Case Problem Analysis

 

Situation

Company X produces packaging materials for the food market and is part of a European organisation with sites in France, U.K., Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Czechy and the Netherlands. The organisation has implemented BPCS in combination with FLUID at a French site and a rollout to other European sites has taken place. Company X went live in the midst of 1999 with both BPCS and FLUID. FLUID is a Warehouse-management system development and supplied by the French software house TWS. The warehouse-system is interfaced with BPCS, an ERP system developed by SSA.

Problem

After having used both systems for over half a year, both users and Management are quite unsatisfied and frustrated. The different procedures that have been set up and used are not working smoothly, information is often late or not available at all, physical stocks are rising and the administrative stocks are incorrect. The implementation project, which was performed with great difficulties, is held responsible for all this. One of the main causes for this is that the French site, which was used as a pilot for the implementation, is an entirely different organisation. Secondly, not enough backing support was available during the implementation at Company X.

Mission

Obtain a clear view in the way the two systems BPCS and FLUID operate and create a project plan on how these systems can be integrated into the business operations.

Approach

First of all, interviews were held with the departments involved. During the interviews the current procedures were discussed and the problems, as people experienced them, were pointed out. From the resulting report, several conclusions were drawn. Also a list off issues and attention areas was created, divided into five main categories. The table below shows the areas for which the consecutive actions had to be carried out.

Department/Issue	Organisational.	Concern.	Training	Ref data	Software
Sales
- Contract maintenance	X				X
- Entering Call-of orders			X

Results showed that many of the problems were organisational issues. Especially the internal communication and usage of the correct procedures, left a great deal to be desired. Therefore the next step was to set up a Blue Print, in which the coherence between the different processes was mapped out. This Blue Print served as a red line for drawing up new or improved procedures.