Produtec is a technical service company specialized in CAM (Computer-aided-manufacturing) and machinery services. The company is mainly active in the metal cutting/milling industry and is focused on distributing machines, selling complementary products and providing services. Produtec currently operates with several basic types of software to support current operations, like Word, Excel, and AccountView. This is complemented with online services for communication with partners and suppliers and external sources for additional information.
The current software programmes used to facilitate the process are not integrated with each other. The IT infrastructure facilitates decentralized use of the administration which leads to a lot of communication of information outside of the program. The quality of the information depends largely on the individual knowledge of an employee that operates the software and one’s communication with others.
This inefficiency increases unexpected costs created by the administration operations. Furthermore, revenue is also lost because the arrangements made with the customers and the suppliers are missing within the current software programs.
The use of separate programmes reduces the cost efficiency because of its sensitivity for mistakes. This can result in missing components or non-accurate inventory. Furthermore, the interaction is not efficient because the use of several programs for collecting the current orders, the purchase invoices, etc. The entire process can not be controlled by one employee. Besides, it has a high risk of freedom to manipulate the information uploaded in the programmes, like for example working hours.
Momentarily, the company is scanning the market of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. No choice has been made yet, but they are sure that they want a new IT-system. Because of several disadvantages in the old way of doing business, it is clear for Produtec that changes are required to take the next step as a company.
Produtec has already compiled several characteristics that the new ERP-system should contain. The system should be user friendly, it should give clear insights into the current inventory levels, quarterly figures and several other aspects that are important to them. Furthermore, the new ERP-system should provide free software updates that can be performed in the cloud. A major disadvantage of the current system is that there were monthly/quarterly updates that had to be executed. One important benefit of the ERP-system is that it improves (the speed of) internal communication. In the current situation, knowledge is deeply embedded in human assets. Additionally, the ERP-system can also extract this deeply embedded implicit knowledge into accessible information. Several aspects of conducting business at Produtec are not formally recorded in documents.
An ERP-system reduces the need for employees to remember all this information. Mistakes, like forgotten invoices or oversized discounts, will occur less often. Besides improvement of internal communication, there is also room for enhanced external communication. An ERP-system will enable employees to easily access internal information when they are ‘on site’, visiting customers. An ERP-system could structure this process by notificating employees of Produtec to inform the ERP-system if the needs of these companies might have been changed. Overall we think that Produtec will make the right decision by acquiring an ERP-system, because it will create more efficiency in multiple areas.
Group 61 – video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QofY1xX6ROw
