ERP Implementation at FoxMeyer Drugs
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February 19, 2011
Summary of the Nature of Implementation
This paper investigates the implementation of ERP project at FoxMeyer Drugs in 1993. The paper will identify lessons learnt from the failure of the project implementation. However a critical analysis of what went right and wrong will be carried out.
According to a case study by Scott, (n.d), FoxMeyer was worth over 5 billion in 1993 this was a time when the company was the fourth largest pharmaceuticals distributer. In 1993 FoxMeyer Drugs stated an ambitious project aimed at increasing efficiency through the use of technology, in the last months of 1993 a
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While implementing a project it is imperative to have the commitment of the management and also employees, the employees were disgruntled as the project threatened their jobs, it would be advisable to avoid the project all together.
The project did not achieve desirable standards as far as customer requirements, scope, environment and execution were concerned. It was important that the project integrators to ensure customers do not escalate during the implementation of the project, being the first adopters of the software FoxMeyer should have exercised caution by adopting the software in phases rather than implementing the project directly, furthermore, execution was the biggest problem, despite knowing that the project needed skilled personnel FoxMeyer did not train staff during the early stages of the project and had to rely on consultants. Finally the company should have gained control over the project from the start to ensure that all the staff and management were involved but in this case despite knowing that the project would not work as envisaged the management did not take control or stop the implementation of the project.
FoxMeyer should not have implemented the project on the basis of escalation that the project would save the company revenue. All the project factors needed to be considered. The project vendor and consultants should not rely on history of successful projects but careful analysis of each company before implementing a project.
If a project
One more integral factor which led to the failure of this outsourcing was the lack of leadership and commitment for the project from both the ends. Tegan did not show its commitment to the project because first, it failed to deploy adequate expertise to facilitate the review
The paper is divided into three sections, the first of which will establish a timeline of events. This project background will serve as a case study for the analysis in the following section that will be structured such that each of the previously mentioned facets will be independently analyzed and contrasted with project management principles. Finally the paper will conclude with a summary of the analysis and recommendations based on
Ans: In this situation, the failure is due to many reasons ranging from unclear or poor performance of team. In this we should not blame any individual. It may be due to lack of analyzing the customer requirements. For any project to be successful the team should work co-ordination manner.
ERP projects are most definitely expensive and risky, nevertheless despite these potential costs KEDA decided to embark on its ERP implementation project in hopes of obtaining a high return on investment. One of the factors that led to this decision was the fierce competition of global and local competitors. In an effort to retain its position within the industry and combat the threat of other businesses, KEDA needed to evolve. Specifically, through choosing a new ERP system, KETA hoped that this strategy would improve operations and become a productive advancement to the structure of the company. Since the Chinese government stopped their support and the MRP-II couldn’t manage the multiple system operations, they had to seek out a new alternative.
There would have been a budgeted amount for each phase of the project to go along with sufficient time to complete the project correctly the first time around. There also seemed to be a lack of teamwork throughout the project. I would have had a set plan in place throughout the entire project life cycle. The main problem I feel like contributed to the failure of the project is the lack of quality. Design specs should have been standard across the project regardless of what contractor was doing the work. The time and money spent redoing portions of the project was a major setback. Continuous improvement is also a key essential to any project. Last being ethical and honest about everything within the project should have been done from the
Kumar, P. (2010). Successful implementation of ERP in a large organization International journal of engineering science and technology. Vol. 2(7), 3218-3224. Retrieved from http://www.ijest.info/docs/IJEST10-02-07-151.pdf
From the outside looking in, it would appear that the biggest contributing factor to the failure of the project was poor planning. It would be my recommendation to these two that the next time they implement a functional strategy. These strategies, “are narrower in scope than business strategies and deal with the activities of the different functional areas of the business production, finance, marketing, human resources and the like” (Rue, Byars, Ibrahim 2013).
In this paper the word ‘project” is defined, discussed and elaborated on. The phases of a project lifecycle and its purpose are to be discussed, and how it is important for organizations to use project management to accomplish tasks will in conclusion be discussed thoroughly. The indisputable word ‘Project” may be defined in numerous unusual ways, some can all have the same meaning and others can mislead a reader. The definition that accurately explains what a project is, comes from the Houghton Mifflin Company (2009) website stating; “something that is contemplated, devised, or planned; plan; scheme.” A definition that can mislead a reader is this definition from the same website just two paragraphs
In general, ERP systems are designed to standardize information entry and create data storage for information sharing across the organization. There are numerous advantages of ERP but skeptics argued on the fact that these advantages can be also achieved by simplification and lean production methods. IT systems could be effective and reliable in the long run but at the same time there is an uncertainty about whether it will align with the concerned business process. For instance, the ERP system implemented at the Korey plant to replace MRP system failed. Though it met the requirements of individual unit and enabled employees with wide range of
ERP implementation is unlikely experience that any company will have. It has to be planned prepared and stimulated from the entire stakeholder otherwise it will sunk the millions of dollar and it drain the companies market. In case of Nestle USA, it confronted a lot of difficulties due to improper implementation plan yet be able to recover as a successful project. Many organisations have gone through the similar situation that there are plenty of lesson to be learned. We can conclude that ERP implementation needs big consideration on business requirement, business process reengineering, stakeholder’s involvement, hardware and software and other units.
The Trophy Project was fundamentally mismanaged from the start. The management functions of planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and directing personnel and resources were poorly executed by both senior and project level management. Customer expectations were not well defined and scope creep was allowed to take place without proper administration. There did not appear to be a corporate champion for this project who could mentor and resolve conflicts that were beyond the authority of the project manager. Plus, the project manager appeared to be inexperienced and was not very adept at negotiating with upper level and functional management to obtain the proper resources necessary to achieve the project
The problem presented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier is the upcoming third round of ERP implementation in his organization. Even though a big improvement over the efficiency and success of execution between the first ERP round (Mirabel plant) and second round (Saint-Laurent plant), there is still room for improvement.
Besides, regarding to the clients, the JVI had never build up a connection with the client until the surprisingly got the contract, the existence of hierarchy and non-trust between client and project team lead to the inefficiency of obtaining client information, later resulted in Jack’s misleading proposal for market research. Also, because in the concept of high power distance, decision making process is limited one-way participation and communication (In the Eye of the Beholder, cross cultural lessons in leadership from project GLOBE, Mansour Javidan, Peter W. Dorfma, etc), Jack’s own lack of experience on project management made it is possible for the project to diverge from previous direction under one person’s leadership.
This case was written by P. Indu, under the direction of Vivek Gupta, IBS Center for Management Research. It was compiled
While assigning people to the project, FEL failed to acknowledge that effective team which works as a unit in collaboration. In FEL, internal consultant found that there are two major problems among their managers who are expected to work together on the Project Abu Dhabi: -