Crosby Manufacturing: A Case Study

One of the most critical success factors for Alcan, the global leader in discrete and process metal production, selling and service-related businesses, is their supply chain. Sourcing the right materials, from approved suppliers, at the most economical price and having them delivered at the right time is a continual challenge for Alcan and members of the industry it participates in. Bauxite is one of the most critical raw materials there are to the production process for Alcan, and as a result they are engaging in mergers, acquisition and a variety of sourcing arrangements to ensure they can continually gain access to this strategically important material. As of the period of the case study, Alcan had generated $23.6B in revenues across 61 different nations, employing 68,000 associates. Alcan had, in the time period of the case study, created an effective IT governance plan that suited their distributed operations well. IT systems had been however become more fragmented and over time led to a more siloed organizational and information flow structure, leading to greater inefficiencies throughout the entire company. No real governance was in place to monitor and evaluate additional systems being integrated into each specific system leading to over 1,000 duplicate systems being created during the timeframe of the case study. Worse, nearly 40% of these systems were for pricing analysis, leading to 400 separate systems for price analysis

This way the IT department can understand what the higher level and lower level employees need for system stability and a better graphical interface. Another plan of action would include the method of Systems Development Life Cycle or SDLC. The phases of this method are planning, analysis, system design, implementation and operation. First we must plan on what exactly we are trying to accomplish. We know we need to upgrade the Riordan Manufacturing system. Next we must analyze the system and look for problematic errors. A project proposal can be essential to launching a system analysis (Farah, 2013). These are things to keep in mind: understand the business situation or problem, understand the significance to the problem in the organization, think of alternate solutions, the use of computer information systems for solutions, find people interested in the solving the problem (Farah, 2013). This plan is used to decrease redundancies, errors, and increase security. Finding all the weak spots in the company will help in the improvement of integrating an updated efficiently functioning system. Feasibility is important to account for when upgrading the system. Integrating a CRM will help to work with customers and understand their needs and wants to benefit the company and the relationship with their customers. Designing the system will involve knowing what kind of software is needed to store and

In my opinion, Kudler Fine Foods could benefit from a holistic Finance and Accounting system that will allow for better compatibility with the company’s other systems. The current system has a module for each major function and each module has to maintain compatibility with the other modules. If any upgrades or changes were to be made on any of the other systems in the company, all of the separate modules of the Finance and Accounting system would need to be compatible. This means that there is a greater expense in upgrading or changing any other system in the company because all systems must be connected to the F & A system. A holistic system that can provide all of the necessary functions needed by the company all in one program and streamline the process and minimize the costs of upgrading systems anywhere in the company. In the long run, it would be less costly to first upgrade the Finance and Accounting system before any other systems are upgraded. Then the other systems can be tailored around the Finance and Accounting system to ensure compatibility and to unify the company’s business systems. The alternative

This paper analyzes Rock Solid Industrial Parts, Inc. using the McKenzie 7-S Model to clarify some of the key issues facing the company today and also identify the key to success for the company in the next few years. The analysis concerns the elements of strategy, structure, systems, staff, skills, style, and shared values that are important to the organizational performance. Based on the analysis, some changes need to be made to align with company 's needs to achieve its business objectives. The analysis provides recommendations for the implementation of new modern IT solutions to accelerate the growth of the business. Rock Solid Industrial Parts, Inc. will move forward in the industry with IT solutions for their business needs.

a. Based on an analysis of sales, total assets, and pretax net income, an amount of $70,000 will be used as a measure of planning materiality.

The major elements are cost efficiency, eliminating wastes, and researching future IT investments. In the IT Doesn’t Matter article, three main points were outlined, and they were spend less, follow, don’t lead, and focus on vulnerabilities, not opportunities. Overspending has always been a major issue in regards to applying new technology, and it is important to execute an IT budget for any organization. Office Depot adopted new technology to improve all of their operations, especially in the supply chain. They were able to increase efficiency, while modernizing their budget. Information technology can benefit any organization if they are researched thoroughly and will improve the business needs of the organization. If it will not improve the business needs, there is no need to invest in expensive technology. The most important phase in the system development life cycle is the systems analysis phase. The goal of this phase is to identify what problems need to be fixed and breaking down how the system will benefit all users. Therefore, the business needs need to be identified and outlined before new technology is adopted into an organization’s business model. Once new technology is applied, organizations must continue to research information technology. If organizations follow these elements of

If management is looking to improve production at the machines before product assembly, they should concentrate on reducing wasted employee time. There is a lot of wasted time at the drilling and grinding machines, even though there are a lot of these machines. Either there are not enough employees, the employees are not utilizing the machinery efficiently or the machinery should be updated.

The President of the corporation had the right to decide on a project manager by employing an individual that would off the necessary services needed by the government agency to complete the job. Mr. Livingston gave the management staff an opportunity to come up with the proper approach but they were unable to. In line with the project objectives, they will fail to come up with the right milestones, detailed schedules, and design review meetings and feedback necessary from the management staff. As the leader of an organization, you have to be able to choose individuals as leaders that will be able to perform the task efficiently and effectively with the corporation’s best interest in mind. Was his choice a mistake? Yes, I think that this was a major mistake in appointing Mr. Emary as the project manager because he had little experience in such a major task and something that the company was depending on heavily.   Though Mr. Emary was an outstanding planner and got the job done, this was not one of those times when you need someone with little experience leading such a major project and to make the statement that Mr. Emary had less knowledgeable then other on the project did not do much to console the employees of his competence on completing the task.

In this paper I evaluate my organization, XXX Corporation (also known as XXX YYYY), on multiple dimensions based on information obtained from three personal interviews with Information Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing as well as my personal experience and information obtained from the public website (http://www.XXXcorp.com). I begin with a summary, and then move into an analysis of our need for change. I provide specific recommendations, which if implemented, will enhance the performance of my organization.

Good communication is vital in any organization. Riordan Manufacturing Company is a multi-billion dollar plastics manufacturer, which makes good use of top-of-the-line technological equipment for its home base in San Juan. However, the multi-billion dollar company has yet to implement a solid technological foundation for its various other locations, they are: Michigan and Georgia. Each location has finance and accounting departments; however, communication is minimal between the locations because of a lack of proper software installments and requirements. The San Juan location failed to purchase the application source code from the vender to communicate with the locations in Michigan

Koala Tech, Ltd., produces office equipment for small businesses and home offices. Some months ago they started selling PFS 1000’s, which are a multi-function color printer, color scanner, color copier, and fax machine all in one. The PFS 1000’s originally received praise on its functionality, price, and innovative design. These accolades combined with Koala Tech’s reputation quickly led to a high demand for PFS 1000’s, which also created a backlog (Meredith & Shafer, 2013). Nevertheless, Koala Tech’s plant has been unable to meet this demand. So, Koala Tech’s president, Nancy Samuelson, is concerned about the backlog and has applied pressure on the plant manager to increase production. Conversely, the president has suddenly shifted gears since

Kerrie is the general manager for Access a very large organization that handles financial service. Kerrie works in the lending unit for Access and they provide lending products to small and medium sizes business. Kerrie has plenty of accomplishments to accommodate the top executive’s reason in her current challenge. Cutting cost is unpopular to any department dealing with the cost as this usually means more work with fewer resources. Kerrie knew that her strategy would affect employees so she sought the assistance of human resources to assist in developing a plan. Kerrie has proposed that her unit cut operation cost by 15 percent so that the organization can report positive earnings for the next quarterly. Kerrie has formed a team to work on

In this paper, the author will introduce a failure case of K-Mart 's IT modernization system project. In 2001, K-mart took $1.4 billion dollars into this project with the purpose of competing with its rival Walmart. The dream is beautiful, but the real work is cruel. After 18 months, the project was failed because of lacking of cash. What happened in the detailed for this project? $1.4 billion dollar is huge numbers, why it was still not enough to pay and distribute for this project? How did its project manager do in this project? What are the project problems? How can we learn from the failure of this case? The paper includes the case background introduction, the project development process, the problems in the project, analysis and

The Reynolds Company always had the ERP system dating back to their inception in 1985. Initially they had SHIMS. Then they migrated to SX.e in 2000 from Infor. Owner of the company, Donald Reynolds Jr., COO initiated the idea of migrating to new ERP system. They migrated

Information Technology (IT) budgeting has become a constant struggle for companies, both big and small. The speed at which technology becomes obsolete, management’s expectations for quick deployment of new technology, and a supplier’s change of their operating model to focus on “as-a-service” (Feldman, 2015) recurring revenue, greatly affect how IT departments approach their budget these days. Other factors such as; lack of company vision or one’s inability to see how their IT department fits into the corporation’s goals and expectations are all huge pitfalls for the IT manager. The inability for IT and finance divisions to