Abstract Baxter Manufacturing Company (BMC) is a family founded company. Started by Walter R. Baxter in 1978, the 140,000-square foot manufacturing facility is headquartered in the Midwest in the United States. Walter Baxter’s children work for BMC, Kyle Baxter is the President and his sister Sue Barkly is Vice President of customer relations. BMC is recognized as a world class supplier of tools, dies and deep-drawn stamping; serving customers such as: General Motors, Ford, Whirlpool, and General Electric. Baxter holds a strong market position and has maintained a 20% growth each of the nineteen years in business. In the 1980s business trends move to a Just-In-Time (JIT) system, this would streamline traditional business proving …show more content…
The strategy also calls for implementing a pilot system using a parallel strategy because it’s less risky and to also implement the pilot strategy a module at a time. Developing proposal for an in-house program using the IS department Collins, although new to BMC, has had twenty years of prior experience as a lead systems analyst of a larger manufacturing firm. He and four other programming staff members have successfully maintained the computer system at BMC. They have developed a minicomputer system that accepts the EDI orders without have to re-key orders. Due to their success, this has enlightened BMC managers’ to the possibility of the IS department developing a more extensive use of the computer. Collins proposes that Baxter should allow the IS staff to develop and build a manufacturing system that will be custom made to BMC’s needs. Within the case Collins clearly identifies key advantages of developing software in-house (refer to exhibit 1). With the custom application development taking place in-house, will allow the software to be developed and tailored around Baxter’s specific business needs. In-house development will allow business managers and end-users who will use the application on a day-to-day basis to play key roles in the development process (Brown 2009 p.375). Buy developing the software Baxter will need to develop a baseline for understanding what is
Forecasting activity being carried on by the principals of Fantastic for their business of ceiling fans marketing and assembling that was rapidly growing. Basic purpose behind making the forecasts was the decision on assembling and importing ceiling fans. The idea was to find a low priced, “assemble it yourself fan” from Taiwan and Hong Kong. These ceiling fans were cost effective as they reduced cooling cost during summer and heating cost during winter.
worth the cost of mistakes that come after. And third is they should have started to
MTC initially needed to obtain substantial investment capital due to two main factors: a research-heavy industry, and the need to create most of the markets for its products. Although the founders' goal was to become a major manufacturing company, they did estimate that the company would need $50 million in capital before it would become self-sufficient. Their initial financing model was to first recruit a superior technical team, use that to attract additional equity investment and development funding from interested corporations, and then develop manufacturing capabilities. Commercial sales began 2.5 years after inception, and MTC is nearing the break-even point in 1990.
When in-house developing is the option Atrium chose they would be satisfying their uniqueness for their business, or to do less changes to their policies and procedures, and to meet the constraints of their existing systems and technology (Rosenblatt, 2014, p. 268).
In our quest to ever better ourselves the IT department, of Riordan Manufacturing, is submitting this Request for Proposal to integrate a more sophisticated, state-of-the art, information systems technology in our Human Resources department. Riordan Manufacturing has always strived to better ourselves by keeping up with technology in all of our operating systems and our manufacturing systems. Our goal is to remain at the forefront of the manufacturing community as we keep leading the way in all of our business systems and, at the same time, keeping the feel of a customer friendly company. We want to make
As recognized by leading research and consulting firms with knowledgeable, skilled management, advanced state-of-the-art IT affords extraordinary opportunities for greater efficiencies, cost reduction, higher productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Sophisticated IT applications realize their full potential with highly specialized technical knowledge and management skills readily available only in smaller firms focused primarily or exclusively on such applications.
The process efficiency of purchasing order release was also restricted by BAL’s existing IT system. Though BAL had capability to electronically cut purchase orders to larger suppliers via web-based online tools developed by these suppliers, BAL’s current legacy system was not supporting its interfaces connected to suppliers’ web browsers and thus resulted extra manual work to feed ERP system.
This is a case study analysis on Nissan Canada Inc. (NCI) and its plan to move from a “make to stock” to a “make to order” process and the implementation of NCI’s Integrated Customer Ordering Network (ICON). Involved in the implementation of ICON, NCI is faced with several challenges in the conversion of its outdated ordering process to Manugistics, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. (Hunter, 2007)
For custom software development it requires major participation from the business team to define and train the development team about the process and workflow design. Even after all the great efforts getting all the required functionality would be challenging. With “Software off the shelf” business users spends some time initially to understand and define the new business process based on the current process. Once it is defined and system has been configured it would be easy to maintain.
The new business process and integration tool also offered real-time visibility into its extensive manufacturing process, including tracking inventory, handling billing and monitoring vendor performance for on-time delivery and other measures. The system was fast, reduced errors and improved efficiency.
It might not be in the retailer’s best interest to perform such upgrade, as the new system will replace three of the existing legacy systems in terms of ordering and fulfillment. The IS department will perceive such upgrade as a radical move and is expected to show high resistance in response to it. Even though Zara has a decentralized decision making process, the retailer’s IS department exercises absolute autonomy on the IT infrastructure and design. The fact that “only one person had left the department” in the past 10 years further confirms that the retailer is suffering from cognitive and action inertia, and thus creating a huge barrier for such
I know you looked into reusing one of the older systems we installed. I need to know what became of that effort. How do you think our customers will view this situation and what do you think is the best way to proceed? Character #2: Lucas Moore - Vice President of Manufacturing We are still using outdated technology for our scheduling. The industry has passed us by in computer use for manufacturing and we are in danger of losing our reputation as a world-class manufacturer. My education and my experience with Don's new inventory system have convinced me that computer systems can significantly enhance our efficiency and improve our customer service. We cannot wait two years for a home grown system that will probably have to be upgraded before it is completed. I have had extensive discussions with EMS manufacturing specialists, read their literature, and seen the proposed systems demonstrated. I am convinced the system will do everything we will ever want to do. EMS assures me there will be no problem integrating their manufacturing system with our financial system and we can be up and running in six months. Purchasing from EMS provides many benefits including: 1. Six months to install an advanced system versus two years to develop our own basic system. 2. The upfront cost for EMS is $220,000 firm against an estimated $400,000 cost for in-house. 3. We will get a proven,
Q1. Based on the 2004 statement of profit and loss data, do you agree with Water’s decision to keep product 103?
As the new technology and fast evolution of software, keeping information system efficiency became a challenge. On the enterprise side, the company’ operation, inventory, and logistics systems are the key to success. On the customer side, the high quality and satisfied experience from the user interface is very important. Moreover, the establish and develop a new technology is costly and different.
There is a long term vision concerning the information strategy of the IT systems utilized by integrated manufacturing at Stryker Instruments. A thorough understanding of the organization, management, personnel, and the technologies that comprise the system was required to develop the information strategy of the company. The IT system employed by