Integrated Logistics Core Process Redesign - Case Study Example

Integrated Logistics Core Process Redesign Siemens ROLM was a subsidiary owned by a Germany Giant Corporation Siemens AG. ROLM was involved in the production and development of Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems. These systems were involved in the production and designing of communication tools, generation of power and information systems. During the year,1990’s the PBX suppliers faced hard times in the market due to competition from their rivals AT& T and Northern Telecom. This competition made PBX to get into price wars and cutting down the prices of the PBX hardware commodities in order to maintain their market share.They expected to make profits by increasing the production rate, add-ons, and services. ROLM business rivals turned the market in to a commodity business by adopting a high volume business strategy (Stoddard and Jarvenpaa, 1995).They wanted to take the advantage of all the economies of scale for generating profit. RPLM differentiated itself in the market by providing its customers with facilities for more flexibility and customization. Siemens ROLM success depended with a number of enablers. Siemens ROLM management was willing to benchmark its processes with other Giant corporations. They aimed at restructuring the whole company. This was a difficult project since it involved radical changes. The management awareness was a critical enabler to ensure that the reengineering process was a success. This awareness was a process from the beginning of the project to when the company began to yield substantial profits. The process begins when the management recognizes the need to adopt change to improve the operations of the enterprise. At his time the management knowledge and understanding is minimal. With time the management understanding shifts to another level where they understand the business process idea and how the can effectively adopt and bring change within the company. After the management has adopted the process, they clearly identify the company’s vision and then have a different view of the processes not as a project but a way to run the business (Stoddard and Jarvenpaa, 1995).According to the case, the integrated logistics core process-reengineering program instigated on August 1992.This logistic was viewed as a cycle from the initiation until when the equipments were operational. The customer focus is another important enabler that Siemens ROLM focused on. At the beginning of the reengineering process, the employees are uncertain of how to meet the customer needs. This is due to change of products they are offering to their customers this tends to be difficult to determine the needs of new customers in the market. The employees also realize their aim top deliver extraordinary products and also realize that customers demand uniform excellence in the product quality. They later build up a relation with the trading partners to meet he needs of the final customers.According to the case, ROLM had the reputation on focusing on its customers at whatever cost. ROLM gave its customers a great deal of flexibility in all the products it offered. According to Karl, “Our strength has always been our customer focus. It was therefore relatively easy for us to embrace a process perspective because processes inherently start and end with the customer”. (Page 2) The attitude towards toward change is also vital in enabling the success of anenterprise. Change is a gradual change in the cycle of a business. The employees’ are gradually expected to develop the acceptance of modern change globally. This is backed up by various changes of the culture and technological advancements in the society. Attitude towards change should focus on to ensure that the enterprise produces the products that satisfy the dynamic customer needs. Employees should always be ready for significant changes that may occur in the line of work. This is because change is believed to be inevitable if one is determined tom achieve success. ROLM management undertookthe decision to change the corporation to Siemens Private Communication Systems. The company focus is to establish a mutual spirit, uniqueness, and culture by establishing processes and accepted new attitudes to enhance the continuous development. Competition affects the ability of a business to be successful, this because competitors continually seek to gain an advantage over each other, by continually differentiating their products from other products of the same kind. Leadership style largely determines the success of the company since all successful platforms begin with leadership. The management was expected to adopt a leadership style that generally unites the company’s management, staff, environment and the customers to help the company achieve both the short term and long-termgoals. The management of a corporation should focus on being driven by the company’s vision rather than command and control. This will ensure an open relation ship between the management and the subordinate staff. Siemens ROLM project office had encouraged an open and broad communication to ensure the projects were successful (Stoddard and Jarvenpaa, 1995). According to Geng, "One always underestimates the communication requirements. Middle management doesa lot of filtering that can only be remedied via more communication. During much of ROLM 1, I havespent 1/3 of each day on listening and talking".(Page 12) Myopinion tries to bring out in to the open key factors that have not been discussed in the case. Siemens ROLM fails to discuss on some essential factors like marketing strategies, and surrounding environment. Marketing strategies have not been elaborated in the case of Siemens ROLM. These strategies involve all marketing activities that would help an enterprise increase its market share. These marketing strategies are branding, online marketing, and advertising. These are key factors since no successful businesses stopsmarketing. In relation to ROLM enterprise, marketing has not been prioritized. Other Giant companies a wait for such an opportunity to occur and use it as a weapon against its rivals. The surrounding environment is also a key element to the success of a business. The environment can either be internal or external forces.According to the case of ROLM the external factors like competition have been discussed but the internal factors, the business SWOT analysis has been neglected. These factors vary from the enterprise policies and rules, strengths, weaknesses and goals and objectives. These are the business guidelines ensuring the business existence in the market. For a business to be successful, it needs to evaluate its weaknesses and act on them. References Stoddard, D. B., &Jarvenpaa, S. (1995). ROLM Corporation's. Siemens Rolm Communications, Inc.: Integrated Logistics Core Process Redesign (9-195-214 ed., p. 22). San Francisco: SanFrancisco chronicles. Read More