When a business system feels too rigid, unintuitive, or unaligned with day-to-day realities, users will always find a workaround. According to LNS Research, 64% of manufacturers say legacy systems and disjointed processes limit their ability to adapt to new technologies and market demands. When teams feel their tools can't keep up, they’ll build their own workarounds.
So ask:
Does your system support mobile workflows?
Are interfaces clean and accessible?
Are people trained properly?
Is the system tailored to your unique workflows?
Systems like NetSuite and SYSPRO, for example, emphasizes personalized workspaces, mobile barcode scanning, and rapid response analytics to ensure the system adapts to the user—not the other way around.
💡 How to Respond to These Red Flags
✔️ Listen First
Survey your users. Sit in on workflows. Don’t fix what you haven’t diagnosed.
✔️ Invest in Training and Ownership
According to Gartner, up to 70% of ERP underperformance stems from lack of user adoption—not lack of features. Gartner also emphasizes that implementation and ongoing training are critical to ERP success, noting that a lack of user enablement is a common cause of project underperformance.
✔️ Modernize Where It Matters
If your system can’t flex to meet new needs, it’s time to upgrade—not abandon. Solutions like SYSPRO 8 offer scalable, modular functionality without locking users into painful re-implementations .
✔️ Lean on Experts
Use consulting services and implementation partners to align your ERP with current operations and future goals. The cost of getting it right is less than the cost of working around it indefinitely.
⛰️ There is No Elevator to the Top
Workarounds aren't innovation—they’re improvisation in the face of system failure. But they don’t have to be permanent. Treat them like flashing warning lights on the factory floor: pay attention, investigate, and take corrective action.
When your business systems work with your people, not against them, you unlock the kind of agility, compliance, and data clarity that today’s manufacturers need to win.
✅ Don’t let workarounds become the norm.
Ready to get real about what’s working—and what’s not—in your ERP?
Schedule a no-pressure alignment review with our experts today.
Kim Prevost
Director of Business Development @ MepApps/MepServices
832.832.0988 Kim.P@MepApps.com
Travis Rudel
PreSales, Implementation & Networking Engineer @ MepApps/MepServices
832.289.8001
📚 Works Cited
Liberty Grove Software. 5 Ways an ERP Helps with Compliance in Manufacturing. https://libertygrove.com
Dean Dorton Consulting. The Power of ERP in Manufacturing. https://deandorton.com
Gartner. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Insights. Gartner, 2024. https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/topics/enterprise-resource-planning
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