| RCG Success
Stories
Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP): Assessing the IS VIsion for a Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Manufacturer
Pharmaceutical/Medical Devices
Manufacturer $30mm Sales Revenue
This
company was a U.S. based provider of comprehensive parenteral
pharmaceutical manufacturing services, and a developer of
cardiopulmonary and telemedicine medical devices to national and
international markets. The company designed, developed, and produced a
broad range of automatic injectors, prefilled syringes and other
innovative heath care devices. Its mission was to be a global
leader in early intervention home health care and emergency medical
technologies by developing technology solutions for medicine.
The
company initiated the purchase and implementation of a new
manufacturing and financial system for a cost of approximately $1
million. The software system was a combination of one
software provider's financial package, and another's manufacturing
package. The manufacturing and financial systems were bridged to pass
information from one to the next, but not completely integrated.
Information such as manufacturing variance was manually transferred
from one system to the next. The company had difficulties in
implementing the manufacturing system.
In
addition, the software provider abandoned further development of the
manufacturing system. At best the software developer was expected
to simply maintain and perform small fixes to support its current user
base. The company developed a strategic vision to address these
problems, and to assist, senior management requested an independent
assessment of the IS plan. Rockford Consulting Group was retained
to review the Information Systems vision. The objectives of this effort
were:
- Review the current Information Systems(IS) plan both hardware and software, and its direction, and,
- Review the long term relationship of IS to manufacturing
We
began the effort with a review of manufacturing operations. We
reviewed the bills of materials, key processes performed in sterile
operations, packaging and inspection buildings. We reviewed how
parts are scheduled and moved in the filling, sub-assembly, assembly,
inspection, and packaging processes.
Next, we spent most of our time interviewing key people in the
organization to discover facts and circumstances regarding system
support. We reviewed the history of the system purchase and its
subsequent implementation. We reviewed typical step-by-step
transaction processing in the financial and manufacturing systems to
gain a feel for the extent of complexity in performing simple
transactions.
When
this was accomplished, we reviewed the plans for the system with
users. Finally, we reviewed the IS plan for completeness and
application to the problems the company was facing.
Interviews with key employees revealed that the current system was cumbersome and
time consuming to operate, lowering productivity in the process.
We reviewed simple transaction processing in receiving and shipping.
Receiving was a combination of both redundant manual and electronic
systems processing. Manual logs of incoming receipts were
maintained, then updated to the system by manual keying the data from a
copy of the log. When keyed to the system, the receiving clerk
used no less than 6 screens to post the receipt. The shipping
transaction was far worse. Keying data beginning with a manually
typed packing list using 40 screens. These were not 40 unique
screens but maneuvering back and forth totalling 40 screens to get
information and post the shipment.
One
of the reasons the system was cumbersome and time consuming is that it
was a 1980's generation menu-driven system. The shipping and receiving
clerk was forced to contend with a hierarchy of screen menus, which
consumed time and productivity.
Difficulties with system implementation were primarily a result of ineffective
resource management and little buy-in for the new system. We
found little support for its implementation throughout the
organization. The primary reason was there was to be little
benefit to the individuals who would be required to expend a major
portion of time to effectively implement the system. In addition,
the system was perceived as a misfit for manufacturing operations
because it was designed for repetitive type manufacturing. The
current operations were make-to-order discrete batch processing. Our
interviews revealed that once the financial systems were implemented,
efforts dwindled.
Interviews
with key employees revealed that resources were inadequate for the
major initiative. Resources were assigned, but none added to
compensate for the time that the implementation would consume.
We reviewed the IS plan, and agreed with the long-term objective of
migrating to a Windows platform. We also agreed with standardizing
Microsoft Office, and recommended that the schedule be
accelerated. However, we thought that the company should take
advantage of the opportunity to evaluate several systems for
conformance to requirements and fit, rather than just automatically
migrate to a new version of the old system. It was an opportunity to
gain buy-in of users.
We discovered one glaring omission in the IS plan: a provision for
resources required for implementation of the IS vision. An adequate number of people who were dedicated and
focused on implementing the IS plan were required for success. A
full-time dedicated project manager with high organizational visibility
was also required.
We discovered that IS had a severe credibility problem in the
organization. We recommended Information Systems be a supporting, not
driving, resource to manufacturing and manufacturing support operations
in the future. IS should act in the role of an internal
systems technology provider, consultant, and advocate for the good of
the company, and never dictate processes to operations. Instead,
IS should assist in streamlining business processes and reduce wasted
time. Manufacturing, in conjunction with other systems users,
should drive the new systems development and implementation. We
recommended using a project manager with systems implementation
experience. We also recommended the following:
- Proceed with the implementation of the IS vision focusing on developing the basic systems infrastructure:
- Solve problems with the network platform before implementing new software.
- Devise a disaster plan.
- Eliminate manual systems in the warehouse: logs, tubfiles, etc.
- Add
a resources section to the IS plan defining the skills and dedicated
numbers of people required for a successful implementation.
- Devise a major project plan to drive the development of a Windows based ERP system.
- Streamline
business processes to reduce paper flow cycle times, utilizing
state-of-the-art information technology: quotations, sales orders,
bills of materials, and routings.
| To go to Home
Page, click here |
|Site Map|
|
