Week 4 Learning Activity Paper Summary of Major Principles From Sources Provided
MIS301

In the video “Warehouse Robots at Work” I think there are two real principles that can be seen at play. The first is the importance of innovation. The warehouse business had been doing business the same way for many many years. People would fulfill orders as they came in and there were many moving parts and the potential for human error was great. Those in the industry who were willing to attempt to implement the new innovative robotic warehouse management systems were willing to take a step away from business as usual and uproot the culture of a warehouse floor with these new ideas. This ability to innovate and leverage technology proved beneficial. The second thing is how critical a SCM is to business. Only through sophisticated software controls which integrate with a robust SCM are these robots able to bring so much value to a business. Kiva describes their system,
“Using hundreds of autonomous mobile robots and sophisticated control software, the
Kiva Mobile­robotic Fulfillment System enables extremely fast cycle times with reduced labor requirements, from receiving to picking to shipping. The result is a building that is quick and low­cost to set up, inexpensive to operate and easy to change anywhere in the world.” In the video in the “If Programmers Made Planes” I think the major idea of this advert is continuous improvement. Unlike the airplane which cannot fly unless every component is functioning properly software can often exist with incomplete features or things that need

improvement. All modern software solutions should be designed /coded in a fashion which allows for easy improvement, bug fixing, and seamless integrations. The major principle of the video titled, “U.S. Postal Service on the Verge of Going Broke” is that the failure to adapt results in obsolescence. While there are many factors which have contributed to the decline of the postal service there are two which I think played the biggest part. 1. E­mail. 2. The ability of commercial delivery services to offer faster speeds and greater quality. The link to Merit Solutions “IT Strategy Management and Business Alignment” is pretty self explanatory but to sum it up, it is about making sure the IT works toward making it easier to accomplish business goals. Merit describes this as “proactively deciding what role IT will play in an organization and then optimizing resources to support those decisions”. The result is an organization whose departments are working in lockstep to accomplish their objectives. The last link provided details briefly the contingency plan AIG implemented when its
CEO fell seriously ill. Having a contingency plan that covers all reasonably possible happenings is critical for survival. Had AIG looked out of sorts or caught off guard by such an event it would have had have resulted in a lack of confidence from consumers and shareholders alike. In the business world, how well you are prepared for the unexpected be the difference between thriving and failing.

Sources: National University Videos: Warehouse Robots at Work , If Programmers Made Planes http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly­news/44402115 http://www.meritsolutions.com/strategy/it­strategy.html http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4391359/aigs­ceo­contingency­plan/ http://www.kivasystems.com/about­us­the­kiva­approach/