Stoney Boots: ERP Implementation Recommendation
Stoney Boots has reported a decline in its gross margins for the fiscal year 2012 and this decline is attributed to manufacturing inefficiencies. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Stoney Boots’ IT infrastructure is outdated and the company could benefit from implementing an ERP system. Implementing an ERP will help the company integrate all of its fragmented divisions, which will allow it to concentrate on selling its trademarked footwear and making profits (Stoney’s Annual Report).
To help the company get back on track, the following three ERP modules are recommended as a start for the company. These modules will help the company integrate data across its plant sites, generate
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These two systems are required to be synchronized twice daily, because the Distribution System needs the data generated by the Sales System, which is received from the data entry interface. In addition, at the end of the day, the Sales System needs to be updated with the latest inventory data via the custom interfaces. This process will allow the sales personnel to know the current inventory (Stoney IT Audit).
This process is prone to error and can cause the company to lose a substantial amount of money if there are inaccuracies of inventory data. For example, if an employee forgets to synchronize the system for a couple of days due to an unknown reason, this will give false information about the current inventory causing the sales personnel to assume that there are enough inventories in the warehouse to make a future sale.
To avoid this from happening, the company could purchase the ERP Operation Module add-on option. The operation module will allow the company to have control over its order entry, order management, and inventory management, thus reducing the amount of data input, minimizing the potential for errors or inaccuracies, and saving valuable company time and money (Operations Module - Pulse Mining
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The customer care department handles all customer inquiries, complaints, problems, etc. This department is divided into teams that range in size from two to four people depending on the expected phone traffic. They work Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm (Stoney IT Audit)
The goal of a customer service department is provide exceptional services to the customers in order to gain their trust so that they return to Stoney for future purchases. By utilizing the Customer Care Module, Stoney will get a handle on its order tracking, account tracking, and customer support. Additionally, Stoney will be able to offload some of the customer service teams and retrain them to perform additional tasks that might help the company make profits
Being presented with the problems in the implementation of the SAP ERP system, it is evident that Novartis Pharmaceuticals requires a comprehensive action plan that resolves key issues and the underlying problem. Refer to Exhibit A for a graphical representation of the action plan.
ERP stands for Enterprise Resources Planning. ERP is a term used for software that controls whole organizations different departments. SAP is the world leader in ERP systems followed by Oracle.
ERP is a huge resource managing tool used by companies today. Some systems preform general ledger, accounting and order management for the company. ERP systems are a great asset and greatly improve a company, so a company should defiantly look into implementing ERP systems! However, Gartner estimates that 75% of all ERP projects fail. Why is there so much of a high failure rate? This paper will take an in depth look at reasons to why ERP systems fail.
1. Is the international market arena in which your athletic footwear company competes characterized by multicountry competition or global competition? Explain why.
Support Quest wants to be able to gain and retain customers by providing superior service. To achieve this, we will allow the customer to choose their preferred form of communication which includes, phone, live chat, or email. We will also empower our agents to do whatever they can to fix the problem. One of the current biggest problems with customer support is that the agents are not able to satisfy the customers. In order to ensure that customers are not taking advantage of our friendly policies, we will create a database to track each
Inaccurate inventory record can cause a shortage in inventory. The level of drugs could be either understated or overstated.
Just-in-time production is considered to be on the leading edge of technological advancement. With improvements in the virtually every industry, maintaining an effective production line while minimizing inventory costs is a very feasible option. Just-in-time systems are designed to keep inventory costs at a minimum, unlike the ways of old, with large warehouses loaded with back inventory. With technology allowing instantaneous communication around the world, production lines and stores do not have to wait for days for inventory delivery. It can happen, well, just-in-time. Many companies are on the verge of switching to a just-in-time inventory system, to compliment the millions of companies that have already implemented the system. It is generally recognized that effective implementation of just-in-time will result in a significant reduction of inventories. As a matter of fact, inventory levels are key indicators for measuring just-in-time performance (Harrison). The just-in-time philosophy on inventory management is simple: - Strive for a level of zero inventories. - Produce items at the rate required by the customer. - Eliminate all unnecessary lead times. - Reduce setup costs to achieve the smallest economical lot size - ideally, a quantity of one. - Optimize material flow from suppliers through the production process to the point of sale of the finished product, so that inventories are minimized. - Ensure high quality and dependable just-in-time delivery from suppliers. - Implement a Total Quality Control (TQC) program, which will minimize scrap, rework and resultant delays in production (Naylor). While the just-in-time inventory management philosophy is simple, execution is not.
Motiwalla, L., Thompson, J. (2011). Enterprise Systems for Management 2nd Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
“An Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are software systems for business management, supporting areas such as planning, manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution, accounting, finance, human resource management, project management, inventory management, service and maintenance, transportation, and e-business”.( Haag, Cummings, Phillips, S, M, A (2007). Mangement Information Systems. New Yory, NY: The McGraw-Hill Company Inc..)
Customer service is important in all areas of a business, upstream to the suppliers of the raw materials and downstream to the end users. Customer service can be viewed in three standard ways: as an activity, as a performance measure, and as a philosophy (Coyle 96).
ERP systems give E-business by utilizing the web reconciliation ability it encourages get closer to clients. It gives advantage to business to business intelligent client administration, for instance through client coordinates criticism it can enhance item plan, and in particular give continuous and dependable information enquiries. Likewise with the coordinated and standard application structural planning in ERP system it give foundation support business adaptability to future changes by reaction to interior and outer changes and give scope of choices in respond, reduced IT costs and ‘expanded ability for brisk and monetary usage of new applications.
According to Srinidhi and Tayi (2004), companies that are flexible enough and are able to change from a JIT system to a traditional inventory system will have a competitive advantage over other firms who do not switch. In such uncontrollable environments, the major benefit of JIT becomes a handicap with the increase in delivery times and the added data handling and coordination required in such times. This leads to a decrease in quick response time, which ultimately leads to increase in costs to the firm.
This department deals all of the other customer requests that the Tellers do not have access to. Problem solving, and critical thinking are two key characteristics that employees in this department must have. Customers generally do not have a great depth of banking knowledge, and they rely on the customer service employees to help them resolve issues. It is our duty to provide sound financial advice to our customers, because this is the best way to attract and retain them. However, solving customer issues is not the only thing that this department handles. They are also in charge of opening new accounts for customers, and I participated in opening both checking and saving accounts. Furthermore, Customer Service employees, can help customers with Certificate of Deposits and Individual Retirement Accounts. All of these processes require competent computer skills, to avoid any unwanted actions. Customer Service employees, at South Georgia Banking Company, must provide top of the line service, because whether it is resolving customer issues, or welcoming a new customer to the bank; this department must be willing and able to handle
Starting in the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s new software systems known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have surfaced in the market, targeting mainly large complex business organizations.
A few decades ago, businesses considered customer service as an unnecessary expense. Now, companies view it as a competitive advantage in the marketplace.