Improving the planning and implementation of

Improving the planning and implementation of manufacturing information systems L Fjeldsøe-Nielsen, J Efstathiou, A Calinescu, S Sivadasan, J Schirn The Manufacturing Research Group, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PJ

Summary In order to obtain and maintain a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace, manufacturing firms must overcome hidden constraints to achieve optimal use of Computer Integrated Manufacturing Information Systems (CIMIS). This calls for an analysis of the enterprise with respect to goals, objectives and capabilities of manufacturing and information systems. However, many companies implement IT systems without full consideration of the impact on the manufacturing systems performances. Hence prerequisite company analysis is neglected leading to unsuccessful results. This paper aims to develop a structured approach to implementing Information Systems (IS). The work to date is based on a survey of two major UK companies presently undergoing CIMIS installation. Clearly defined phases will be developed, aiming towards meeting product quality, cost and lead-time requirements as set by world class manufacturing. The paper will suggest how to plan the process leading to optimal use of a CIMIS, by following a modular implementation strategy.

1

Introduction

Today’s competitive markets require companies to be on the forefront of their business nature, constantly meeting customer’s requirements. This means contradictory and barely achievable objectives have to be met to survive. Production focus have shifted from economies of scale to economies of scope while trying to attain the benefits of mass production. Costly sacrifices have been made to achieve this shift of manufacturing ideology by introducing manufacturing information systems (MIS). Furthermore, the millennium problem end EMU conversion has lead to a steep increase in IT investment over the past two decades. According to a 1998 Compass report, IT amounted from 2-3 per cent of total costs in the 1980’s to 7-8 per cent in 1998. The US government has disclosed statistics claiming leading US firms devoting more than 40 per cent of capital investment to IT systems. These figures are reflected in the increase in sales of the main system distributors as SAP, Oracle, J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft. SAP alone claims to have supplied 16.5 per cent of companies world-wide exceeding USD 2,500 million in revenue.

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Current issues

It has been identified [1,2,3] that companies still do not meet their objectives when implementing MIS. Through a survey including 800 companies in the UK, Willcocks 1998, identified 39 per cent of the companies did not have customer surveys relating to the IT service. This could suggest that these companies did not have a proper IT system. The remaining 61 per cent of the companies had a deviation between customer expectation and actual IT service delivered as given below. 0% 16% 50% 32% 2%

No gap Minor gap; can be managed effectively Minor gap; persistent problem Major gap; situation improving Major gap; creates serious issues for IT creditability

It can be assumed that at least 34 per cent of the companies did not meet their MIS objectives. Moreover, companies forced to abandon the implementation of IS outlined the following reasons for failure: User requirements changed, organisational needs changed, risk too great, over budget and deadlines missed. In order to prevent MIS implementation problems, as the above mentioned, a phased implementation plan was produced. The plan was developed through case studies supported by a literature survey including approaches undertaken by leading consulting companies and IT developers. In general it was found that a business analysis phase was missing. This approach focuses on the reasoning phase to analyse the company’s core potentials. The model is divided into two main parts. First the foundation, reasoning and planning phases to analyse the company’s potentials and aligning these to the IT plan. Secondly the development, testing, implementation and control phases concentrating mainly on the IS development.

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Implementation plan

In the following a set of clearly defined phases, seen in Figure 3.1 will be described.

Control

Implementation

Foundation

Reasoning

Development

Planning

Testing

Figure 3.1- Implementation Plan 3.1

Foundation

The project starts at the foundation stage where the main objective and reasons to implement an information system is defined. The group members involved in the development and implementation of the MIS are briefed and given adequate authority to make achieve successful results. An estimated time and cost analysis is completed and finally this is presented for the people providing the funding of the project.

3.2

Reasoning

Once the project has been approved to proceed, the most critical phase is about to begin. The reasoning phase’s objective is to specifically identify what the CIMIS is expected to provide. This is completed by considering the following points: • • • •

Production goals Process issues Information flow Performance measures

By first defining the production goals with respect to cost, quality and lead-time, the process issues can be related to the findings and determined whether they are redundant or relevant. A new quantitative technique developed for mapping the information flow integrating information quality, speed and path can then be derived. The Information flow model (IFM) is based on the activity on arrow network [*] but modified substantially. A sample of the IFM can be seen in Figure 3.2.

Forward information flow

3 5 Name 20 15

Quality

Time

Feedback information flow

Figure 3.2 - IFM Node The quality of the information at any given node is determined through a questionnaire assessing the fulfillment of the following information requirements set by Kehoe [*]: Accuracy, accessibility, timely, relevance, comprehensiveness and format. A final IFM could look as shown in Figure 3.2.

Time

0

10

Machine 52

7 5 Team leader 50 6

Info. Quality (0-10)

1

8

(10)

Worker 5

51

Informal information procedure 30

3

(5)

Mgt. 6

40 14

To be optimised

3* Manager 45 7

8**

Feedback

* Positive manipulation ** Decision based on poor information is not optimal

Figure 3.2 - Complete IFM The IFM will lead to a complete mapping of the formal and informal information flow paths. The IFM highlights the need for improved information procedures throughout the organisation.

The final analysis of the reasoning stage is the performance measurement assessment. This refers to a complete clarification of the appropriateness of each performance measure with respect to the process issues identified earlier. The main question asked here is: “are the performance measures helping towards solving the problems?” Finally the performance should be benchmarked against other companies in industry.

3.3

Planning

This stage concerns the actual software development, which takes into consideration the difference between an off-the-shelf and on-the-shelf product. For the on-the-shelf case, the project proceeds to the testing phase. This is of crucial importance as these products in general are inflexible and hence difficult to align exactly with the business needs previously identified. As for the off-the-shelf product, coding can commence after completing a planning document, which meets the requirements set by the analysis described in sections 3.1 and 3.2. Once the planning has been accomplished the development team may again have to compare their results with the initial targets set at the foundation stage. Once the planning stage and the foundation stage correspond the project is ready to proceed to the development stage.

Development

At this stage corrections and feedback are constantly generated between the IT developers and the users to make the GUI as easy to handle as possible. This stage is also where adjustments to the business needs may be refined hence looping back to the planning stage. The final outcome at this stage is a prototype of the requested IS.

Testing

A pilot project is launched onsite, which could include a complete site, a department or a production line, to align the software with the business process. The IS operation is verified and user specifications are validated. Following are the training courses which are launched in order to prepare all users for the transition after the implementation. This is performed by the assigned training personnel, who have been through the entire project life. The training provides the users with familiarity on the software and on the business processes the software supports. Once a satisfying result is obtained the CIMIS is ready for implementation.

Implementation This stage is similar to the testing phase, however with emphasis on the complete integration of the system. High user involvement is required, additionally leading to knowledge about the system. Finally the data transfer process is completed and the system is ready to go live. Control

Continuous control, maintenance and system improvement is performed by all users in order to preserve the CIMIS up to date. Status meetings should be performed discussing user satisfaction surveys and strategies for continuous improvement. The meetings should be aimed at constantly making sure the CIMIS is adding value to the enterprise.

Table 1 - MIS development phases

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Conclusion

It has been identified that current MIS implementation procedures do not align IS objectives with business needs. The approach described in this paper seeks to conduct an analysis identifying the “as is” and “to be” requirements of a CIMIS. The remaining stages outlines a methodology of how to finally

implement and perform continuous control after the go live. The global aim of the approach is to achieve CIMIS that are adding value to the company.

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References

1.

Willckocks

2.

Underwood

3.

Mgt Journal

4.

Flow model

5.

Kehoe

6.

SAP

7.

JD Edwards