...Background Being a large commercial manufacturer of pipes and fittings, NIBCO Company and management has decided to seek better ways of conducting business within its management and opted to cut off from its old its legacy system and approach a modern and state of the art software (ERP) that integrates the entire organization departments into a single system therby making the running of the organization simpler. This report gives a preamble of how the SAP-ERP solution was successfully implemented at NIBCO by analyzing all the approaches used, the teething problems and how they managed to overcome the hurdles to be able to get a lasting and workable solution. Having sought for advice from Boston Consulting Group, NIBCO finally came up with a game plan of how it would execute the implementation of this software. ERP System There exist no single definition of an ERP systems, however according to Wong et al. 2005, ERP can be can be said to be a software package which makes integration of all the data flowing through the different verticals of the company to facilitate speedy and well coordinated processing of accounting information, steady supplies and efficient manufacturing and processing jobs (Wong et al. 2005). IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY Introduction One of the ERP models is the SAP businesses software, which apart from being an ERP can also perform applications like managing customer relationship, product life cycle management and supply management among many other...
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...1. Why did NIBCO decide to purchase an ERP system? 2. Describe the pros and cons of a Big Bang approach, versus a less risky rollout strategy. If you had been the IS head at NIBCO, what approach would you have recommended and why? 3. A triad of managers led the NIBCO approach. What do you see as the pros and cons of this approach? 4. Describe the project team roles and the characteristics of the team members sought to fill these roles. 5. Comment on the number of key managers that were selected to serve on the project team, and whether this was a success factor or not. 6. Critique the change management initiatives associated with this project. 7. Critique the distribution center consolidation plan in terms of increasing or lessening the risks of the ERP project implementation December 30, 1997, was the “Go-Live” date at NIBCO, Inc., a privately held midsized manufacturer of valves and pipe fittings headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana. In 1996 NIBCO had more than 3,000 employees (called “associates”) and annual revenues of $461 million. Although many of the consultants NIBCO had interviewed would not endorse a “big bang” approach, the plan was to convert to SAP R/3 at all ten plants and the four new North American distribution centers at the same time. The price tag for the 15-month project was estimated to be $17 million. One-quarter of the company’s senior managers were dedicated to the project, including a leadership triad that included a former VP of operations (Beutler)...
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...Hoang Class: Information System Development and Management Instructor: Vinki Loomba Assignment: NIBCO Case Study If you had been the IS head at NIBCO, what approach would you have recommended and why? NIBCO, headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana, is a privately held midsized manufacture of valves and pipe fittings. NIBCO’s objective was a plan to convert to SAP R/3 at all ten plants and the four new North American distribution centers at the same time. The price tag for the 15-month project was estimated to be $17 million. One-quarter of the company’s senior managers were dedicated to the project, including a leadership triad that included a former VP of operations (Beutler), the information services director (Wilson), and a former quality management director (Davis). During the initial months of the project, the co-leads worked with the IBM projects leaders to hone in on the scope, cost, and magnitude of the project in order to develop a final project plan with a realistic budget. The final project was estimated to be $17 million, which was 30 percent higher than the mid-summer estimate. One of the major reasons for the significant increase was the inclusion of change management costs that had been missing from the summer budget. About one third of the final budget was for technology infrastructure costs, including the R/3 software. Another third was for team costs and the education of NIBCO associates. The final third was for third-party consulting. There were also several major risks...
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...MBA 5401 Management Information Systems Lisa Thomas Case Study 111-5 Columbia Southern University With wanting to ‘Go Live” on December 30, 1997 NIBCO, Inc. had to put in a lot of hard work and man hours in order for this date to take off. NIBCO is a plant that produces valves and Pipes fittings and is located in Elkhart, Indiana. In 1996 NIBCO, had an annual estimated revenue of $461 million and 3000 on payroll. (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012, p. 468). With a 15 month time frame for the project and a princely$ 17 million budget, NIBCO wanted to change to SAP R/3 at all of their plants including the four new North American distribution centers while endorsing the big bang approach (Brown et al., p. 468). NIBCOs decision to kick start an enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems where mainly contributed to an old outdated system the company could not move forward. The departments all had different systems, many that were alike and repeated some of the same functions, which was a waste of time and money. With the systems not communicating with one another it resulted in the distribution not seeing what the manufacturing was doing and manufacturing could not see what sales and distribution was doing (Brown, et al., p. 470). It was very timely to correct the issues from disconnects and building custom interfaces which would not meet the deadline to improve productivity. The system required a lot of maintenance and required a lot of preparation and...
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...NIBCO’s “Big Bang”; An Sap Implementation NIBCO’s Inc. is a midsized manufacturer of values and pipe fitting headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana (Brown, Dehayes, Hoffer, Martin & Perkins, 2012, p.468). NIBCO had over 3000 employees and reported $461 million annual revenue. The company implemented SAP R/3 among its ten plants and four new distribution centers. Top management did not take the advice of their consultants concerning taking a slower approach instead of the BIG Bang approach, instead they decided to go along with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to eliminate the legacy system and replace them with integrated systems. There were four different types of legacy systems that supported the order entry, manufacturing, distribution and accounting functions (Brown et.al 2012, p.470). Different sections in the organization were using their own versions of manufacturing software package with separate database. NIBCO’s decided they needed standardized software across the company that’s how ERP package came about. NIBCO project was led by a team called the Triad. These were highly skilled managers with backgrounds in Information Technology. According to Brown et.al (2012), “The R/3 project team was called the Tiger team; Total Information Generating Exceptional Results” (p.472). The triad team member’s responsibilities were outlined using a triangle. Wilson was responsible for the technology, Beutler for business coordination and Davis for change management. There were...
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...Case Study 3 NIBCO’s Big Bang: An SAP Implementation 1. Why did NIBCO decide to purchase an ERP system? Because the firm’s recent major investment in information technology has been used for five years, it is too old. And the legacy systems and reporting tools could not talk to each other well. In order to deal with the “information poor” and meet the goal of becoming more global, NIBCO consulted Boston Consulting Group (BGG) for future information system plan. After recognizing and analyzing NIBCO’s current situation, BGG recommended the ERP system which can help NIBCO better move forward. 2. Why did it choose a Big Bang approach, rather than the 3-to-5 year plan suggested by the consulting firm? Firstly, the business initiatives were demanding a quicker implementation, 3-to-5 year is quite a long time. Secondly, some team members worried that the company would just get to the point where it would say “enough is enough” without executing the whole plan, they will just focus on this part but ignore the plan from the whole company view. And thirdly, some companies who had used the “go-slow” approach were not as successful as they expected, it is a little risky to spend 3-to-5 years to implement this probably not successful plan. On the other hand, the benefits of the Big Bang would be multimillion dollar operational improvements and reductions in inventory costs. And the consulting costs under Big Bang would be lower than the 3-to-5 year plan. 3. Describe...
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...of this book is the importance of information systems politics. To what extent does IS politics explain the situation that has developed at the Midsouth Chamber of Commerce? 5. The case involves what appears to be a fairly routine use of information technology to support a service organization. Yet the Midsouth Chamber of Commerce encountered major problems in bringing up its new system. Is there a lesson here for organizations seeking to adopt new information technology? What is it? 6. What should Lassiter do now? Case Study 11-1- Vendor-Managed Inventory at NIBCO 1. What was the catalyst for NIBCO to develop a VMI program, and why was it able to respond? 2. Describe what types of transactions are involved in NIBCO's VMI program. 3. What types of benefits have been attributed to the VMI initiative-for both NIBCO and NIBCO's customers? 4. What new initiatives would you recommend that NIBCO pursue next to continue to take advantage of its current IT capabilities? Case Study 11-2- Real-Time Business Intelligence at Continental Airlines 1. Describe "active" data warehousing as it is applied at Continental...
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...customers and vendors to fulfill orders and support functions. Tracking the correct metrics can help in pinpointing indicators of an organizations health, to do this we use several measurements. Most organizations start with revenue, profit, volume of sales, market share, ROI, manufacturing output and inventory levels. Companies such as Microsoft, Apple and various Big Data startups create software to track these metrics in real-time to enable managers to react and make informed decisions. These prompt decisions can have a huge impact from avoiding fraud waste and abuse to capitalizing on business opportunities in the business environment. The case study Vendor-Managed Inventory at NIBCO has great examples of how IT implementation can improve business and the metrics directly track how its done. NIBCO headquartered in Indiana is a worldwide provider of...
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...1 Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (A): The Role of the Operating Manager in Information Systems CASE STUDY I-1 IMT Custom Machine Company, Inc.: Selection of an Information Technology Platform CASE STUDY I-2 VoIP2.biz, Inc.: Deciding on the Next Steps for a VoIP Supplier CASE STUDY I-3 The VoIP Adoption at Butler University CASE STUDY I-4 Supporting Mobile Health Clinics: The Children’s Health Fund of New York City CASE STUDY I-5 Data Governance at InsuraCorp CASE STUDY I-6 H.H. Gregg’s Appliances, Inc.: Deciding on a New Information Technology Platform CASE STUDY I-7 Midsouth Chamber of Commerce (B): Cleaning Up an Information Systems Debacle CASE STUDY II-1 Vendor-Managed Inventory at NIBCO CASE STUDY II-2 Real-Time Business Intelligence at Continental Airlines CASE STUDY II-3 Norfolk Southern Railway: The Business Intelligence Journey CASE STUDY II-4 Mining Data to Increase State Tax Revenues in California CASE STUDY II-5 The Cliptomania™ Web Store: An E-Tailing Start-up Survival Story CASE STUDY II-6 Rock Island Chocolate Company, Inc.: Building a Social Networking Strategy CASE STUDY III-1 Managing a Systems Development Project at Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc. CASE STUDY III-2 A Make-or-Buy Decision at Baxter Manufacturing Company CASE STUDY III-3 ERP Purchase Decision at Benton Manufacturing Company, Inc. CASE STUDY III-4 The Kuali Financial System: An Open-Source...
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...ENGLISH ONLY COURT CASES INVOLVING THE U.S. WORKPLACE: THE MYTHS OF LANGUAGE USE AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF BILINGUAL WORKERS’ IDENTITIES KARI GIBSON University of Hawai‘i Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects against discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, sex, religion and national origin. However when the judicial system has examined English only workplace policies in light of Title VII, it has generally determined that such policies are not discriminatory if an employee is able to speak English. Although plaintiffs have argued that language is inextricably linked to national origin and cultural identity, the courts have stated that the use of a language other than English is detrimental to the morale of monolingual English speakers and a single language is necessary to ensure workplace harmony and proper management. This paper examines the court cases where English Only workplace policies have been challenged, and identifies the prevalent myths and ideologies held by businesses and the courts about language use, identity, and bilingual speakers. Through the process of homogeneism, linguistic diversity is rejected as monolingual English speakers are able to create and enforce rules that favor themselves as they construct the identity of “American” in their own image. Language is a central feature of human identity. When we hear someone speak, we immediately make guesses about gender, education level, age, profession, and place of origin....
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