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How can we understand what they are talking about? What is content? What is process? Let's use a metaphor to start understanding this.
Imagine a bag of apples. We'll use this bag of apples as our example for content.
Now, imagine a fork, a blender and a juicer. We'll use these tools as our example for process.
An apple can be processed in many different ways. Among them, you can squash them with a fork, you can purée them using a blender and you can juice them with a juicer. All the time, the content will remain the same: apples. But the way you process the apples will change the final outcome.
Now take this analogy over to thinking.
What you think is the content. How or the way you think it is the process.
Let's take a lightly uncomfortable example. Let's say you had an argument with a teacher when you were a kid and that episode marked you and let's suppose that you keep rethinking that episode over and over, seeing a movie of your teacher arguing with you and hearing his voice in your memory.
The argument itself is the content. The movie and the voice is the process.
What would happen if you started processing the argument differently. First of all, accelerate the speed of the movie lightly, so that it's playing at twice the speed. Next, blur it a bit and dim the lighting on the image. Next, pay attention to the accelerated voice, which is starting to sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Accelerate the whole thing until the sounds fades into a hum and the movie just becomes white light.
Now, how do you feel about it?
You altered the process, you altered the emotional outcome.
Now, why is this distinction important?
In most forms of changework, the therapist seeks to alter the content of his client's thoughts. Returning to our apples analogy, the therapist would suggest that his client process oranges or bananas. Sometimes, this is just not possible or even ethical. It might mean imposing or forcing your view of the world and your beliefs on someone else. Working on process makes it possible to retain full integrity and respect of the client's model of the world while allowing content shifts to occur naturally and spontaneously.
The motivational cliché “if life sends you lemons, make lemonade” illustrates the content-process distinction quite appropriately. Shift the process and you'll shift the outcome.
When we start speaking of modality distinctions in future posts, you'll learn all the ways in which you can modulate your own and other people's thinking processes.
Meanwhile, begin playing with the content-process distinction. Let's try a few games:
1. Process the thought of a train through your kinesthetic or “feeling” channel.
2. Process the thought of your mother through your olfactory or “smell” channel.
3. Process the thought of your final exams through your gustatory or “taste” channel.
4. Process the thought of your favorite food through your auditory or “hearing” channel.
5. Process the thought of water rehydrating all of your body cells through your visual or “seeing” channel.
Give these exercises a shot and let me know what you discovered!
One of the saddest things is a manufacturer who chooses an ERP software system that does not a fit with what they do. For example, a chemical producer who selects and implements software designed for a type of company which manufactures solid objects such as furniture. There once was a company that provided consumer packaged goods to the convenience marketplace who selected fish disassembly software. These are obvious mismatches. But the specifics may not be clear.
There are two types of manufacturing. There is discrete manufacturing, or a company that assembles products from widgets. There is also process manufacturing, or companies that blend liquids. Process manufacturing companies process formulas or recipes. While the majority of manufacturing is discrete (automotive, aerospace, or anyone else who builds component parts), there are a select group of manufacturers who are process manufacturers. These include food processors, cosmetics, chemical producers, paints and coatings manufacturers, and anyone else who deal with liquid or batch produced products.
What makes process manufacturing different from discrete? Process manufacturing uses formulations or recipes. A discrete manufacturer uses Bills of Materials (BOMs). A discrete manufacturer assembles along a routing, whereas a process manufacturer blends in a batch.
There are companies who operate in both environments and are often called mixed mode manufacturers. These manufacturers need both a process and discrete manufacturing system.
So what sort of ERP system works with these types of manufacturing modes? This can only be answered by looking at the markets these software companies serve. There are certain products which are clearly process, such as BatchMaster Software or Ross Software. These software deal with formulations, batching, and the other specific issues around process manufacturing. There are other software systems that are clearly discrete such as DBA Software, Intuitive, or Made2manage. These handle Bills of Materials, Routings, and specific discrete requirements. These are all systems that serve their niche.
When you get into larger systems, there is not a clear cut solution as they operate in Mixed-Mode. For example QAD software can handle both discrete and process requirements. Others that can do the same are MS Dynamics AX, Deacom, Ramco, and of course the Tier 1 players SAP and Oracle.
So the real lesson is to understand what you do first before looking at software. Are you a processor of liquids, or do you assemble individual items to create an assembled product? Knowing this will go a long way to help you properly choose software that fits you like a glove.