Introduction
This paper will describe the ERP Systems Implementation Project named STAR in Sony Barcelona Plant. The SONY Head Quarters would put Barcelona Plant as a pilot, and extend the experiences to the three European Plants even the global market. This paper will analyze the business situation in Europe and the problems in Ideal Factory as well as analyze the benefits and risks on continuing with the European STAR Project or defining an independent strategy.
Situation summary
STAR launched in mid 1997 in order to standardize the production and procurement processes, and apply information system in three SONY plants in Europe, however, the progress and results of the project was disappointing. Also, the Ideal Factory, which is with the initial arm of improving efficiencies and coordination among three plants in Europe, presented many problems and questioned by staff such as some plant managers. Therefore, Ferran Gil, the Plant General Director, affirmed that Barcelona Plant needed to define a new Plant model due to competitors' fast growth meant shorter production lifecycles and greater pressure in profit margins. There also have some different views on this issues.
Some problems of implementing STAR Project
1. Cost. Because the project was centralized in London, the transportation cost would be high when project members had to attend the monthly meeting. Also, due to high consumption in Europe, three plants may be too much for this area.
2. Satisfaction. Each plant has their own situation, thus it is hard to satisfy different needs among three plants.
3. Problems of Information system. The system was designed for materials management but other aspects were based on production, so it is hard to satisfy the flexible exception management. Also, due to three days of data transmission, the system cannot use the available data in real time. Moreover, the