Lisa Ryan: Hey, it's Lisa Ryan. Welcome to the Manufacturer's Network podcast. Our guest today is Nick Foy. Nick is the founder, CEO, and Chief Evangelist of Silverdale Technology, which provides access to world-class processes, systems, and change management methods, regardless of the size or budget. Democratizing ERP, he has over 30 years of experience in business and technology consulting and leadership positions, focusing on logistics and supply chain. Nick, welcome to the show.
Nick Foy: Thanks, Lisa. It's great to be here.
Lisa Ryan: Share a little about your background and what led you to do what you're doing with Silverdale.
Nick Foy: Yeah, like you said in the introduction, I usually say it's been 30 years, but I probably should increase that a little now. I've been saying that for a couple of years now. It's time I revised that number. But my background I started on the manufacturing line. That was my first job in the manufacturing line, producing video recorders.
And I'm guessing some of your listeners aren't going to know what the hell I'm talking about. Whatever the hell is a video recorder, and why would you make one? That was my first job. I probably got sacked from there after three months for being a disruptive influence on the production line, and I'm pleased to say after 30-plus years in the industry, I'm still doing the same thing.
Lisa Ryan: Is that disrupting things?
Nick Foy: Absolutely. Asking questions, pointing things out, and making changes is what I do. As I said, I started on a video recorder production line. I then moved into what every good Scotsman does - I ended up working at a whiskey company and worked a lot in production and logistics in that in that business for six years, and then went down into third-party logistics and which was a great experience., and then, found myself in consulting. I worked for some great clients, such as Kellogg's, doing manufacturing and lean manufacturing with them all over Europe. I eventually ended up at Amazon and spent five years at Amazon doing some great projects there.
Three and a half years ago, I founded my own company here at Silverdale, which is about bringing together the 30-plus years of experience that I have and helping companies that I've seen over the years, just like those, get into ERPs and systems and helping companies with process design and implementation.
Lisa Ryan: Can you explain what ERP is and why it's crucial for businesses?
Nick Foy: ERP is such a horrible phrase. Anyone who's not in the ERP industry doesn't call it that. It's a ridiculous phrase that we use internally. And when we say ERP, it stands for enterprise resource Planning.
Now, that doesn't mean anything, either. We all know what those three words mean individually, just not in that order. What we're talking about is we're talking about a set of tools within a system that helps you to manage workflow to help give you a single view of the customer, a single view of your business, where all your data is connected, regardless of whether it's customer or product, bills, and material, whatever those things might be.
Having it all in one place so you can make better, faster, smarter decisions. That's what an ERP is. And it's designed to replace a whole myriad of different systems out there that many companies are using if you get it right.
Lisa Ryan: Regarding manufacturing, which is the show's focus? What should leaders in a manufacturing company look for to implement an ERP system?
Nick Foy: If I were a manufacturer, some of our clients are very much into light manufacturing but also very heavy manufacturing. I recommend that you don't look at it in isolation from a manufacturing
