Six ERP Failure Modes Self-Scan
Is your ERP data clean enough to trust a report, an MRP run, or an AI tool built on top of it? Twelve questions on the six data defects BBI finds most often in manufacturing and distribution ERPs. Get a data readiness score, a READY to DO NOT DEPLOY band, the exact check to run in your own system this week, and a one-page brief for your controller, your ops lead, or your vendor.
Negative quantities, ghost locations, orphaned BOMs, null lead times, stale cycle counts, shadow or duplicate vendors: the six categories BBI's paid ERP Data Pre-Flight scores. This free scan is the same instrument at self-check fidelity.
Your system
One ERP instance per scan. If you run two divisions on two systems, run it twice.ERP Data Pre-Flight Brief
One page: the six failure modes, your status on each, the AI or planning failure each one triggers, and the check to run in your system this week. Built from your answers and updated as you change them.
Email me this brief
Your score and brief are already on this page. If you want a copy in your inbox plus one short note per GROUND stage over the next six weeks, leave an email. One list, unsubscribe any time, no sales sequence.
Want the six modes measured on your actual data, not your answers?
The self-scan asks what you know. BBI's ERP Data Pre-Flight runs the same six categories against an export of your real tables, with a count, a value, and a decision trace per finding, and a remediation order. Fixed scope, fixed fee.
Fixing it yourself? The free ERP Toolkit has the Standard Cost Drift Check and the Shadow Spreadsheet Census, and the GROUND Instruments include a weekly Master Data Change Watch so the defects do not come back.
Questions people ask before they get here
Is our ERP data clean enough for AI or for a new reporting tool?
Check six things before you trust any tool that reads the ERP: negative on-hand quantities, inventory in locations that no longer exist, bills of material pointing at inactive or missing items, items with no lead time, cycle counts older than your policy allows, and the same vendor set up more than once. Any tool, AI or not, built on those defects produces confident wrong answers. This scan scores all six and names the check to run in your own system.
Why does our ERP show negative inventory?
Usually because an issue, a shipment, or a backflush posted before the receipt or the production completion that should have preceded it, or because a count adjustment was never posted. A negative quantity is an impossible state. Any planning or AI tool that reads it will plan against stock that cannot exist. The check is a simple report: all item-location rows with quantity on hand below zero.
What are the most common ERP data quality problems in manufacturing?
In BBI's own diagnostic work the six that recur are negative quantities, ghost locations, orphaned BOMs, null lead times, stale cycle counts, and shadow or duplicate vendors. Each one has a specific effect on planning, costing, or spend analysis, and each one has a report any ERP can run. That is why the scan is organized around them rather than around a generic data quality maturity model.
What is an orphaned BOM?
A bill of material that references a component item that is inactive, deleted, or missing from the item master, or a parent that no longer exists. MRP either errors or silently plans production it cannot build. The check: list every BOM component whose item is not active, and every BOM whose parent is not active.
How often should we cycle count?
Often enough that the count age never exceeds the tolerance your planners and auditors accept, and more often for high-value or fast-moving items. The failure mode is not the frequency itself but counts older than policy that the system still treats as current truth. The check: items whose last count date is older than your policy, weighted by value.
Does BBI see my answers?
No. The scan runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you copy the brief or ask for it by email.