1. A medical device manufacturer Sammedics, provides Lacrimal Occlusion Therapies to physicians, hospitals and distributors around the world. Lacrimal Occlusion is a treatment for dry eye syndrome and related ocular surface diseases. Sammedics decided to replace their accounting and manufacturing systems with an integrated Enterprise Retail Planning (ERP) solution that would support their growth and address a number of operational problems. After 15 years in business, inventory was growing faster than revenue, on-time delivery was slipping affecting their financial and operational performance. What are the factors the management must keep in mind while selecting a vendor for the integrated system? What benefits do you think the ERP implementation will bring in for Sammedics?
2. The Malkan Group is one of the largest construction groups in India. It has more than 90 companies in its fold with several companies running at various locations throughout the country. Each company has its own database and information system, which was not connected to the head office. Getting a 360 degree integrated view of the business was proving to be impossible for the management. One of the biggest challenges faced was estimating the cost of construction. Since the project was spread over many years, aligning of projected versus actual cost was very difficult. With 30-40 projects running concurrently, departments maintaining data in different files, poor exchange of data with the head office, slow decision making, creation of power centers in the organization and difficulty in real- time estimation of different projects, the organization has decided to implement certain ERP. It plans to implement ERP in a phased manner with certain modules at first. Which modules would you recommend to them in their initial ERP implementation phase?
3. Ijo is a manufacturer of chips for smartphones. The supply chain at Ijo has become increasing complex. The chips are manufactured around the world and then delivered to customers worldwide. To support this complexity and anticipated growth, Ijo decided to evaluate it supply chain performance to meet the customer needs. It needed a cost effective way to interact with the suppliers and customers. Ijo was exploring alternatives for its legacy software and improve both relationship with suppliers and customers and thus considering the use of an ERP package.
a. How can the supply chain module in an ERP package help Ijo?
b. What challenges do you think Ijo may face while implementing the ERP package?