Computer Sciences and Information Technology - Case Study Example

Computer sciences and Information technology: Case 2-3 Introduction In relation to the rapid pace of competition, the intervention of IT enabled manufacturing process has long been identified to ensure greater scope for the organizations to achieve long-term sustainability. The continuous development of technology has undoubtedly offered adequate scope and opportunity for the manufacturers to refurbish their performance within the specified business industry. The successful implementation of emerging technology along with obtaining decisions from the new high-tech industries significantly enables manufacturing organizations to develop effective production processes and improving interaction ways of the companies to their suppliers (Kollberg, & Dreyer, 2006). According to the case scenario, Teri Takai, the Director of Supply Chain System of Dell Computer has provided effective recommendation to the senior executives of Ford regarding the implementation of emerging information technology and ideas from other high-tech industry (Case 2-3, n.d.). However, the integration of IT enabled system may cause a manufacturing plant to redesign the overall supply chain operation, which can negatively impact on the organization’s performance. In this context, the case of Ford Motor Company (Ford) has provided a clear understanding regarding the integration of emerging information technologies to sustain in the global automobile manufacturing business industry. According to the case study observation it has been identified that the supply chain strategy of Ford has faced various types of obstacles due to the ineffective use of IT enabled system. The integration of IT based manufacturing process would provide adequate opportunity to Ford in terms of reducing its working capital along with minimizing the overall inventory cost of the organization (Case 2-3, n.d.). 2. Summary of Facts In relation to the modern business environment, organizations are highly focused on finding effective ways to improve their competitiveness through changing the operational methods and strategies. In this context, the intervention of technology is one of the key paradigms for the organizations to bring useful insights within its operational and managing processes (Gunasekaran & Ngai, 2004). According to the case study observation, the problem associated with the supply chain strategy had led Ford to face significant challenges on the operational and managerial segments within the organization. The major engineering projects of the company were initiated in order to meet the overall goal of improving Order to Delivery (OTD) along with the manufacturing performance of Ford Production System (FPS). Relative to this new developed approach, it can be stated that a major importance of integrating information technologies within the production facilities of Ford would rendered positive outcome. The effective incorporation of advanced technological aspects can be considered as one of the key enablers that facilitate organizations to gain their operational and managing capabilities (Asabere, Oppong & Sarpong, 2012). Although, the implementation of advanced IT system has placed by Ford during the year 2000, the company could also focus on deploying competition technology based supply chain system in order to increase its material flows along with minimize the inventory costs (Case 2-3, n.d.). According to the case, the existing supply base of ford was improved through developing few major techniques including Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory management process, Statistical Process Control (SPC) along with Total Quality Management (TQM) approach. Moreover, in order to build closer relationship along with long-term relationship with the global suppliers, the company used to expect an annual price reduction of materials required for producing automobile products. The significant decrease of IT maturity in the lower tier of the supply chain has also observed to radically impact on the overall production system of the company. Moreover, the recommendations for the Supply Chain System also emphasizes that the purchasing activities of Ford could maintain independent decision in procuring large volume of materials to save a huge amount of cost and the company could also gain its profit margin (Case 2-3, n.d.). The OTD activities of Ford have also been recognized to face a significant problem due to emergence of certain few pivotal concerns. The process of evading the importance of dealers in terms of forecasting demand along with historical buying patterns such as increasing production stability in accordance with the orders of the dealers can be considered to reduce the competitiveness of the organization (Case 2-3, n.d.). In this context, an effective implementation of information technology could enable the organization to make appropriate forecast of the market and it would also enable the organization to simultaneously improve the production performance of its manufacturing plants (Datta et al., 2008). 3. Problem and Alternatives Apparently, Ford Motor has been one of the most successful automobile operators over the last few decades in the global business arena. However, there exists certain problem in the supply chain domain of the company that is impacting its operations one way or the other. One such problem has been observed in terms of its delivery process. The approach OTD is an attempt of the company to deliver products to the ultimate customers within 15 days after the order placed and ensure time efficiency in its operations. According to the Pilot studies of the 1997, Ford motor has extreme bottlenecks in marketing, related to planning for material and transportation process which further cause delay in the delivery of products to the customers. The OTD process adopted in this regard was dependent on various other aspects which further pose threat on the probable success of the approach (Case 2-3, n.d.). However, it can be recommended that the company could have considered certain other alternatives to deal with the delay in delivery. Alternative 1 and Its Feasibility Analysis, Advantages and Disadvantages The company could have taken the approach of implementing ICT extensively in various business areas that are interrelated with regard to delivering of products to the customers on time. This approach of the company would have been a feasible attempt. This is owing to the fact that the extensive implementation of ICT in the business would have bring more efficiency in the conduct of the employees towards their work along with facilitating better communication among the various business units which would have smoothen the business operations of Ford. This aspect could have further enabled time saving operations, ensuring time efficiency in delivering the final products to the ultimate customers. However, extensive implementation of ICT in business will require a considerable investment which might act as unfavorable for the overall business (Khosrowpour, 2006). Alternative 2 and Its Feasibility Analysis, Advantages and Disadvantages Another alternative for the company can be related with the implementation of direct model for delivering products to the ultimate customers. This approach can be consider as a feasible one owing to the fact that the company was implementing a traditional model of delivering products to the ultimate customers which includes the distribution channel between the customers and the company that increases the time of product delivery. However, the adoption of direct delivery model will ensure the deliverance of products to the customers at a much lesser time as there would be no distribution channel between the company and the ultimate customers. This is also seen as an advantage of the direct model of products delivery (Apiyo & Mburu, n.d.). However, since distributers are expertise in their work to deliver products to the customer, their absence in the product distribution procedure might negatively impact the entire product delivery operation. Furthermore, direct selling of products will also require companies to maintain warehouses and distribution centers which will again hike the operational cost of the business. This is also a disadvantage of the direct model (Otto & et. al 2009). Alternative 3 and Its Feasibility Analysis, Advantages and Disadvantages Another alternative will be to create realistic schedules for delivering products to the customers. It is apparent that the material procurement, production and the delivery process needs certain specified time period which cannot be overlooked. Contextually, the company should have considered all this aspect together and frame a precise and realistic schedule for its product delivery process. This approach would be feasible since the company should have made it through proper forecasting (for time) with regard to the entire operational process. Since, this approach is more realistic and precise with less complexity involved, the chances of failure in delivering products on time is quite minimal which is again a vital advantage. However, this approach will possibly lack flexibility with regard changing demand of the customers which can further be considered as a disadvantage (Paragon Software Systems, 2014). 4. Discussion and Conclusion It has been ascertained from the foregoing discussion that in modern business environment, an effective IT enabled supply chain system provides numerous benefits to a firm in different ways. It also facilitate an organization in lessening inventory costs, lead times and most vitally enhancing the timelines of the deliveries of the organizational products (Mentzer, 2001). The deployment of advanced information and technological aspects in the supply chain model is further observed to be an essential decision for an organization in terms of managing inventory system, material handling, warehouse management, transportation system and operations (Zigiaris, 2000). In relation to the alternatives provided in the above section, the deployment and continuous development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) would enable Ford to increase its manufacturing and supply chain performance. In order to improve the operational efficiency along with strengthening the competitive position of the organization, the ICT approach of the organization would require adequate implementation of advanced communication and transaction improvement attributes to obtain continuous monitoring along with controlling of each supply chain activity performed by the organization. It is a key enabler that facilitates the organizations to gain their capability of controlling the overall functions of the supply chain operations (Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc, 2012). Few of the major roles of ICTs in the supply chain have been illustrated in the following discussion The effective integration of ICTs would enable Ford to make appropriate sales forecast along with the order information from both customers and other selling units of the organization. The internal process of the organization would also be improved in terms of gaining adequate information regarding the production of automobiles in accordance with the market demand. Moreover, the effective implementation of ICTs would also enable the manufacturing plants to minimize the inventory costs along with product delivery time of the organization. The integration of ICT would also enable Ford to develop effective production plan to the existing suppliers and help the company to obtain appropriate information regarding the inventory levels to the customers (Kollberg & Dreyer, 2006). ICT can be identified as a widely used information and technology tool by the organizations to increase the performance of the supply chain activities in managing logistics and transportation. Thus it can be argued that implementation of modern technologies integrated with various operations of Ford would facilitate in effective shipping lines across the diverse global destinations of its operations. References Apiyo, R. O. & Mburu, D. K. (n.d.). Role of ICT tools in supply chain performance. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/4767017/ROLE_OF_ICT_TOOLS_IN_SUPPLY_CHAIN_PERFORMANCE_Author_Co-Author Asabere, N. Y., Oppong, D. & Sarpong, S. K. (2012). A review of the roles and importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Supply Chain Management (SCM) of organizations in Supply Chain Management (SCM) of organizations and companies. International Journal of Computer Science and Network (IJCSN) 1(4), 2277-5420 Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. (2012). Managing risk in global ICT supply chains. Retrieved from http://www.boozallen.com/media/file/managing-risk-in-global-ict-supply-chains-vp.pdf Case 2-3. (n.d.). Ford Motor Company: Supply chain strategy. Supply Chain Strategy and the Virtual Integration, 348-355. Datta, S., Granger, C. W. J., Graham, D. P., Sagar, N., Doody, P., Slone, R. & Hilmola, O. P. (2008). Forecasting and risk analysis in supply chain management. MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation, 1-22. Gunasekaran, A. & Ngai, E. W. T. (2004). Information systems in supply chain integration and management. European Journal of Operational Research 159, 269-295. Khosrowpour, M. (2006). Cases on information technology. United States: Idea Group Inc (IGI). Kollberg, M. & Dreyer, H. (2006). Exploring the impact of ICT on integration in supply chain control: A research model. NTNU, 285-294. Mentzer, J. T. (2001). Defining supply chain management. Journal of Business Logistics, 22(2), 1-25. Otto, A., Schoppengerd, F. J., & Shariatmadari, R. (2009). Direct store delivery: concepts, applications and instruments. US: Springer Paragon Software Systems. (2014). Improve customer service. Retrieved from http://www.paragonrouting.com/us/our-customers/benefits/improve-service Zigiaris, S. (2000). Supply Chain Management. Retrieved from http://www.adi.pt/docs/innoregio_supp_management.pdf Read More