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Developing an information system for DMT Design SA

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1. Nr Total Unit PriceUnit nits Value Componens Bronze 11x08 92 956 70 1 9235670 E Stee F z Alpe Rapa Weight 5001 10000 with spooling device Promex kilos 4 10 250 1 02500 d Add coma Transport Customs Design Certification i Extra costs Purchasefitem 93 981 70 Figure 22 Final inquiry overview This overview offers structure and all information needed It offers a clear overview of the cost price sales price amp offer price and smartly uses colors to identify incorrect component prices Also a lot of small intermitting functions where added which make working with it for more easier This inquiry could be made an order which finally looked like figure 23 Order details Order nr 25108 General Customer Products Revisions Aftersales Close R RDER D 1 Ex inquiry DMT 466 ___ Description Anchor and mooring winch Order date 19 09 2005 _ Remarks electromotor changed External responsible Make revision PRODUCT DETAILS Add comp Transport Item Type Company Unit Add comp Transport Customs Design Certification Extra costs 4 Purchase tem 0 00 Figure 23 Order overview This order overview looks more or less the same as the inquiry overview Although the main color is red for the prevention of mistakes it has the same functions and just takes all data from the inquiry phase Never
2. Mettalic co 3534 dfd_ Promex_ ke 35 6oooj 21000 Hydraulic N343 df__ Azewijn Pcs 6ooof 1 000 Ferado baf234 bnb_ Henk Meter 4oof 23 9200 Componedeet esos 2 y 2 y DESIGN 1 T000 UNEXPECTED 1 MARGIN 1 2222s Transport 10023 a _ Certification ee ee o Customs fee aS a o OFFER 25000 S Mettalic co 3534 dfd_ Promex_ KG 3 5 eoooj 21000 Hydraulic N343 df__ Azewijn Pcs 6ooof tt eooo Ferado baf234 bnb_ Henk_ Meter 4oof 23 9200 Componerfeet 2s3 Pcs AT DESIGN UNEXPECTED MARGIN Transport 10023 TY Certification ooo o ao ooo o Customs fee Oooo o oo o e OFFER 25000 Figure 20 A first overview was created which Cristi could use for creating the first calculation 61 Appendix I Design of solutions This appendix contains the visual development of the different developed extensions of the IS The calculation module E https 82 79 118 35 Inquiry details Microsoft Internet Explorer Inquiry DMT 991 General People Customer Products Decine Delete Close pV ERALLINQUIRYDETADS n Description TEST INQUIRY Commens TEST 1 Reception dates 21 06 2006 by E mail Dispah dates 30 06 2006 Offer sending date Rep I adgadse Remarks Test PRODUCT DETAILS Test comp 1 Confind 150 00 EURO 300 EURO TEST GROUP Test comp 3 Confind meters 10 00 EURO 1 10 EURO Test comp 2 Confind
3. Employees The employee database contains information about all employees from DMT This means that personal information can be stored there as well as company related information e To add an employee click the Add relation button fill in the fields and after clicking the Add button the total pop up appears with the newly made relation Employees become a user in the system automatically if the type is chosen and a password is set e Inthe main screen there is a table with the basic information of the employees with a clickable e mail address and a telephone number e With the search field you can search for general terms in the database A pop up with the results that match will appear e Every employee user name can be clicked for a pop up with several tabs and functions There are two main tabs o General contains general contact information for the employee o In DMTsome company specific information can be stored for instance about the job description tasks responsibilities and competences can be added Another important field is the type here the user type is defined with which one can enter the system User admin In the user administration the different users are stated and the rights they have These rights are defined for every type of user Many people can use the system for which different sources are available e Employee All employees are a user of the system automatically when their type is defined So wh
4. To be more specific the research tries to design and implement solutions for the following problems e Because after calculation is not always carried out changes of important cost drivers are unknown e Short term planning of future cash flows is not available e There is no available management information so decision making in controlling the process is more difficult But of course the research has its limitations and must take the following conditions into account e Time is limited In a maximum of 12 weeks the assignment needs to be designed implemented and evaluated The chosen solution has to work together with the existing information system Not all needed information is open for public Discretion is necessary The budget is fixed Other investments than the 2 currently paid wages are not possible Important strategic choices have to be made by company management An ICT specialist is already on site Therefore a rapid introduction is desirable Considering the conditions and requirements the main question of the research will therefore be How to develop and implement financial modules as extensions of the current information system to coordinate a better flow of financial information between departments To find solutions to this problem the method as described in the next paragraph will be used 2 1 Method With the conditions and main question taken into account it is clear that the used approach or met
5. Add Delete Update contact Add Delete Update document View inquiries View orders Manufacturer Access View pop up Add Delete manufacturer Update general Add Delete Update contact Add Delete Update document View specs Update specs View products Supplier Access View pop up Add Delete supplier Update general Add Delete Update contact Add Delete Update document View components Articles Products Access View pop up Add Delete Copy product View groups Add Delete Edit groups Update general incl drawing Add Remove Components View orders Components Access View pop up Add Delete Copy product View groups Add Delete Edit groups Add Delete Update prices Update general Update favourite supplier View products Processing Inquiries offers Access View pop up Add Delete inquiry Make Decline inquiry Update general incl dispatch date Update people Update customer Add Remove Update products Orders Access View pop up Cancel order Update general Update customer Add Remove Update products Add Update After sales Product in orders View pop up Update general Update manufacturer Update planning 100 Add Remove Update comp
6. o0 3 Q fo S g o 2 g os wo co co alo Agreed price for two orders sets 565 656 09 09 2005 Extra prop hande 2fwerkna 34o 80 Figure 7 Example of pre calculation order 25108 All facts and numbers altered but still confident Creating after calculations Once in a while management decides it needs clear information about past performance of the company Then it is needed to compare the real order values with the pre calculated value Employees from the department of Purchasing are then saddled up with the task of setting up a new calculation from scratch They use the huge amount of information available from the payed invoices for supplies and manufacturing and try to re calculate as much orders as possible This is an enormous amount of work and takes many hours Figure B shows the after calculation of the same order as above 44 DUTCH MARINE TRADING DMT pre and aft calculation order number order date sales 19 09 2005 estem Total purchase pr winch type order date design real total purchase pr drawing number order in production difference in EUR weight delivery date paid item produc _Order date p pc kg q tot pr pre est pr difference dwn pmniamount_restinvoice del Date ___deliverer y remarks tripomet y 4 2 1 6000 3434 2566 25 1500 4500 extra cost tripomet 0 0 0 corner procy 950 1 700 343 357 60 420 280 week 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 bosch n 0 0 0 3 3 0 0
7. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 retec n 0 1 0 343 343 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 schmit y 2375 1 45454 34343 11111 0 45454 schmit y 3675 1 454 343 111 0 454 sec y 3495 1 1541 3434 1893 0 1541 0 0 0 0 tripomet y 543 2 56 343 287 25 14 42 70 28 y 585 1 565 3434 2869 0 565 140 1 140 34344 34204 0 140 1250 1 6 34343 34337 0 6 3 6 43 37 0 0 6 0 3 565 43 522 0 565 56 3434 3378 0 56 0 0 0 15 1 65 343 278 0 65 Figure 8 Example after calculation order 25108 All facts and numbers altered but still confident Because one employee made a lot of after calculations in short time one format could be identified As can be seen this format totally does not match the pre calculation format This is an extra source of work 45 Appendix D Overview of information flows To get a clear view of the current ongoing information exchange between departments data flow diagrams have been drawn For acquiring insight and reference to the information as exchanged during the primary process these are very helpful An explanation about DFD can be found below The primary process at DMT consists at two major sub processes creating an inquiry and fulfilling an order For intelligibility these two processes are also separated in the diagrams The second part of this appendix provides information about the new information system New specifications Sales Receive inqui Request for Possible to process specifications specifi
8. Managing IT infrastructure standardization in the networked manufacturing firm Int J Production Economics 75 213 228 Daft R L 2001 Organization Theory and Design 7 edition Cincinnati Ohio U S A South Western College Publishing Drury 2004 Management and cost accounting 6e ed London Thomson Learning inc Gattiker F T and Goodhue D L 2003 ERP through organizational information processing theory Information amp Management 41 2004 431 443 Giannini F Monti M Biondi D Bonfatti F Monari P D 2002 A modeling tool for the management of product data in a co design environment Computer Aided Design 34 1063 1073 Gupta M and Kohli A 2006 Enterprise resource planning systems and its implications for operations function Technovation 26 687 696 Han K H and Do N 2006 An object oriented conceptual model of a collaborative product development management CPDM system Int J Adv Manuf Technol 28 827 838 Heerkens J M G 2001 Inleiding Technische Bedrijfskunde onderdeel Methodologie Enschede Universiteit Twente faculteit Technologie en Management dictaatnr 360 Hoffer J A et al 2002 Modern Systems Analysis and Design 3 edition Upper Saddle River New Jersey U S A Pearson Education Inc Holland P Light B and Gibson N 1999 A critical success factors model for enterprise resource planning implementation Proceedings of the 7th E
9. as well as some financial projects for example getting a credit line Legal Management DMT Group employs its own lawyer who is responsible for contract elaboration obeying contracts and Romanian laws and preventing the company for legal problems Especially in a country like Romania with much legislation this is necessary HRM The HRM function is a combined function of the financial manager and the lawyer They are together responsible for labour contracts and negotiation with governmental labour organization The soft part of HRM is most of the time done by Ter Schure himself Facility management lulia Grigore is in charge for facility management This function consists of cleaning the office and taking care of food and drinks for all employees from Koster IT Systems 42 Dorin from the department of engineering takes of the IT infrastructure in the company The company has one central server and around 23 local workplaces all connected to one workgroup Programming the database was the responsibility of temporal trainees together with a consultant from Tempo Labour Currently Liviu T is made responsible for handing out new passwords and maintaining the database Managing processes Management just introduced new guidelines for handling human resources Every department now has a team leader who is responsible for team performance and the personal atmosphere this is to reduce pressure from Piet It also sets cl
10. exceeding of delivery time Friction between both quality and delivery time Growth of cost prices Increasing steel price Increasing energy price e Large dependency of only one customer Damen Shipyards Group o Risks e Overview in financials o Cost price calculations and comparison pre after calculation is not always carried out e Too strong growth of orders o High work pressure o Difficulty of hiring of qualified employees Employees are forced to do low skilled emergency work o Time to familiarize new employees o Chance for failures o Office space oo0o0o0o D DE o E D E o E D To structure these problems the following problem knot was used A problem knot displays the separate variables which are often interrelated By drawing arrows which define causal relations the underlying problems could be found It was chosen to exclude the lack of control over production process from the problem knot because it was outside the scope of the research 51 Figure 15 Problem knot 52 In the problem knot the following underlying causes orange can be distinguished There is no connection between pre calculation amp real time data No planning of future cash flows is sent from sales purchasing to finance Invoices are often incorrect There is a shortage in employees The customer demand is rising spectacular OP CoN The final consequence of these causes is a lower margin and profits But these causes are not
11. per se problems The fifth cause is for example a very positive fact Nevertheless the growth causes some problems at some specific places in the organization Therefore different employees say there is a shortage in employees But this research can t act upon this cause The same goes for the fact that delivered invoices are often incorrect The east European way doing business demands for accepting this fact Nevertheless in the final report some recommendations will also be made for solutions which are initially out of reach The focus of the research will therefore be on the first two causes Further research will focus on extensive sharing of financial information across departmental boundaries With this shared financial information a decent financial planning system can be developed In addition because of the high work pressure two important processes are not always carried out These are the making of an after calculation and checking of invoices A secondary research will try to find solutions or workarounds for this problem Also the lack of financial inside information asks for a 3 research for acquiring management information from the existing database In summary the research tries to implement solutions for the following problems e Because of local calculations important cost drivers are unknown e Short term planning of future cash flows is not available e There is no available management information so decision making is
12. 2 million tons and revenues of over 28 1 billion in 2005 The company owns steel making facilities in 16 countries spanning four continents employing 224 000 people Source www mittalsteel com Mittal Steel Galati is the largest integrated iron and steel works in Romania accounting for over 50 per cent of the country s steel production Built in the 1960s Mittal Steel Galati is an integrated blast furnace BOF operation with a capacity of 5 5 million tons Source http www mittalsteel com Facilities Europe Mittal Steel Galati 28 Tripomet Tripomet is a steel manufacturing company located in Galati and one of the main manufacturers for DMT products paid some visits to this company and received a guided tour to get more insight into DMT products and different processes http www tripomet ro INDEX_content html TempoLabour ICT Cristi Babas did most of the programming of the information system He is an employee of TempoLabour ICT a small company which delivers custom made ICT solutions www tempolabour ro List of appendices Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Appendix F Appendix G Appendix H Appendix l Appendix J Appendix K Appendix L Appendix M Appendix Theoretical background Five forces of Porter Extended function amp process overview Overview of information flows Extensive problem elaboration First interview outline Prototyping system developing
13. A ae PWD2100 i 26 4 CF 00 i 1 26 4 Equipped with integrated barke 486Nm adaptor set for 15 Articles a218 negn 3 hydr motorihydr motor type HR 80 D C32 With marine painting z ioe No Processing PRIMARY FUNCTIONS 29010 Nilos ring euii 6052 AV 25 2AE NO GROUP g Saas a Sales Engineering 29010 Steel construction Promex 2 Weight gt 15000 without spooling device 32 68 NO Purchasing Production Picture 10 Running invoices Every invoice has a status Running means that the goods are purchased and an invoice is coming or waiting to be paid and paid means that an invoice is paid and can be considered history Let s go back to the screen It is a very basic system but it has quite some more or less hidden functionalities Therefore it is more or less a list Excuzes moi but try to find each point mention it will really help you in your future work You see different columns with different headers Every row represents one component of an invoice You can match the invoice to the row by looking at the order number and the supplier of the goods The other columns are e Quantity the amount of components ordered e Description description of the components e Week to pay The week in which you probably need to pay the components It is an estimation done by purchasing e Value The amount of money you have to pay in euros without TVA e Paid Under this header you find a button If you press this button the status of the invo
14. Add inquiry Microsoft Internet Explorer inore Inhernet E WELCOME TO DMT OESIGN I1 5 Picture 1 add inquiry After you press add the inquiry is added to the system Automatically it gets a certain inquiry number and the inquiry is opened Managing an inquiry and creating calculations The open inquiry shows different tabs on top of the screen like General People Customer Products and Offers If you see this for the first time browse through it and read the information in the chapter about the basic structure of the database This is very useful You can add information about this specific inquiry here Below in the screen you see a large empty grey field some figures and an add prod button This is the calculation field To make a calculation for a customer you need to add products to the inquiry by pressing this button A pop up appears Picture 2 shows what happens ps 82 79 118 35 Inquiry details Microsoft Internet Explorer Z https 82 79 118 35 Add product on DMT 788 Microsoft Internet Explorer Anchor mooring winch AMW 110 E32c electric driven Aftwinch liv AMW 210 E36 k2 electric driven Forewinch AMW 110 H36c hydraulic driven Aftwinch Drawing Weight Kg AMW 210 H36 hydraulic driven Forewinch Lenght xfwidth Height mm AMW 201 E19 AMW 201 E24 a AMW 222 E42K3 AMVWv 101 E34c AMMWV 220 H32 Forewinch AMW 110 H22c Aftwinch AMW 210 H34c Forewinch AMW 110 H34c Aftwinc
15. ERP architecture should be established before deployment taking into account the most important requirements of the implementation This prevents reconfiguration at every stage of implementation Wee 2000 page 294 Monitoring and evaluation of performance Milestones and targets are important to keep track of progress Achievements should be measured against project goals The progress of the project should be monitored actively through set milestones and targets Monitoring and feedback include the exchange of information between the project team members and analysis of user feedback Holland et al 1999 There should be an early proof of success to manage skepticism Rosario 2000 Page 294 295 Data Flow Diagrams The diagrams in this rapport use the following symbols to show the former physical and logical information systems Used symbols This symbol This symbol sina represents a process Manufacturer represents an external was where data is entity cues transformed The executing department is stated in bold This symbol Specification This symbol Excelsheet represents a represents a flow of datastore data Table 7 Used symbols DeMarco amp Yourdan sets A flow of data can be best understood as data in motion Actions or work performed on this data is being done during processes for example checking a received invoice Data is at rest in a Because time was limited the da
16. a problem because its increases the resistance against the system On the other side the system can be considered very reliable as long as all users cooperate and keep paying attention to the relevance and quality of the data they provide User demographics All users have an academical background and are used to work with computerized systems Nevertheless some users show some problems in working with the database They are hesitating in using it and are uneasy while browsing through it Attention is needed for this point Organization support Users need extensive support to master the skills needed to work with the new system This must be provided by the organization The following two points of support need to be provided e Process support It is crucial to train the users in using the new system as a replacement of their former business processes This training will provide the initial needed skills to start with the system The existing manual will be updated to provide back up information about the system This manual can be found in appendix J During the former failed implementation an extensive manual was available for the employees which was never used Therefore small incentives like posters will be developed to support the employees on their workplace This old manual was also not suitable for a fresh introduction in the system therefore the set up of the manual will be changed quite radically just as the current procedure for ne
17. and 2 Acomponent is a by a supplier provided item which build up products and have a certain value determined by the supplier So for intelligibility it was chosen to build every product from at least one component With these definitions it was possible to keep the database structure clear and explain the reasoning behind it Employees from Sales sometimes purchase solid products and need to build this from one component following the previous reasoning Because of the intrinsic difference in goals these departments have it was therefore chosen to introduce a group of components the so called Solid objects An employee can add a certain solid product and then adds a generic component from the group solid objects Every inquiry needs a pre calculation but every inquiry is also built from products and often products are re used in new inquiries Therefore it was chosen to connect the pre calculation directly to the products While adding products to an inquiry automatically the specific calculations are added too Like this product calculations only have to be created once Because flexibility was a requirement also on inquiry level calculations amp specific components can be added With this possibility the total calculation is made editable This also counts on order level because revisions of order occur regularly After making an order from an inquiry it must still be possible to revise the order and its configurati
18. and different employees is based on product specifications rather than the product itself Also design of products will benefit from standardization Designers should be able to use the same underlying databases to work effectively No longer is product data management a local issue but one that is becoming crucial for interactions between different business areas page 226 An extended enterprise resource planning can be used to introduce such standardization Standardized systems such as ERP are influenced positively by the level of interdependence among organizational sub units Interdependence is the degree to which sub units must exchange information or material in order to complete their tasks Interdependence increases the need for mutual adjustment and decreases the degree to which activities can be pre planned When interdependence is low simple coordination modes like standard operating procedures suffice By contrast high interdependence increases the need for a common formalized language in order to enable the exchange of information among sub units If sub units of a firm need to exchange information and materials then ERP should facilitate this flow After all data standards eliminate the burden of reconciling or translating information that is inconsistently defined across two or more sub units Data standards also do away with the potential for translation or reconciliation errors as well as ambiguity about a field
19. button 83 button with Make order Click on this button and the following screen will appear picture5 I https 782 79 118 35 Offer Microsoft Internet Explorer OVERALL INQUIRY DETAILS DRAWING 6580 evi End fastening device for anchor chain 7 J07 Espoo eA aee 1912 a k M e eacop cercei Picture 5 make order You can use this screen select the products you want to have in your order give an order number and delivery date If you press the Accept the order is created Don t press this button unless you are working with a real inquiry because orders cannot be deleted from the system Let s delete this test inquiry Return to the main screen by closing all pop ups you are in and verify you are in the General screen of the inquiry On the top right corner of the screen you ll see a Delete button Just press it and your inquiry is deleted and lost for always Working within an order To see what you can do with orders in the system read the chapter about the system basic structure but even better just start working with the database when you receive a real inquiry from a customer When you create an order into the system from an inquiry the total pre calculation is copied to the order From now on you can control the calculation by going into the order from the order list Click on Processing orders and you will see the order list Click on the order number you want informatio
20. clients are large shipyards which order custom products for their ships under construction The market can be found worldwide but most of the clients are of Dutch origin as there is the best existing network At the moment DMT is expanding to Eastern European countries the Middle East and even the United States of America A more elaborate market analysis has been done using the five forces model of Porter 1980 This complete analysis can be found in appendix B 2 4 Organizational structure The location of DMT Design SA is the unofficial headquarters of the DMT Group Other company s included in this group are DMT Sales Ltd From the Netherlands and DMT Production Ltd from Ukraine These companies exist because of import and export legislation The DMT Group does not exist as a legal entity but because of the close links between the companies it chosen to call it like this Shares of the group are divided in the following way Koster 2006 e DMT Design SA o 88 by Piet ter Schure o 3 by Marianne ter Schure o 3 by Cornel Hincu Liviu Trimbitaru and Marian Darie Head designers e DMT Sales Ltd 100 owned by Dutch salesman Gerben Donselaar e DMT Production Ltd 100 owned by Ukrainian production manager Oleg Kozyrko Currently the company has 23 employees The following functional structure gives a view of responsibilities Figure 1 Piet ter Schure General Director M Galatanu G Georgescu L Barbalata Pur
21. implement a calculation module was postponed en is therefore necessary Porter and Millar propose that IT will play a strategic role in an industry that is characterized by high information intensity in both the value chain and the product Mooney et al state 1996 page 74 that firms especially derive business value from IT through its impacts on intermediate business processes which comprise of all operations that form a company s value chain It is therefore needed to look at this value chain and in special the part of making calculations In chapter 2 5 it can be read why making a pre calculation is an important activity in the value chain It handles huge loads of information from different sources The product of pre calculation is an attempt to bring structure in this large available amount of information see for some examples appendix C Current and future prices and alternative designs are distilled and combined until one offer remains which needs to match at least and reflect the future conditions for production with a certain margin for safety and profit In Porters and Millar s intensity matrix 1985 the product of this activity is a product with high information content and a high a information intensity of the activities constructing this profit These sort activities are critical for IT re engineering according to Porter and Millar obviously activities that represent a large proposition of cost bear closest scrutiny par
22. it In the company the calculation is used by at least 3 people but in fact more people need input for it something what is impossible right now Therefore probably a relatively large part of the company should be able to use it After this conclusion the question remained if the calculation in practice at DMT design could be re engineered to a regulated flow of activity and if both software and process could adept to each other Different employees supported this possibility and confirmed also it was needed They also believed that it was possible although the process of making the pre calculation is quite complicated Akkermans amp Van der Horst again supported this they conclude that this applies especially where communication between customers and different employees is based on product specifications rather than the product itself page 226 Together with management users and the ICT specialist it was then decided it should be possible to re engineer the current process towards higher grade of standardization The project was feasible 3 3 The long term planning of cashflows From the problem knot appendix E it can also be concluded that the process of handling invoices could also be improved Employees from different departments mentioned the amount of work included with checking transferring and paying invoices Information about receiving and sending invoices was not shared freely across departmental boundaries As can be se
23. list will be made Which information is in use in the different departments How does this information flow Is this efficient and effective Which problems occur e Information flow requirements must be verified in the current database design What is technically possible with the current database structure Which technical extensions are needed Which information is therefore needed e Theory from literature about introducing new financial extensions will be collected to acquire theoretical background What does theory advice on introducing extensions to existing systems Which information can be used to create management reports Design e For the different requirements different alternative solutions will be made together with the IT specialist In what format do users want to receive their new information How can this desired format be translated in a specific technical design Implementation e Together with users the best solution will be implemented How to deploy the new extension and train the new users e This solution needs to be evaluated extensively 67 On which criteria should the extension be evaluated Are users satisfied with the extension Conditions Of course the assignment has limitations and has to meet some conditions e Time is limited In a maximum of 14 weeks the assignment needs to be designed implemented and evaluated e The chosen solution has to work together with the existing information systems A
24. little bit of the fantastic experience had in Romania drips of these pages Pieter Vernooij August 2006 1 Ciorba de Burta is a traditional Romanian dish Multsumesc mult is Romanian for Thank you very much 3 No translation Management summary This rapport deals with the development of an information system for DMT Design SA a medium sized company located in Galati Romania This company is active in the international market for deck equipment It is growing very quickly in terms of turnover and in amount of incoming requests for proposals All departments are hiring new employees These developments ask a lot of attention from management to manage and coordinate all extra occurring problems Therefore management requested for more insight in running processes and underlying financial aspects of these processes It occurred that all calculations in the company were made on local computers without any sort of structure This leaded to interdepartmental tensions and to inaccurate cost prices Coordination of making calculations appeared to be impossible and it was also impossible to acquire financial management information To develop the desired output of management information and insight into business processes it was chosen to restructure all product calculations as made in the company This was done by the creation of a calculation module which fitted into the company new ERP system This module offers a clear str
25. minor layout bugs also came to the surface which could be fixed quite easily The manual was adjusted and not introduced because of the option of live support Evaluation of system with users e After a week using the new system the The department of sales supported system will be evaluated and the the system The person which had go no go decision is taken This will most problems was still uneasy and 24 a died eo management confidence would support the system Pues Focus on satisfying users and collect Result week performance feedback Official start of system Personal meeting with employees to Small lay out changes and around collect newly risen user wishes Adapt 10 orders were entered in the system to satisfy users in term of lay system Some new calculations were out and small minor modification added hesitantly Provide performance increase benchmarks to employees and management to strengthen confidence in system and support 3 week Focus on final streamlining the system Sei e Provide technical support by Cristi No technical problems Table 6 Time schedule of implementation 4 6 Project evaluation Nah Lau and Kuang 2002 developed a framework with eleven critical factors for the successful development of enterprise systems This framework is used to evaluate the total project This evaluation can be useful for coming temporarily projects It is strongly recommended to read the unde
26. more difficult 53 Appendix F Framework interview This interview is designed to introduce myself in the company learn other employees and to get a rough view on processes occurring in the office Introduction e Short introducing interview about one hour e Reasons for interview o For myself Getto know you all better A lot of people with all different backgrounds competences and ideas o For my assignment To implement financial decision support systems in the IS and to evaluate the current work o For yourself to have influence things go in the office e Tell more about myself o Pieter Vernooij o 22 years old o Born and raised on a farm near Utrecht in the middle of Holland o Background Family 3 brothers 1 sister Hobbies cycling swimming running Student at the University of Twente the Netherlands Industrial Engineering amp Management o Internship abroad AIESEC Learn anew language Meet new people and get to know different culture D 0 Objectives Main objective e Getto know the people in general e Get to know how the new IS is received Sub objectives e Get to know the person and his her function o What is happening company functions o Why are things happening o Howdo things get done e Identify existing or possible problems e Vision on current information system e Vision on company own function Interview questions Personal information 1 Can you tell something more about your backgrou
27. o mwe Figure 26 Received invoices 668 H When components are bought they are automatically added to this overview only available for some selected employees By offering some different selection mechanism the employee can easily check for different types of invoices Also some additional buttons are made for converting valuta and changing invoice statuses to paid More about the shown solutions can be found in appendix M the user manual In this manual the different systems are explained thoroughly 65 Appendix J Plan of approach Before starting the assignment a plan of approach was made in advance After 2 weeks of problem analysis this plan of approach is corrected to the new perceptions and insight information Main question The current problems are extensively described in appendix E with the use of a problem knot After analyzing this knot it can be concluded that it is needed to exchange financial information more efficient en effective between departmental boundaries This will lead to lower work pressure and a better insight in some planning and general financial processes The main question of the research will therefore be How to implement certain desirable extensions of the current information system to coordinate a better flow of financial information between departments To be more specific the research tries to implement extensions for the following problems e Beca
28. of finance can start trusting this financial information as provided by these departments This will take time probably till the end of 2006 It is tried to give employees extensive personal training something they often reject because of a lack of time Therefore the manual is adjusted so that employees can walk trough a tutorial for self learning Further steps An extensive company wide evaluation is then needed to track weaknesses and find the ongoing problems and their causes found that a lot of the menus developed by Koster are not used especially in the primary functions part of the system These menus need to be evaluated thoroughly and employees need to be pointed on their usefulness While writing this all important financial information is being made accessible with the system This is a huge step for the system but the advantages which can be used after a couple of months are also extensive After a positive evaluation of the system and the quality of data it contains the next financial extensions can be introduced These will not be very difficult to introduce because the basics are already created during the current development In the following paragraph some possible extensions from my point of view are described for more creative extensions recommend the work of Koster 2006 After calculation All calculation information is currently being administered into the database just as the real prices of components The over
29. or Apply There are all kind of groups defined where components are placed in If you cannot find a component first look again in another group than ask a colleague and otherwise enter a new component to the list Practice with the skill of finding and adding the components the way you want It is an important skill to master and only practice will help you When you created a complete list of all components you can sort the component list by clicking on the headers in the table For example you can sort on name and on the component group Remember it is very important to fully build up the products from the components The department of Sales is able to save this information in a product so it can be re used in next orders You will only have to do it once The next step is adding and changing financial information You can click on the price to change the price of the component for this order If you negotiated about the price and received a lower price for it you can change it here Next to the price you see the following columns e Total amount Total is the quantity of identical products you are working with Amount is the quantity of identical components which are in 1 product Conclusion you are working with a Total number of identical components e Down payment You can enter the amount of down payment and in which week DMT probably needs to pay this and the rest of the payment and then press the plus button 89 After this y
30. see almost the same as in the inquiry overview but with some extra functionality There is a row in the table that shows the sales responsible and with the filter you can show the inquiries you want to show for the defined responsible Engineering In the Engineering overview you can see all products that need to be designed at the moment Those are sorted on the Engineering deadline as set in the planning tab of the product in order pop up Here it is also possible to upload the file with the free supply components Purchasing For the Purchasing overview all products that are in Engineering Preparation or Production phase and for which not all components are bought yet are shown in the table Production For the Production overview all products that are in production are shown After sales The orders for which there were after sales problems that had to be solved are shown in this table For After Sales there are three types of status Research Pending and Solved 98 Supporting functions The supporting functions part of the system contains information that is useful for those departments At the moment most of these pages are not finished yet Only for HRM some pages are ready to use These will be described below HRM In the HRM part of the system all employees are stored and there is a page for the user administration which contains all users for the system their sources and their types with the corresponding user rights
31. specific financial values it will be updated automatically After some time your order is delivered and your product is exactly defined as engineering drew it In other words it is time to save the product configuration This is very easy Click in the order list on the specific order you want to open Click on the products tab On the right you will see a Configuration column with a Save button Click on it and all components as configured in the Components tab are saved to the product with some additional information like drawing number and so on Remember a product has to be saved before you can re use it in a new inquiry This ends the tutorial Noroc 86 The tutorial for the department of purchasing The department of purchasing forms the backbone of the information system by keeping track of the prices of the free supply components Updating amp adding components In the main screen you see on the left the following buttons under Databases Articles gt components You will get a huge list of components which you can sort using the buttons on top like Group and Supplier All kind of information is displayed like supplier and price The screen should look like this Q gt x a f Pi H O 33 qe 2x Current page ARTICLES Components DMZ Domene rn tn cn DATABASES Anchor AN 000008 195kg SHHP standard pes 1090 00EURO SEC Groningen deel 3pcs SCHMITT HIGH Art
32. the department of finance automatically receives an alert that an invoice needs to be paid The department of finance is than able to change the status of the invoice to paid 3 4 Real time management information Hoffer 2002 uses the following definition of a management information system MIS A MIS takes the relatively raw data available through a transaction processing system and converts them into a meaningful aggregated form that managers need to conduct their responsibilities page 16 For creating such a system it is therefore needed to collect the following knowledge e What raw data is available and how can this be analyzed and exported Which data is missing e How do managers want to see their meaningful representation Following these points of attention it was easily found that management desired the following information from the system Stakeholder Needed information Source Long term overview Finance general Future total cash flow of Calculation Barchart of future cash flows management orders module components module Forecast of turnover General management Future cash inflow of Calculation Linechart orders module Forecast of Sales general Deadlines of activities Order database Barchart deadlines management following from orders engineering finished production finished Difference between General management Estimated price order Aftercalculation Table pre aftercalculation head of Sales real price o
33. the system Producing an order After a customer decides to accept the inquiry employees transform the inquiry into an order The status of the order is registered depending on the department the order is in Departments can attach separate documents to the order Also the delivery date of an order can also be checked and controlled Functions The system only had basic functionality It created a platform in wich it was able to maintain all necessary information about a project order or inquiry and all relations it holds with stakeholders and underlying components The usage of statuses and the possibility to assign certain deadlines to these projects give the ability to plan the creation of a product The creation of functional overviews for each department made it possible to see all running work for this department This is very useful for planning and controlling purposes Overview This paragraph contains some screenshots of the system just before it was introduced Z DMT Information System Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edit view Favorites Tools Help ea Q ex amp x Ej JO search ip Favorites B os E i m 33 Address al https 82 79 118 35 new 20menu index_2 php x Go Links gt Startup of the system Relations Articles Processing Next Friday 19 May the first information can be entered in the system as we finish the tests and programming and clean the test information This means that t
34. this thesis builds The first paragraph is a short summary for the following theoretical underpinnings and the last paragraph explains the used techniques and tools in the rapport Summary An effective and efficient pre calculation is crucial requirement for a good and clear company performance To acquire this level of performance an intense inter departmental collaboration is needed This can be achieved by standardization of procedures and IT infrastructure dependent on the characteristics of the specific process Standardization also offers huge benefits in the area of the product data management with its direct link to the process of calculation cost prices The implementation of these ERP systems asks for good project management and a firm analysis of the company characteristics Cost models Layer et al 2002 describes costs as the sum of money expended in terms of labour materials use of equipment etc to produce a good There are two different purposes for which a company assigns these costs to products The first reason is for internal profit measurement and external financial accounting requirements The second reason is for providing useful information for managerial decision making requirements The first reason does not require cost allocating to individual products the second does as Drury states 2002 For accurate decision making it is therefore necessary to assign goods accurate to products This happens in the proces
35. towing winch Capstan Logout Switch user sn Address E https 82 79 118 35 new 20menu index_2 php Product description test 2 test copy ATW H19 200KN ATW H19 200KN test 2 ATW H19 130KN CE SOKN test 2 ATW H19 130KN CE SOKN test 2 ATW H19 130KN CE SOKN test 2 ATW H19 180KN CE S50KN test Order nr 26011 26012 26012 26012 26013 26013 26013 26014 26014 26014 26015 Drawing Deadline Remarks tak eee 321 321 Wit 1212 21112 1111 1212 21112 1111 1212 21112 Wit 1212 lt Figure 14 Functional overview for the department of engineering An overview can be created directly to see which products are currently processed by this department 50 Appendix E Extensive problem elaboration In interviews with employees some very different problems became visible These problems are at first structured with the following list e Important calculation information is not shared across departmental boundaries o Employees think they are omitted in supplying important knowledge Attitude Less understanding of work Recent cost drivers are unknown and slow reaction on changes There is a lot of traffic with invoices Lack of knowledge of responsibilities and competences Unclear procedures Disturb during work incoming phone calls e Lack of control over production process o Low reliability of subcontractors Low influence on production process Sometimes delivery of poor quality Sometimes
36. users are with the system the more they will use it Adel M Aladwani proposes that many ERP systems fail because of workers resistance 2001 page 266 He therefore suggests an integrated process oriented conceptual framework for implementation consisting of three phases knowledge formulation strategy implementation and status evaluation pages 269 273 e Knowledge formulation The first step in effectively managing change introduced by IT is to identify and evaluate the attitudes of individual users and influential groups e Strategy implementation phase Using the knowledge about attitudes an effective strategy can be developed to change overcome users resistance 34 e Status evaluation A timely accurate and systematic evaluation can provide dynamic feedback to management This way the achievement of business outcomes can be evaluated This evaluation can be done by comparing the implementation with the critical factors for successful implementation as defined by Nah Lau and Kuang 2001 The identified the following eleven factors taken and summarized from page 289 to 294 ERP teamwork and composition The ERP team should consist of the best people from the organization The team should have a mix of consultants and internal staff so the internal staff can develop the necessary skills for design and implementation The team should be familiar with the business functions and products so they know how to support business process
37. which are directly from the pre calculation are red in this component list if you change any variable or purchase them they will become black Later more about these actions The department of purchasing is responsible to update this list to an exact copy of the parts list as 85 created by engineering but Sales needs to purchase the components from some specific groups for example the group of steel construction find your steel construction in this list and check if the characteristics like amount and description or supplier match your desired characteristics If yes the next step is adding and changing financial information You can click on the price to change the price of the component for this order If you negotiated about the price and received a lower price for it you can change it here Next to the price you see the following columns e Total amount Total is the total quantity of identical components you are working with Amount is the quantity of identical components which are in 1 product Conclusion you are working with a Total number of identical components e Down payment You can enter the amount of down payment and in which week DMT probably needs to pay this and the rest of the payment and then press the plus button After this you can press the Purchase button The financial data is automatically copied to create the financial overview Very helpful for other departments You can always cancel the purchase or change the
38. CHASING cccsssseeee 87 Updating amp Adding COMPONENES oisean n Eae i ae ok E Ee EEE 87 Adding Components tO AN Order nison e o E E E E E E amp 8 THE TUTORIAL FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE sssseeeeeseenenees 91 The forecast of coming cashflows ccsccesccesecesecntecnseeseeeseeeseeeecesecesecnsecaecuaecsaecaaeeaeeeneees 91 Relations nes inen eR estes iar Se a e a RU e Ree Bots ha T aE A EENES Era 93 ATHCLON oii eia E a Rtv ds eet ee r len Aste Tee asa r oE Ka eieae 93 PHOCESSING cs inei i e a e a ae EE AEE a A eire aE aa R anede ea 94 PRIMARY FUNCTIONS rieiiiisinei ct ccadeteadinsciuahacantessaeieceenioaaiauaieachqucceaetuatieaciwannade 98 SQL eS sisted SoS A ea GN alah Mou AR Od fe we Bist eit al Sarees ERSE 98 Engineering ririn die vececubeviatdcsatsnsindsountdnsdvesydessbecberscbentsquideveitesesedeenbeecdievscensber s 98 P rchasin giuri noaee ncedebei vind obile E duet aa dves dn E bin dGbenncobigedetedesndtbndeeetiisvacentberts 98 PHODUCHON Aste Bb Re PE Use oat Fes a VBE ob as hs Ste ean agate OERE Be eee 98 Aftersales inn abe eS ea sdk ainda babs cab i one VE Lan Toa aad Lada ria Bota via dasa da Eaa Cathe atas 98 SUPPORTING FUNCTIONS sissinctcseaucessnsetiecuanaumawudvavducvansinnnaeieeceadauindinsetiedianas 99 TERM ERRE gel ugea sh gesi2ts co edeayes vated ce tvneteg su E ngsns Gh ce oabevt ens Se toed rete eteg setae Hee 99 FUN GNC sess cosh isos foeves sites Hs ani sas feeei E deve ssdads ak Gatiseta dean apeae
39. CHOR 1 Schmitt weight 240kg Anchor HHP POOL N 1250kg standard irae 50kg i SEC Groningen 3850 00 EURO pcs POOL N anchor weight 1250kg in fully 935 00 EURO pes 500 00 EURO Ss Picture 3 add component to product Remember that you only have to add component for one product no matter how many you products you added to the inquiry You see that you can choose the component group and the preferred supplier This will automatically make a selection according to these choices By clicking on a checkbox you re able to select the preferred component which will be added by pressing on Add or Apply As an employee of Sales you will not have the ability to change the prices you can only put in the quantity If you don t know which component to use or what price it will have use the upper row in this component list Mark the checkbox enter a description the quantity in kg or pieces the preferred supplier and the estimated price The system will then enter this general component in the calculation There are all kind of groups defined where components are placed in If you cannot find a component first look again in another group than ask a colleague and otherwise enter just a general component 81 Practice with the skill of finding and adding the components the way you want It is an important skill to master and only practice will help you Make for example a test inquiry and practice with it freely When you
40. Contact information links to certain order Manufacturers Contact information links to certain order Suppliers Contact information links to certain products Order Date of delivery Order number link to certain customers amp employees amp products Product Description links to certain components Component Price description links to certain product Employee Contact information function links to certain order Table 11 Examples of data in databases The primary process The system is built around the current primary process and supports the flow of information as defined above To give an overview of functionality the use of the system during different phases of the primary process is summarized below This overview is rather basic but gives a clear insight in how the current system works 48 Incoming request for proposal A customer asks for the conditions for which DMT Design SA can deliver a certain product Employees then create an inquiry in the system This inquiry is built from old delivered products which is built from specific components The products are linked to the specific customer Other conditions like the delivery date are added A price is calculated separate in a spreadsheet Afterwards inquiry details and price are returned to the customer Negotiating about inquiry A customer often asks for inquiry changes and negotiates about certain specifications Employees register all following changes in
41. Extending a new information system with financial information for DMT Design SA Developing a calculation module for DMT DESIGN SA Company mentor Dhr P S ter Schure Tutor Pieter Vernooij Dhr H Kroon CONTENTS PER AGB viclesecocesseccncuacr wisp E A 3 MANAGEMENT SUMMARY 5 scssitecscusisseasscicneaneaictcaneadaecasuvascaaseshassasuciseeatesdaeensenice 4 INTRODUCTION ciissicsstccisnisvacivadivansentivacavedivasivadvudavecdbodi cinvosesewsiennsiaswonevsnenanvedide 5 PART I DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT csseseereeeseeneeees 6 Chapter 1 The external environmMent ccccccrcssscssrssssscsrsersessesersesscsersesscsscserseeees 6 Chapter 2 The internal environment cccscccsssscsssscssssccsssscssssccsssssssssecssssescesees 7 2 1 Tntroductiomand hist ry irera 5k ou e e e p E a E ge Santee as 7 2 ZARTODUCIS e E E E uae PRIS r ei aN eee E N 8 23 Markets en a E ee aa Tad a Ge ae shay E O T 8 2 4 Organizational Structure snie p E aa E EE hee ane EE E E 8 ZI Lhe prima rA DL OCOSS ene ste te E Leap ees E E th Wiese e E E 9 2 6 INJOVINGTON process OSes n en E E EEEE oan e EE de eke E 10 PART 2 THE ASSIGNMENT viieistscsteronctonnauccccsindaucsutsareuandwsmeeaidesccanaeunacenees 12 Chapter Te SW O Trarnall ysis g scseeisessciatecascensovinceasssaccvansvovvesascasecsneenseena rotse e reseteo tsaso 12 Chapter 2 Analysis problem formulation amp method cccsssccssssccssssccssssceees 13 Di
42. F REFLEC TION iictacticnctenticcereatacacteatuenetestieactcubinacheutdenatensieasteasuled 30 LD The COMPANY svescacecececsEacseesesclebeck ia iakecesnesvacabesdtssacedsbesindaventiadigecbaedeunsvsulibeskisesteveceesbucts 30 LD The ssignment necerte eiieeii aaie SE Ea Tr eE NSE Eaa aa SET aE 30 LB Challenges Gnd Skills nonnene ioia EE E a 30 1 4 The international experience cescccescccesceescecsseceensececeeeacecsceesacecsceeeaeecsseeeeaeecsaeeesaes 31 APPENDICES A M 32 102 Preface Thanks for opening and reading my report In the following will give you a short introduction about its contents and thank some people who really own a lot To graduate as a bachelor student in Industrial Engineering amp Management an external assignment needs to be solved To fulfill this demand searched for an international assignment and found one in Galati Romania DMT Design S A a medium sized company which designs and trades deck equipment had an interesting problem The company introduced a new information system and wanted to extent it directly want to lay emphasis on the word new in the previous sentence an important factor in the research and therefore also a part of the title of this report How this research was carried out and how solutions were developed is the main part of this report But that is of course only one side of the story During my internship really had a fantastic time in Romania In DMT was free to work indepe
43. Sales price unit total price all components design unexpected margin over the costdrivers specified before certification transport customs fee The checkboxes provided combine the different values of the purchasing and sales prices to some total order values for purchasing and sales when checked It is also possible to sort the component list by clicking on the Item or price item header Collapsing and expanding this complete component list is possible by clicking on the product name Next to the calculation information every product has a status Active Optional when it is not sure if this order can be ordered and History when things changed in the inquiry Next to that new products can be added and existing can be removed To add a product it is required that the standard product is available in the product database The three specific functions for an inquiry are the following e Make offer this buttons opens a new pop up which gives the message that the current offer product configuration is saved to the offer history with the date of offering From the offer tab an order can be created with the next button o Make order this buttons opens a new pop up in which a new order can be made with an automatically generated order number The description field is copied from the inquiry but can be changed When making the order it is possible to upload the calculation file as it can be useful for the Purchasing responsible h
44. This would mean a lot of extra work because an order consists of tens of components Extensive discussions with the suppliers and users of information respectively the departments of purchasing amp finance were started to try to find some general rule of thumb to be able to create the forecast After all this appeared to be impossible It was then decided to just introduce these fields in the module when components are added to the final part list All needed data was therefore present to create the planning tool Anew module strictly for the department of finance was created Appendix H contains the final tool created and the mode of operation The following list contains some basic structure choices e It is totally unpredictable which components are on a supplier invoice For example ordering 10 different components at the same time from the same supplier can result in 1 till 10 different invoices which can arrive on different times It was therefore not possible to add more or less identical cash flows each unique component and multiples from a supplier results in one invoice forecast e As became clear from the requirement determination a time accuracy of one week was needed and therefore introduced e A direct connection with the ordered parts was established Cancellations of purchases and changes of any variable like payment week quantity of goods and total amount of money is therefore automatically transferred to the financial over
45. Ve MONO sre Sea asc s3 oot 2 bs sabe dou E hata inka E E E 14 Chapter 3 Analysis requirements determination amp restructuring s000 14 3 1 Problems occurring because of the existence of local calculations 1cccceeeeeeeees 14 32 PCUSTOUILY ea cx enice causivas sd sue E vted sae E ex vous sath S E oor Magee een ae cei 15 3 3 The long term planning of cashfloWs seeoseesseeeeseeeeseeesrseesssreeresrseresrseeerseesrsreersse 16 3 4 Real time management information ccsccceccecsseceenceesseceeneecsseceeeeeeseceeeeecsaeceeneeenaeees 17 Chapter 4 Design of solutions sesssesssooesoocssocsssecssocesooesoocesoecssecesocesoosesosesoeessecesoceso 18 4 1 Problems occurring because of the existence of local calculations ccccseeeeseeeenees 18 4 2 The long term planning of cash fl0WS ccccccceecceecesecesecesecusecsecasecaeeeseeesseseseseeeaeees 21 4 3 Real time management information cccccccescceessecessceensecsseeeesceceseeeeacecseceeeacecseeeeeneees 22 4 4 System implementation rs seie a nner ireti e aE 23 4 9 Vime schedule siini a a E ane ethan RE e aan ete hee 24 4 6 Project ev ludti n sanninna a ike teases EE E eat a eee ee 25 BIBLIOGRAPHY naasna a a Sea D 27 GLOSSARY sicsirestieswtecasatin cesstenecenedcanauswdsueimced aeaaee a stivauanacivinanacestedunadatednsntdewnsens 28 LIST OF APPENDICES wigscicccsaussacestinicens saitesnscbinianscaitesnsasicecnguniacensidarecnseaianaeees 29 PART 3 SEL
46. alyzed the primary process from DMT with Porter s value chain Porter and Millar 1985 He proposed that the value adding activities in DMT are Sales Engineering and Operations which consists of design components purchasing inbound logistics production outbound logistics and after sales service And because DMT delivers custom made equipments the engineering part of the process is very value adding Also the components purchasing part is value adding because it makes difference when comparable goods are bought for a better price The production is not carried out by DMT but the quality control is and this can be seen as value adding The value created by the department of sales is of special interest of this research This department creates the first preliminary design which shape the boundaries and restrictions of the future product based upon experience and knowledge and often fix the future cost and profits of a project in an early stage of the product life cycle 2 6 Information processes The information being used during the primary process has been structured using a completely new information system This system has been in use since 01 06 06 It consists of two elementary data elements a products components database and an order inquiry project database Also data is stored about relations like employees customers manufacturers and suppliers This structure makes it possible to keep track of orders and inquiri
47. and Joshi P 1997 Methodologies for rapid and effective response to request for quotation RFQ s IIE Transactions 29 825 838 Websites http www anu edu au people Roger Clarke SOS StratISTh html retrieved on 11 08 2006 http www netmba com strategy value chain retrieved on 11 08 2006 http en wikipedia org wiki Romania retrieved on 01 06 2006 Glossary The external organizations which are mentioned in the rapport are described in this glossary AIESEC arranged my internship using the AIESEC exchange program AIESEC stands for Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales t is the world s largest student organization and 100 non profit More information can be found on http www aiesec org The local committee which helped me arranging my internship was AIESEC Twente http www aiesec nl twente which sent me and and AIESEC Galati http www aiesecgalati ro who received me and arranged the internship Damen Shipyards Damen Shipyards Group is a Dutch conglomerate of more than 30 companies around the world building all kind of ships A Damen shipyard is present in Galati which visited several times during my stay More information on www damen nl DMT Design SA The company in which had my internship The address of the company website is http www dmt design ro Mittal Steel Mittal Steel is the world s largest and most global steel company with shipments of 49
48. and information about how it works If you want more specific information reading the specific chapter about the concerning subject is recommended Just follow this walkthrough to get your first impression of the system Adding an inquiry Every order of DMT starts as an inquiry In the main screen you can click in the left under Databases on Processing inquiries offers This will lead you to the inquiry screen where you can add a new inquiry with the button on top add inquiry If you push this button the situation as in picture 1 appears In this pop up the first information about this specific inquiry can be added For example let s make a test inquiry by typing test in the Description and Comments field Just select a customer and don t worry we will delete this inquiry later 2 DMT Information System Microsoft Internet Lxplorer Q DAO Powe rome O GS La dhess E hetps 82 79 t18 ine naine 2 po v jo ed Google eito nederland y Gh OS P ra F tek 4 fj octions A Elato E nederland Current page PROCESSING Inquiries Otfers Running and Pending inquiry ar Description Customer DATABASES DMT 531 Anchor mooring capstan E 40K2 Anchor winch E 42K2 lamone Relations b DMI J45 Spud winches 20t and moormg winches 8t Bega Shippas Anicies DMI Frare Pallet Bos Processing PRIMARY FUNC TIONS RIT Chain 1 set Black Sea Seles DMI 74 Anchor winch E 16 Capstan 3t JA aian 3 https 82 79 118 35
49. ation system The old manual as created by Koster was used as a basic structure and knowledge base about the information system but in addition extensive support for new users was added in the form of a decent introduction and department based tutorials The manual tries to find a balance between adding rich pictures to guide users and making it a heavy and expensive to print and save document 74 Dutch Marine Trading S A Information system manual Authors May 2006 Maarten Koster August 2006 Pieter Vernooij Contents INTRODUG TION aenaran netee aaaea aeaa aaa aa aaaeeeaa a aaria 77 Why using an information system ssssessesesesssreessereeesrrererrsreesssrerteserreresresrssrnesreseseee 77 How does it WOrk ceirean osi o eE a TE EE EE EEE ET KE EE overs aeeee 77 Whatdo I have to do isnie ea r ee ETA savin EEE EE 78 Some general PEMGIKS 55 erci en rE S Ee EEEE EE E EN aTa SEEE EEEa Ea 78 THE TUTORIAL FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF SALES ccccssssseereesseeseeees 79 Adding aninguity 53 cocaine ta uerai o E heaved E T E REEE 79 Managing an inquiry and creating calculations sessseeeseeeseeeeersereersreereereerrerrrrereerse 79 M king GN Oder norinni tiea e n EE EE E AE E EEE ea aeS EAEE ATE 83 Working Within Gn order iiras eine a ei REKE a OA A E EIERE EE NIAE eaii iai 84 Purchasing components and saving a final PrOUct cccceecceeceeeceseceecnseenseeeeeaeeeneees 85 THE TUTORIAL FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF PUR
50. avy circumstances This is a remainder of the communistic period when just everybody was required to have a job Generally speaking people born before 1970 only speak Romanian and a little French Younger people grow up in a more international addressed Romania and speak also English Technological factors Romania is still trailing Western Europe on technological development Factory s often look outdated and work not very efficient from a Western European point of view For DMT Design this is not a problem because it s main product is relatively easy to produce as can be seen from the next chapter This limited technological development is therefore not a barrier Economical factors As can be seen from table 1 Romania s economy is rapidly growing last years Despite this development poverty is still a pervasive problem and modernization s effects are only slowly being felt in the country s rural areas 2003 2004 2005 2006 est GDP real change pa 5 3 8 3 4 1 6 GDP per capita 2350 2600 3100 4000 Inflation 14 9 2 8 5 5 Medium gross wage 220 250 285 335 Unemployment 6 4 6 3 5 6 5 FDI 3 9bn 5 1bn 6bn 8bn Mobile phone users 9 000 000 10 000 000 13 370 000 16 000 000 Cars production units 160 000 240 000 320 000 500 000 est Internet users 5 180 000 7 800 000 10 400 000 13 600 000 est Table 1 Markers of Romanian economic growth source www wikipe
51. calculation so do not enter unexpected mishaps here This can be entered in after calculation This order calculation works the same as the inquiry calculation In the other tabs for an order you can add and change a lot of variables Try it It is important you know what these variables do and how they work so test it out Purchasing components and saving a final product After engineering defined the final product by making a drawing the final product can be ordered and purchased by the department of purchasing They define the product by adding new components and replacing the components as you defined them before Of course this happens on a special place inside the system and new within your calculation But because the department of sales also carries out some purchasing tasks you need to know how to purchase items officially according to the system But of course this is quite easy Click on Processing gt Orders in the main screen in the top left corner Now you get the total order list You can see a lot of information about the running orders There is one column with the products which are in an order The name of the column is Products Status and you can click on these products which are in Find a specific order and click on a product Do it It will open a pop up with all product information and different tabs on the top You can see a components tab If you click on it you will see a screen like in picture 7 The components
52. cally Time Sales Enter Sales Povo specifications Change specs deliveryt Projects Projects Projects Future planning Figure 17 Invoice sending overview Available information Needed information Forecast of delivery date Confirmation Delivery date time Order nr Customer specification Value Downpayment Order nr Pay or not to pay Price Product description 57 Gadgets Automatic creation Planning purchasing products amp components To give an overview of future payments and to streamline invoice processing it is desirable to introduce a tool to make short term planning of future payments possible Needed actions functions Employees who purchase goods enter the specifications in the system The time of purchase time leads automatically to a delivery time of the products This parameter leads to the arrival of an invoice which has to be paid in a certain time Graphically Purchase of goods Arrival of invoice Purchasing Accept goods Projects Projects Future planning Figure 18 Invoice receiving tool Available information Needed information Product Down payment Order nr Price Data delivered scheduled Order nr Product description Confirmation to pay Client specification Gadgets Exportable management information automatic creation This scenario leads to the design of the followi
53. cas 1997 was used Key points to consider are described by following the 6 factors which influence a successful use of a system identified by Lucas These factors were used to create a path of implementation which tries to guarantee future use User s personal stake Employees from the department of sales have a very high stake in the new system They have to change their way of working quite radically This can lead to resistance with some employees because it needs time to change Extensive attention must therefore by provided by management to prevent this resistance This also counts for the department of purchasing on a moderate level Employees from the department of finance will probably have a low to zero level of resistance They don t have to provide input in other words extra work and only receive the benefits Sometimes the system requires data of an employee which doesn t support this employee s direct task Attention is needed to ensure the employee keeps providing this data and comprehends the relevance of this data for processes outside his or her department This will also reduces some of the interdepartmental tension Already some users have intensive experience with the system and make clear they really support the new systems while others are more reluctant and don t have experience System characteristics The system and its interface are quite static and don t have a very pleasant interface to work with This is
54. cations Kay specifications Inquiries orders Calculation History or key specifications Complete Complete Excel Design partlist design Design caiculatia partlist partist Engineering Specs ngineering Searc PP parts Specs components predesign Specs Partlist parts Specifications products Product amp components Specs unknown parts Specs products amp compontents aoe Posi parts Pert Request for specs products amp components Specifications products pon amp compontents Request for specs products amp components Request for specs products amp components Specifications products amp components Figure 9 Overview of information flows during inquiry phase 7 Important to note date of final revision 09 06 06 46 Order confirmation confirmation Excelsheet Invoice Specifications Specs needed paris Products New prices Payment Correction Specifications gineering Specs Invoice Finance Search for Supplier Receive paris Conditions invoice Gonditions Prices Invoice Payment Production Figure 10 Overview of information flows during order phase The IS before starting the internship This appendix contains all necessary information about the IS started working with In short the structure and its functions are explained here Also some screenshot are presented here This overview is rather basic For
55. chasing S Andronache Production Sales Projects Logistics Import Finance Legal 3 Quality 3 Export 3 L Trimbitaru Engineering 7 Figure 1 Structure of DMT Design SA The grouping of common functions from the bottom to the top of the organization defines a functional structure according to Daft 2001 As can be seen from figure 1 this is also the case within DMT But in practice DMT doesn t have a strict hierarchy From the figure can be seen that DMT design has a rather flat structure Director Ter Schure has overall management control In every department he delegated authority to an assistant but in the office it is noticeable that Piet really is the leading figure When people have questions they just ask Piet Slack 2001 uses another methodology to describe a company He identifies three core functions and different support functions in a company This analysis can be found in appendix C The next paragraph describes how DMT uses these functions to create value in its primary process 2 5 The primary process The primary process is the core process which creates value by means of certain products which can be sold to customers The primary process starts for DMT with active selling Customers have to be attracted by the products and services offered by DMT When they are interested a custom made offer will be sent by DMT for which DMT establishes a preliminary design if asked and a price overview after a sho
56. clude management information the data must also be available and accessible in a variety of ways and relationships between data must be clear The method used in this research will therefore have a process and data orientation Because of the availability of IT specialist Christi the prototyping approach for development was chosen This method distinguishes some different phases for system development To plan the different needed activities and tasks the system development life cycle as stated by Hoffer will be used This method distinguishes some different but nevertheless important phases for system development This document contains also somewhat redundant information for the sake of creating a overview procedure which can be read independently from the main report This is the definition as used by Associate Professor Van Riemsdijk 66 Pr identification and Selection Project initation and Planning Figure 27 System development life cycle as stated by Hoffer Because the available time is limited this cycle is carried out with the emphasis on analysis design and implementation These phases will be carried out almost parallel to shorten development time A close contact with users and IT specialists is therefore necessary Ongoing processes in these important phases are summarized below Requirements analysis e Very detailed user information must be gathered to give shape to the specific processes User wish
57. created a good calculation from the components you can sort the component list by clicking on the headers in the table For example you can sort on value and on name It is also possible to hide to component list Try it out It will make work easier when working with multiple products When you are finished with creating the preliminary part list you can add all kind of other costs to the product Remember you always need to consider the amount of identical products you are working with when adding these costs This means you have to enter the total value for these costs for all identical products The costs are the following e Transportation Three types of transport are defined to keep things comprehensible Inbound logistics for all transport to Romania Outbound logistics for all export from Romania and Rest which covers all transport where Romania is not intervening Just enter the origin and destination estimate the price and the system will add this to the purchasing price e Design Enter a design price kg and the system will automatically calculate the costs of design based upon the product weight You can also add just an extra single value e Customs Just enter the total expected value for customs e Margin Based upon the rights you have to access this screen you can add a certain margin on top of the product You can also add a single value e Certification e Extra costs In this screen you can enter the total value for u
58. critical evaluation of the chosen solutions and its achievements To develop the desired output of management information and insight into business processes it was chosen to restructure all product calculations as made in the company This was done by the creation of a calculation module which fitted into the company new ERP system This module offers a clear structure for different departments internal and external to the company It makes cost calculations quite easy and still quite flexible and open for different employees A lot of data is directly shared across departmental boundaries which prevents some interdepartmental tension But the system has its practical disadvantages It is quite static based on a PHP database and a lot of clicking not Window based and demanded an intensive training and adjusting period for employees They need to change their way of working quite radically and some need to do a lot 25 of extra work For example the department of Purchasing needs to add and maintain a lot 5000 of components These problems cause that the module is not completely in use Currently no calculations are made with the system and most of the newly added functions are not being used The extra module built for the planning of cash flow is fully dependent on the calculation module By selecting components being bought and adding orders it offers a direct link from Purchashing Sales which executes these actions to the depa
59. d you can search for general terms in the specific database A pop up with the results companies or contact persons that match will appear e Every relation company name can be clicked for a pop up with several tabs and functions There are three main tabs which return in every type of relation o General contains general contact information for the relation and some remarks o In Contacts you can add and delete contact persons for this relation It is also possible to make a user account for contact persons as external users The rights for these users and an interface to logon need to be added later as external use of the system was not one of the objectives o In Documents you can add document related to this company like contracts or for instance price lists Customers Specific tabs for the customers pop up are e Inquiries where all inquiries done by this customer can be found e Orders where all orders placed by this customer can be found Manufacturers Specific tabs for the manufacturers pop up are e Specs where typical specifications of a manufacturer can be checked in order to make it easier to find a suitable manufacturer for some products e Products where all products can be found that this manufacturer has produced or is producing Suppliers Specific tabs for the suppliers pop up are e Components where can be found what components this supplier is able to deliver Articles In the article databases a
60. d and removed easily e Orders shows the orders in which this standard product is used so it is easy to find how many of that product have been sold before e Copy This function can be used to make a comparable product This means that all components of the current product are transformed to a new one with a different description different drawings and a different weight Afterwards the components can be changed too Components The component database is a little more complicated as one component can be delivered by many suppliers against different and even changing prices For the Sales department these prices are relevant to make the calculations The Pp up available after clicking the component description contains the following tabs General containing general information about the component including the latest price per unit which is chosen in the same screen e Suppliers showing all suppliers that can deliver this component with their latest price A mouse over prices will show all historical prices of this supplier e Products shows all standard products in which the component is used Another pop up appears when the latest price in the main screen is displayed Here all historical prices are displayed In this screen it is also possible to delete prices To add a new price from a random supplier the in front of the latest price should be clicked Now the price currency date and supplier can be filled to add a n
61. d one from this database which will of course also be visible in the relations database e Products in this section all products that the customer would like to have can be added with the Add button A preferred manufacturer can be selected visible at mouse over the description the required drawing can be added and changed the classification that the customer asks can be seen and the amount of products can be set This is only useful when it is about one project If there are more of the same products with different preferred delivery days or manufacturers you should add one more product row Also the dimension estimated time of delivery weight and destination can be added to create input for the calculation module these are transportation parameters e Offer history Every offer made is saved together with the date of offering in to this section Specific products from history can be selected and re used again from this screen with the button add to current Calculation module By adding products to an inquiry it is possible to calculate the offer price When these products are produced for the first time by DMT it is needed that these products are defined by the add com By pushing this button the different components can be selected and added to the product and inquiry When products are re used they will re use the components used before Prices are then automatically updated to the latest developments and not updated pr
62. d the overall responsible is also visible in the general tab Furthermore some remarks about the planning and progress can be made in the special field and updated with the Update button e Components in the last tab of the product in order the components from the standard product from the product database are shown Components can be deleted and added to the local product easily the standard product in the product database will not change due to these actions When a component is purchased and or delivered the corresponding checkboxes can be checked When all are checked or when there are no components the purchasing is finished which can be seen in the planning By adding components also financial information is supplied to the department of finance When all products series in an order are delivered the status of the complete order turns into Delivered From then a new tab appears in the order pop up for After Sales In this tab a new problem can be added with some extra information about warranty estimated and actual costs Primary functions In the primary functions part of the system information relevant for several departments in the primary process is shown The screens resemble the database screens but the tables have different columns only containing information that is relevant for the concerning department Also in these tables the relevant entries are clickable to open a pop up Sales In the Sales overview you can
63. dia org STEP is an acronym standing for Socio cultural Technological Economical amp Political factors It can be seen from table 1 that the foreign direct investments doubled in 4 years The international industries for example shipbuilding therefore expands and this increases the demand for deck equipment as produced by DMT Design The average monthly wage is still very low compared with Western Europe but as people notice too the accelerating developments also means a rising of wage Corruption is a factor worth considering For example customs offices often need a fee or tip when importing or exporting Political factors DMT group s main office is in Romania in the city of Galati Since the capitalistic revolution of 1989 the country is a republic governed by a president which is democratically chosen every 5 year The legislative branch of the Romanian government consists of two chambers and the members of both chambers are elected every four years More than 15 years after the communistic regime was overthrown Romania is trying to cut its strings with the past and focus on a future within the European Union The Romanian judicial system is an inquisitorial system of strong French influence and there is a lot of legislation around doing business For this reason a legal advisor is necessary Area s that touch DMT s practice are labor legislation and international trade legislation Romania has been an acti
64. e chosen solution this will be likely to do in cooperation with the IT specialist in the company Also make the employees of the upcoming changes Train the employees in possible new ways of working and give a presentation of work done so far 13 Evaluation of the solution and its implementation and possibly formulate recommendations for further research Room for delay and working on the final report Table 12 Time schedule 68 Results The output of the research will eventually be a final report in which every important part is summarized A complete analysis of the process information flows within the organisation The current problems with this and its causes The solution for the problem worked out in detail The implementation plan for the solution The most valuable results will although be practical After all the goal of the whole assignment is in fact improving the organisation So at the end primary process information will be more structured most likely with an improvement of the information system and probably training of the employees to work in a new way Proposed final report structure The final report will be the main deliverable It will have the following structure Front page Title page Preface Table of contents Introduction Part l Description of the internship organisation Key facts Main products The process The market Strategy External environment Internal environment Organisational str
65. e the department of purchasing needs to realize by negotiating with a supplier Sometimes this causes interdepartmental stress and tension Giving sales control over components prices would do harm to this situation More about this delicate subject in the latter chapter about the implementation of the modules transport as a standard component and create a totally flexible module where employees could allocate these costs accurately Miss estimation of transport prices was a source of irritation between the sales amp purchasing and the specific separation of this cost driver could help solve this problem Properties of the product like data of delivery and place of delivery maintained and introduced by the department of sales are automatically copied to this menu e Customs Every product incurs costs for the passing of the borders of its supplies These costs need to be estimated although the system offers a default value e Certification Specific parts of the product need a safety classification A price can be attached to it just as the exact certification class and other specifications e Margin Employees can give a desired margin in for the product and add extra value to the product The module automatically calculates the total amount of margin Currently only 2 employee have rights to this menu screen e Design DMT Design calculates the price for product design by multiplying the weight with the kilo price Employees can give enter
66. e the path of introduction in the following schedule Also management had an important voice in this The results of the different phases were also added to this schedule to provide the input amp output of the different phases to the reader Focus on improving awareness of Result management support and involve users Show users stake in system and improvements to business process Extensive talks with management and key users to improve top down support and obtain employee awareness of support Give presentations to the department of sales and to department of purchasing to increase awareness and share knowledge Introduce the importance of using the system for the support of other departments Focus on mastering the use of the new modules Only comments about the static way of working in the system came to the surface during the presentation After the presentation for the department of sales management decided to launch the new system and do a 2 week try out The new system will be learned to employees by the providing of personal training Attention is needed for every detail and extensive comprehension Offer of support by introducing the new manuals to every employee and a demonstration how to use these This will provide back up information and support A member of the project team and the employees of sales made the first calculations together By this way these employees were learned to use to the system Some
67. ear how sheets are related to each other even within a single sheet there is clearly a lack of structure Indeed flexibility is mentioned as the most important requirement Employees define every new order as an unique product and emphasize the uncertain relations with suppliers and producers Nevertheless sales history is being used to obtain some kind of reference for the new order Users from the department of sales emphasized the importance of the process of going trough similar orders to acquire a product overview The use of history and analogies should therefore not be forgotten and sometimes complete products are also purchased by the department of sales a process which should not be restricted by the solution Also the solution needs to integrate the process of making pre and after calculation by making it easier and less time consuming Management asked for higher accuracy and a shorter response time to important changes Some new cost drivers needed to be included and researched Because of the high diversity of products and underlying components this is an important demand and in fact the key reason for this assignment It is possible to deduct some guidelines from literature for an alternative system of cost modeling This helped structuring the user wishes Layer et al explicitly state some requirements for an accurate cost model For theoretical background see appendix A e The model should offer a high level of accuracy It m
68. ear this system changed when DMT design SA in Romania became the central company From then the company in The Netherlands is only being used as a sales channel to ship goods from Romania to The Netherlands and vice versa Next to these two companies there is DMT Production Ltd in Ukraine which takes care of the production in that country Together these three companies act as the unofficial DMT Group or in short DMT Koster 2006 Table 2 contains some accounting key facts 2002 2003 2004 2005 Turnover 103 761 322 792 654 792 1 603 516 Gross result 20 982 64 785 70 187 12 380 Current assets 21 466 83 193 121 103 601 399 Total capitals 13 862 67 965 63774 76 738 Table 2 Key figures DMT design SA In the past four years the company continuously grew in number of orders and turnover Due to many investments profit did not grow continuously in these years Nowadays the company employs twenty three people on sales engineering purchasing quality finance legal and human resources The order portfolio is expanding vastly and there is pressure on the engineers to process inquiries The company does not assemble or manufacture products itself The manufacturing of DMT equipment is carried out in cooperation with factories in Romania and Ukraine This process is kept in control by daily check on stages carried out by quality inspectors allowing DMT to guarantee quality and fixed delivery ti
69. ear who is in charge when Piet is in the Netherlands This happens about one out of three weeks and then Cornel has the lead in the office There is a document in which all tasks responsibilities and competences of all employees are worked out This document is somewhat old but with a low turnover of employees and a stable organization everyone knows what is expected from him or her to do Former process of creating calculations This part of the appendix describes the former processes of creating pre and after calculations It also supplies an overview of the created data storages Creating pre calculations When a customer asks for an offer with certain specifications employees of the department of Sales start browsing in their inquiry order archive This is in fact just a folder with all past projects Based upon experience they select a similar project and alter the specifications Recent prices and updates are taken from an extensive list with prices from memory from received mail and from direct questions When more time is available and the project doesn t have similar antecedents the general specifications go the department of engineering They make a pre design which is transferred back to employees from Sales who fill in the details Some standard costs are then added like transport and customs fee Standard does not imply they are always the same in fact they are often highly variable After this the product price is decided a
70. eliverers of naval equipment who are also serving Dutch marine industry market Some names are Kraayeveld http www winches nl Ridderinkhof http www ridderinkhof nl SEC http www secni com and EMCE http Awww emce nl Because of the current globalization there are many other important competitors from all over the world for instance from the United States of America Threat of substitutes This threat is relatively small because most of the delivered products are custom made and can therefore not easily be substituted One of the main threats in this field can be found in the traders of second hand winches Dutch companies performing these businesses are Tenwolde http www tenwolde com and Marine Equipment Supply http www mestrading com Buyer power In the current industry the buyer decides exactly what he wants He asks different suppliers to offer a proposal and the best supplier will receive the order Because there are relatively few customers of which Damen Shipyards is the most important one this buyer power is very large and companies like DMT need to satisfy their customers very well The one advantage is that once an order is given it is very difficult for the buyer to switch Supplier power The supplier power is moderate The components used for the equipments can be delivered by many different companies The subcontractors who produce the DMT equipment have more power Forward integration is possible beca
71. em for instance the time for component prices to be old or the time in which an alert should appear For one formula already the settings are editable by management this is for the cost of capital formula Only manager Ter Schure has access to the settings Also the setting for adding the right to see confidential information is currently in the system General In this part of the system some general functions are placed to be used by every user Only a short description is necessary as this part is very easy to use Home Returns you to the home page where the DMT design newsletter can be found Everyone who is interested can post his or her news here 101 Search The search page is not finished yet but on this page there will be a possibility to search in all databases at once and a method to search advanced in the separated databases Logout When Logout is clicked you will be logged off from the system No information will be available anymore until you sign in again Switch user With the Switch user function you can logon as a different user When you logged yourself out by mistake you can logon again via this function 102
72. ems Customer satisfaction Figure 6 Extended primary process overview Source Koster 2006 This shows more detailed how a process stage is generally done or what is important in that stage There are a few remarks e For the offering stage a distinction between winches and other is made Winches are always designed by DMT and produced elsewhere Though it is also possible for a client to deliver the drawings then DMT in fact only takes care of production of the products at one of its subcontractors When this is the case of course every step around the Engineering function disappears from the scheme e For the purchasing stage there are two tracks buying the components to be delivered by DMT and finding a suitable subcontractor to manufacture the products to be delivered e After sales service is an important part of the primary process to solve probable problems with the delivered products in order to keep clients satisfied Supporting processes taken from Koster 2006 with modifications There are four supporting functions inside DMT in order to keep an optimal primary process ongoing Three people are in charge for this The functions and their responsibilities are described below Financial Management The supporting function about Financial Management is responsible for paying received invoices and payroll sending invoices to customers and taking care that everything is paid Bookkeeping is another important task
73. en an employee is added to the database it becomes a user also e Relation Next to employees also relations can become a user of the system These users will have no rights for the moment but in the future it can be possible to let customers or suppliers enter the system where relevant information for them will be shown To become a relational user one should be contact person for one of the relations They can be made user with the Make user button in the Contact tab of a relation e External Next to employees it is possible to make extra or external users which can have every type of rights To add an external user you can click the Add external user button in the main screen of the user admin page In the user administration all users are displayed with their Source Employee Customer Manufacturer Supplier or External their type which restricts the user rights and their function if known The most important is to set the proper rights for every type and to set the right type for every user The types can be seen and changed with the User types button A pop up appears in which all types can be seen A new type can be added there and the current types can be seen When clicking on one of the buttons a huge pop up appears with all the user rights The meaning of the small descriptions is described in table 12 Databases Relations Customer Access View pop up Add Delete customer 99 Update general
74. en from the problem knot this had some negative effects In interviews some strict requirements and logical information became clear The employees from the different involved departments stated the following requirements e The tool had to be easy to use and present a clear overview e There had to be no significant extra amount of work entering data e Warnings had to be created automatically for example by sending a mail e Everybody had to take the system serious The corruption of data was absolutely forbidden e The department of Finance desired a time accuracy of approximately 1 week So a prediction for a needed payment in a certain week was specific enough After this the requirements were transformed into the following scenarios in which the stated problems would be solved by using the theoretical recommendations and with respect to the mentioned constraints e Situation with cash inflow sending invoices to customers The process starts when an order is confirmed in the system The price is from then fixed and the delivery date is confirmed Often it is agreed that down payments should be paid Instantly this confirmation of future cash flows goes to the department of finance This way the department always has a real time overview of the current outstanding projects and their future value and date of inflow A change of specification like delivery date which means a delay in cash inflow is detected and registered by the department of
75. epartment of Sales delivery date time Order nr Order database Order nr Order database Negotiated price Department of Purchasing Product description Order database Component Department of description Purchasing Table 5 Required data for long term planning of cash flows Some data already existed in the system where it could be extracted easily from existing databases Unfortunately the data marked in grey was not available For this data it was needed to acquire the conviction if it was really necessary to add these new fields to the system With Use and re use is in fact one of the most important functions of the system 21 inexperienced users parsimony is an important requirement Nevertheless for the process of sending invoices it was decided that this data was specifically needed Because the development of the different solutions occurred parallel the fields to add the data needed in this column could be easily included in the module for making calculations In this position it could be filled in quite effective amp efficient while make the pre calculation Of course delivery dates and the date of incurring payments is also flexible so even on order level these dates are editable It was more difficult to find a solution for the required data for the process of receiving invoices The department of purchasing could add this data but this would mean they would have to fill in an extra field for each separate component
76. es page 289 Top management support Top management needs to publicly and explicly identify the project as a top priority and organization and role of the new system should be communicated to employees page 289 Business plan and vision A clear business plan and vision to steer the direction of the ERP is needed and goals and benefits should be identified and tracked page 291 Effective communication Expectations at every level need to be communicated User input should be managed in acquiring their requirements comments reactions and approval page 291 Project management Good project management is essential and there should be planning of well defined tasks and accurate estimation of required effort page 292 Project champion Someone should be placed in charge and the project leader should champion the project throughout the organization page 292 Appropriate business and legacy systems Appropriate business and legacy systems are important in the initial phase of the project and a stable and successful business setting is essential page 292 Holland et al 1999 propose that legacy systems encapsulate the existing business processes organization structure culture and information technology Therefore they cannot be controlled by a company in the same way as the other variables in the model Inevitably they determine the amount of organizational change required to successfully implement an ERP system and will dic
77. es throughout the primary process This makes the sharing of information across departmental boundaries possible According to Levy and Powell 2000 information is crucial for any business strategy and an information system should place much greater emphasis on informal as well as formal information flows both within and outside organizational boundaries A decent overview of all information flows is needed Therefore all current information exchanges are identified in appendix D A basic overview Summary is given in figure 3 New specifications Offer Invoice Design gt Miyana partlist Pri Payment info Partlist Parlist Projects Specs Specs Partist production details Product compontents Payment info Figure 3 Basic overview of information exchanges Specific information about the current information system can also be found in appendix D The system provides basic functionality It creates a platform in which it is able to maintain all necessary information about a project order or inquiry and all relations it holds with stakeholders and underlying components As can be seen from figure 3 not all information is shared For example price calculations are executed and saved on local computers This has some important consequences as can be read in the next part of the report 11 Part 2 The assignment This is the main part of the report Using the description
78. esign and produce DMT is therefore producing in a lucrative niche of the market The small size of the company contributes to the excellent working atmosphere Employees are really motivated to work hard and seem to have pleasure in their work The good working conditions created by management really support this atmosphere Weaknesses DMT works using a functional organizational structure Daft 2001 describes the following problems with this structure page 97 1 It may cause decisions to pile on top and hierarchy overload 2 It could leads to poor horizontal coordination among functions and departments 3 It involves often a restricted view of organization goals These problems are also valid for DMT Although general director Ter Schure is trying to delegate authority employees still involve him in almost all processes and problems This means a lot of decisions are piled on top Information is crucial for decision making and currently there are no methods to gather current situation information quickly Especially in rapidly changing situations and environments like in Eastern Europe see chapter it means that DMT is handicapped and limited to the knowledge and strategic vision of one person Nevertheless turnover is rapidly growing But this comes with a huge grow of information flows with some additional occurring problems Employees seem to be overwhelmed by the enormous growth of the company Sometimes orders are not processed co
79. ess is going on at the moment e Delivered an order for which all products are delivered gains the status delivered e Cancelled it is possible that the customer for some reason cancels the order In the selection field on the upper right corner you can choose which orders you would like to display But not only orders have a status Also a product series has several statuses which are described below How statuses can be changed will be described later e Engineering a product for which a design is being made by DMT at the moment e Preparation the period between the Engineering deadline and the starting date of the production which can be used for purchasing the components although there is more time for that in Engineering phase for components that are already known as well as during Production for components that are needed later e Production this means that the product series is in production at the moment e Testing the product gets tested transported and delivered e Delivered the product is delivered at the customer The two main pop ups in the order view can be displayed by clicking respectively the order number and the product series in the main screen Those two will be described now The order pop up resembles an inquiry pop up as some of the tabs are the same e General the general information is displayed of which parts can be updated The calculation file which could be uploaded while accepting the i
80. ew price The last function is in the last column of the main screen All prices have a date because people should not work with outdated prices When a price is older then three months this date will appear in red A new price should be entered But when the price and supplier are still the same itis also possible to double click the green V in order to update the latest price date in the date of the current day Stocks The stocks function is not made yet as DMT strives to work with a stock as small as possible But when the amount of orders is growing more components are to be ordered and it can be useful to buy larger amounts to gain discounts Therefore this will be a functionality to be added later on in the further development of the system Processing After describing the functionality of all the side databases we go on with the two most important databases containing the process data about Inquiries Offers and Orders Those two databases actually bring together all others Also in these databases there is a search function to search on relevant entry fields Inquiries Offers 94 Inquiries Offers displays all correspondence with possible customers who are probably willing to buy products from DMT An inquiry can have several statuses e Running this is an inquiry for which DMT needs to make and send an offer e Pending DMT sent an offer and is waiting for a reply from the possible customer e Declined an inquir
81. fic This prolongs a time to market An effective and efficient model is therefore very important Layer et al describes the following requirements e The model should offer a high level of accuracy e The offered cost structure should have a high level of transparency e Concurrent design of products should be applicable 32 e The model should have a dynamically adaptive e Calculation of complex parts should be applicable The choice of the level of sophistication for the costing system should be made on costs versus benefits criteria Simplistic systems are inexpensive to operate but managers using information extracted from these systems are more likely to make important mistakes arising from using inaccurate cost information The end result may be a high cost of errors Conversely sophisticated systems are more expensive to operate but minimize the level of errors Drury 2002 Consequences for product data management Data about products for example costs should therefore be maintained efficiently and effective trough the product life cycle to survive in a global and competitive business environment Veeramani and Joshi 1996 define the ability to respond quickly and effectively to satisfy customers a defining characteristic for all manufacturing companies A short time to market and maintaining a high quality level has become the main success factors Generally the development of a new product can not only be reduced to fi
82. following e Collaboration trough communication becomes cheaper and faster e Changes in the organizational network becomes more easier e Standards allow economies of scale with costs of IT shared on more applications For a growing company these are important benefits and different authors also claim that an extended ERP system can offer such benefits In DMT s situation this would mean that the current information system also needed a price calculation module with requirements for cost models as stated in the previous chapter But in addition for each ERP system applies that potential benefits depends on the specific characteristics of the underlying process Hoffer 2002 therefore suggests that 3 questions are needed to be asked for the identification of good opportunities for such radical change page 227 1 How important is the activity to delivering an outcome 2 How feasible is changing the activity 3 How dysfunctional is the activity It was quickly decided that making the pre calculation was a key activity Layer et al 2002 Akkermans et al 2002 although it was quite dysfunctional with its negative consequences and problems Therefore it was needed to check the feasibility of the project like Hoffer suggests 3 2 Feasibility The decision to implement a company wide ERP system was made by management and is supported by analysis of scientific literature For reference see Koster 2006 But taking the decision to
83. for me Therefore had to save al my questions and problems and had to ask them in short time as efficient and effective as possible This was a real challenge with the inevitable language barrier In the beginning the language was some kind of barrier but this was gradually becoming less and less needed to inform present discuss convince and live by using English After some weeks thought in English what writing the report made far easier For my personal development think an important development and achievement Also had a very close contact with employees and was a very close observer of their problems frustrations and stress This was really informative and gave a good background and basis for the information system and the assignment in general It made me really conscious of the real work going on outside my office and the critical needs for the system without gadgets but only with effective supporting systems It made trading costs again benefits easier when making decisions A bit difficult was also my personal situation because my absence in the Netherlands had some major responsibilities for the faculty council and the board of my sports club Also a friend of mine really needed personal help So things back in the Netherlands did not go as smoothly as hoped it would go which required a lot of attention Before leaving the Netherlands had doubts of accepting the assignment because of these problems Some people convi
84. gg3 7 20 12 kW Retec are a x aa o Steel Stc 4 30 CL e IE construction hoa ee 3501 5000 Promex gogo 15001500 o Electric motor 400V 52 30 min 11kW 50Hz 1500rpm IP56 B5 TENV with AT 1 heating pump SH5V32 Return filter Filler Installation IE A vander 3650 00 Hlectrobydraulic ono ea 2 Level wka Jamo Gauges Control valve HPV41 1F with point adjustment flange for 3M40 w 3650 w Overcentre valve 05 41 81 03 03 35 pressure redu SC DIN933 A2 surub cap 45 430 E em E Sacy 000007 hexagonal M3x12 PAOEEe onl poe zale m Ferodoband FB 10235 f mm _ mE o 000004 anne EURO w 225 wW FRICTON CYLINDER pey 4 lt ian ilial gt Done amp internet Picture 8 overview of final components in order It depends on the kind and history of the product how many components are in Components included in an order during the making of a pre calculation are copied automatically to this list Therefore this list some does not resemble the final product The components which are directly from the pre calculation are blue in your component list if you change any variable or purchase them they will become black Later more about these actions lets first find out how to add new components The department of purchasing is responsible to update this list to an exact copy of the parts list as created by engineering How you do that is quite easy first click on the Add button on the bottom of the list You will see the fol
85. h AMW 110 H36c AMW 220 H36 AMW 220 H32 forewinch Woerden Netherlands AMW 110 H34c Aftwinch gt testPieter with comp Picture 2 add product to inquiry In this pop up you can select the type of product the customer demands by selecting the Group in the top left corner After selecting the group you can select a product from this group in the top right screen If the product is not produced before by DMT you have to add it by pressing the add button to the right top corner In the picture you see that some products are highlighted in blue This means that they have a component configuration attached to it Of course almost every product imagine a big winch has components and if you select this these components are automatically selected for this specific product In the product name you will also see the drawing number If you press the Info under this product you ll get all kind of information about the product for example which exact components are in Like this you choose the specific product you need In this add product screen you can also add a lot of specifications like the estimated time of transport number of products drawing weight etc etc Press add in the bottom to add this product to the inquiry and stop adding more products Press apply to add the product and return directly to the add product screen you will directly be able to add more products to the inquiry And remember all inf
86. h the flexibility of creating individual projects as can be seen from the requirement structuring To design this solution at first very different types of calculations were studied and stripped to their basics The following parts explain this creation of a standard calculation by first describing some needed fundamental basic choices and then by applying these choices to the major cost drivers important elements in a calculation Basic structure choices In pre calculation phase no explicit knowledge is available about the details which will fill the bill of materials Therefore it was needed to introduce general descriptions of components in the system This means that every time when adding a component the employee has the choice to enter a specific component from the database or enter a generic component with a description and a price This created flexibility and theoretically unlimited freedom in creating unique products According to the system products are built from components But DMT also sells items which just consist of one solid physical object The component is a product It seemed to be illogical to build these products from seemingly irrelevant components because it causes extra work of adding components To solve this problem it was chosen to make the two following clear distinct definitions 1 A product is an item created by the primary process of DMT with a certain value coming from the underlying components
87. he first release of the system is the case by then Sales Good luck and in case of questions or remarks ask me or Cristi Engineering Purchasing Thanks in advance for you cooperation Production Aftersales Maarten and Cristi HRM Posted on 17 05 2006 by maarten The system is almost finished We are working on the details user logon and search functions in order to complete the system After that we can make the functional overviews in cooperation with the departments Posted on 02 05 2006 by maarten Home Logout Switch user Add amp WELCOME TO DMT DESIGN B internet Figure 12 The homepage of the system Browsing is possible using the buttons at the left In the main screen news and messages can be displayed 49 a https 82 79 118 35 Product details Microsoft Internet Explorer ee 05 02 2006 28 04 2006 WELCOME TO DMT DESI _ Order 26015 Product TW HISOKN Gener J _Mensecurer_ _Penning J _Conponens_ Mihaela Vasilache Figure 13 An overview with all information about an project Tabs to browse are at the top of the page Deadlines and responsibilities can be assigned to this project DMT Information System Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Q x x El EA JO search she Favortes O 2 ue a sf m 33 Relations Articles Processing Sales Engineering Purchasing Production Aftersales HRM Anchor mooring winch Home Anchor
88. hina and is also busy with the acquisition of its own manufacturing facility This provides new possibilities for quality assurance and a certain control of prices Threats Competitors are also coming to the markets on which DMT is active The company has major cost advantages with an unique quality focus But this cost advantage is gradually disappearing because Romanian labor price increases rapidly too Also the company has difficulties adapting to its new size Management needs to hire new employees while maintaining the quality of products at the current level Growing needs of information also need to be managed effectively and efficient and it will also be difficult to conserve the current atmosphere because a growing company will face a change in employee behavior The acquisition of the new factory will also ask huge attention from management and less control of the company in Romania Chapter 2 Analysis problem formulation amp method Using the SWOT analysis and the insight acquired about the organization it is possible to draw a problem knot a tool also explained in appendix A The current problems are extensively described in appendix E with the use of this tool After analyzing this knot it can be concluded that it is needed to exchange financial information more efficiently and effective between departmental boundaries This will lead to a lower pressure of work and a better insight in some planning and general financial processes
89. hod needs to have an information system building approach According to Hoffer 2002 some different types of system development methods can be distinguished dependent on the new IS characteristics page 17 To develop a transaction processing system TPS the used research method needs a process orientation This concerns a focus for capturing validating and storing data Because management also wants the system to include management information the data must also be available and accessible in a variety of ways and relationships between data must be clear Hoffer calls this a data orientation page 17 The method used in this research will therefore have a process and data orientation Because of the availability of IT specialist Christi the prototyping approach for development was chosen This method distinguishes some different phases for system development which structures this research Advantages are the quick introduction of new functions and the ability to really involve the user in the development Because the high work pressure and the recent introduction of a complete new system these are important advantages The complete system and the applied modifications can be found in appendix G Chapter 3 Analysis requirements determination amp restructuring In this chapter an analysis of the existing problems can be found To acquire reference to the primary process and the concerning information flows appendices C amp D are recommended
90. ice item and you can modify the offer item yourself In this screen you can also add terms and dates of down payments Down below in the main screen you see a total overview of the entire order Satisfied Press the Make offer button and you confirmed to the system that you send this configuration to the customer You can now revise the offer the way you want it of course depending on customer s specification but using the methods as described above Only remember to push the Make offer button on the moment you send a configuration to the customer After different revisions you may want to use products from previous offers Of course this is possible Just click on Offers in the inquiry main screen and you see the offer history of your inquiry Look for the desired date click on it and you will see the offer you made You can select products and by pressing the Add to current button re use these products Also for this option counts practice it Making an order You have to make at least one offer before you are able to make an order from this inquiry The rest is easy After making your final offer just click in the Offer page with the Offer history on the date you made your final offer Your final project will appear and in the top right corner you ll see Every time you add something to the system or change a price this is saved by the system Therefore it is not needed to save your configuration by pressing the Make offer
91. ice changes from running to paid There are small other functions in the system Try them e f you hold your mouse pointer on the order number you ll see the product it will be in for DMT e f you hold your mouse pointer on the week to pay you see the purchasing date e f you hold your mouse pointer on the value you ll see if it is a down payment or not e Invoice which already passed their due date turn red in the screen 91 e On the top of the screen is a to lei with TVA calculator Imagine you have an incredible long list of invoices with different order numbers or suppliers You just select on order number by typing it into the order header of the table and if you click on the supplier you can just select it from the total list This ends the tutorial Noroc 92 The system s basic structure The most important parts in the system are the databases How you can work with them is explained below Relations The relations databases contain information about relations from DMT on supply as well as demand site The structure of the databases is the same for all of the relations e To add a relation click the Add relation button fill in the fields and after clicking the Add button the total pop up appears with the newly made relation e Inthe main screen there is a table with the basic information of a relation of which the website is clickable to open the company website e With the search fiel
92. ices will turn red But caution is still required when re using products always check the specifications of a product The following buttons also need input to complete the offer price Pressing them creates a pop up with the following fields to fill e Transportation Three types of transport are defined to keep things comprehensible Inbound logistics for all transport to Romania Outbound logistics for all export from Romania and Rest which covers all transport where Romania is not intervening Just enter the origin and destination estimate the price and the system will add this to the purchasing price 95 e Design Enter a design price kg and the system will automatically calculate the costs of design based upon the product weight You can also add just an extra single value e Customs Just enter the total expected value for customs e Margin Based upon the rights you have to access this screen you can add a certain margin on top of the product You can also add a single value e Certification e Extra costs In this screen you can enter the total value for unexpected costs and the cost of capital This value is calculated automatically by the system You only have to the duration of the project from order moment till delivery Provided with these cost drivers the following totals are calculated automatically Purchasing price unit total price all components transport design certification customs fee unexpected
93. icles HOLING ANCHOR TW Processing Anchor AN 000009 TYPE FULLY pes 2800 00EURO Schmitt PRIMARY FUNCTIONS BALANCED WEIGHT Sales 1250 kgs ee 4pcs SCHMITT HIGH ron my HOLDING ANCHOR roduction FULLY BALANCED eros Anchor AN 000010 ano pes 3675 00EURO Schmitt SUPPORTING FUNCTIONS CROWNSHACKLE HRM gt WEIGHT 1710KGS POENE Anchor HHP TW 1710 kg pores endl Anchor AN 000011 Fully balanced execution pes 395500EURO Prohand Key figures without crown shackle Product overview Settings Dhone Anchors 2xl 500 kg ENERAL fully balanced with starre H Anchor AN 000012 wartel type superbox 1x1500 pes 1303500EURO Prohand lis kg standard execution with Search stare wartel type superbox Logout Gach imer Anchor pes 205 bg standard execution Yo Anchor AN 000013 OR dhadl deinen pes 13035 00EURO Prohand with Anchorshackle Bearings BE 000001 6000 pes 102EURO Rulm Com Bearings BE 000002 6000 RSR 2RSR pes 135EURO Rulm Com Bearings BE 000003 6000 ZR 2ZR pes 124EURO Rulm Com Bearings BE 000004 6001 pes 114EURO Rukm Com Bearings BE 000005 6001 RSR 2RSR pes 1 49 EURO Rulm Com Bearings BE 000006 6001 ZR 2ZR pes 1 49 EURO Rulm Com g z Picture 7 Component list If the price of a certain component is not updated for a certain time it will turn red So let s update a price There are different opportunities to do this 1 Inthe main screen you are in right now you can just click on the latest price and change it 2 You can ju
94. kilos 21 00 EURO 50 1050 EURO Design 0 03 EUROskg 37 5 EURO Certification Margin 15 204 0045 EURO Unexpected 7 Sales price 1851 5045 EURO Offer 2000 EURO WEIGHT DR TG 6968 Certification Design 0 03 EURO kg Margin 25 0 0075 EURO Unexpected Sales price 225 0075 EURO Offer 500 EURO Cs crea DRAWING 6333 Design EURO kg Certification Margin Unexpected Sales price 0 EURO Offer 0 DRAWING 6977 Certification TOTAL PURCHASING TOTAL SALES PRICE TOTAL OFFER IDOWNPAYMENT 25 0 The number is the sum of components as they are displaied It is NOT inserted in the database Design EURO kg 5 Fire gt fro ina v o2 Mira Z8 Inte v Fh Adobe amp 2Mozi F 2 Mier Figure 21 The first calculation module was able to calculate the total price of an offer by including and excluding certain products which already needed to have components By adding some cost drivers like transport design certification margin customs amp extra costs the costs price could be modified 62 Inquiry details Inquiry DMT 771 General Feople Customer Preducts offers Delete Close OVER INQUIRY DETAILS Description Pipes 11x08 Comments k ese Reception date 1720 06 2006 by E mail Dispatch date 24 05 2006 Offer sending date Reply ina Remarks Make offer PRODUCT DETAN
95. ll products and components that build these products and are bought by DMT can be found Some general remarks are e All articles are divided in groups to make it easier to find them back To add delete or update groups you can click on the Groups button Here all groups with their symbols can be found e To add a new article you can click the Add article button After it is added the article pop up will appear e Also here is a search function for the article databases in order to find articles that match with the typed text A pop up with the search results will appear Products 93 In the main screen all products with some general information can be found Important about this database is that these are only standard products These products can be added to one or more inquiries or orders in which they can be changed locally This database just makes it easier to handle products because it is not necessary to make ever product for an order in the system It also goes the other way around if the product is changed locally this will not change in an order The product description is clickable to open a pop up The tabs and a specific function will be described below e General displays the general information about the product This information can be changed and updated A product can have more drawings which can be added and deleted e Components shows all the components of which this product consists Components can be adde
96. lop solutions These solutions and the choices made for them are described quite extensively just like the process of implementation and evaluation afterwards The third part of the report describes my total international experience in Romania the challenges faced and how this affected my development and the internship Part I Description of organizational context To be able to analyze an existing situation it is first needed to get a view of the organizational context by describing the internal amp external environment and all stakeholders This first part of the report will consist of this description of the external and internal environment of DMT design SA After analysis this will lead to further problem identification in the second part of the research Chapter 1 The external environment In this chapter the external environment is described using a STEP analysis This will give a framework and structure for an internal analysis The background of STEP analysis is explained in detail in appendix A Social cultural factors The Romanian culture bears resemblance to a Latino culture In general people are outgoing and social In the working place traces of collectivism can be found because employees are really willing to operate in teams and perform for the company they work for Remarkable is that the majority of the women population works outdoors In factory s women and men work together in sometimes very dirty and he
97. lowing screen 88 Order 35101 Product AMW 110 H34 Aftwinch General Manufacturer Planning Components Downpayment Payment Art Art code Description Supplier Price Toil Purchased Delivered ps 82 79 118 Add compone oso ernet Explore Sei Group Hydraulic motor v Supplier v Amount Supplier Price mut Ghesn stopper 1 v 00 EURO v 1000 pieces v Cilindrer Pneumatic iat ad 1 A van der Velden 3900 00 EURO pes onnector Electric devi PERR 1 A van der Velden 3200 00 EURO pes Electric station lt 7 Extra cost 1 A van der Velden 3590 00 EURO pes Ferodo band Hydraulic Cylinder 1 A van der Velden 5136 00 EURO pcs Hydraulic Installation Hydraulic motor 3 1 A van der Velden 6825 00 EURO pes Installation Electrohydraulic Level gauge 1 A van der Velden 9009 00 EURO pes Name plate ees 1 A van der Velden 10190 00 EURO pes Reduction gear Screw 1 A wander Velden 1264 00 EURO pes Seal Shaft 1 A van der Velden 1898 00 EURO pcs Solid Components Steel construction 1 A wander Velden 2478 00 EURO pes Steel wire Picture 9 adding components You see that you can choose the component group the preferred supplier This will automatically make a selection according to these choices By clicking on a checkbox you re able to select the preferred component which will be added by pressing on Add
98. mations of prices of components of the products are copied automatically to the order part list also Known as the bill of materials This list is maintained by purchasing This action creates transparency and adds an extra layer of control of these prices Purchasing creates the definite part list and saves this into the system attached to the product The next time the product is used in an inquiry this part list is then used automatically this way sales can use quite concrete and well defined products in inquiries Next to all these basic structure choices a lot of small intermitting design choices were made In appendix H the visual development of this project can be found chronologically with screenshots of all menus In this appendix also the mode of operation of the new module can be found 4 2 The long term planning of cash flows To design a tool for creating the desired planning it was needed to provide Cristi with a graphical overview of the desired processes Therefore 2 diagrams were drawn to explain the actions as performed by the different departments These two diagrams can also be found in appendix H Using these two basic process overviews it was easy to identify processes and required data The following table identifies these flows and an appropriate source of information Sending invoices Source Receiving invoices Source Customer specification Relation database Client specification Relation database Final confirmation D
99. me because DMT is fully responsible for the delivered products Koster 2006 2 2 Products The main products DMT produces are winches for use on ships These winches can be used for many different operations like controlling the anchor mooring towing and many other applications All these winches are designed to the exact specifications the client wishes in terms of forces size weight and etcetera Because the company does not produce itself the added value of these products is mainly in the design and in the purchasing of components to deliver a complete end product Next to winches the company can deliver other kinds of deck equipment for naval use like dredging equipments or rudders Sometimes DMT designers engineer these but it also happens that a complete drawing is delivered and that DMT takes care of the production at a subcontractor and the purchasing of the necessary parts In this case DMT in fact only operates as a reseller so the added value is in the gathering of components For all products goes more or less the same due to proper procurement of components and control on manufacturing at a subcontractor the company can deliver good quality for a reasonable price Koster 2006 Next to the winches DMT is extending its product portfolio Customers find their way for more types of highly customized products like for example diving equipment 2 3 Markets The market DMT is serving is the shipbuilding industry Most of the
100. method Requirements amp development Design of solutions Plan of approach Project evaluation Further steps amp company improvements User manual Pagenumber 32 38 39 46 51 54 56 57 62 66 70 72 74 29 Part 3 Self reflection In this last part of this report my personal reflection on what learnt during my internship of 12 weeks within DMT can be found also added a part about the international experience which was indissoluble connected to this assignment 1 1 The company The atmosphere in the company was really fantastic to work in DMT is still a rather small company in which everybody knows they need to work hard to remain competitive Almost all employees are close with each other and also undertake activities outside working hours Weekly we played football on a pitch located outside the city and had a happy hour on Friday to celebrate the weekend very good for the atmosphere just like watching Holland football matches in the local Caf Rotterdam The employees believe in the company and the way management undertakes activities and communicates Management Piet ter Schure is an important factor in this atmosphere He really has a direct but fair way of communicating what people seem to like think learned a lot from the way he tackled problems and how he attached importance to the atmosphere A small incentive like the possibility to use company cars outside working hours is an example of this Piet trus
101. n extension of this system is therefore preferable e Some information has to be used discrete e Important choices shall be made by the company management Time planning The available time during the internship is limited therefore it is necessary to keep a schedule An overview of this planning is given in Table 1 An addition to this planning can be found in the last paragraph Week Activity S O Koster can show me the ropes in the first week Also get used to a new living environment the company and the people working for it Start with first analysis of the company by doing interviews with employees Finish interviews and structure information about financial processes information flows and problems within this field Write and send plan of approach Ee Extensive analysis of the problems establish a theoretical background to structure information and to analyse the things happening and do the analysis itself by working with the people and see literally what is going on Find a solution to the problem and work it out with again theory as a background Also contact the IT specialist for technical possibilities Discuss solution with the management and change where necessary Start with the implementation plan Further development of the implementation plan for the chosen solution and an early start of the real implementation It is important to get key figures in the organisation involved in the process Start implementing th
102. n from and like this you can open the order You will see a picture like this 6 84 5 le x Order nr 100011 General Customer Products Revisions Cancel Close tx inquiry DMT 2004 Description testPieter Jrder date 2006 08 09 Remarks EB Make revision PRODUCT DETAILS x Anchor mooring winch AMW 210 E36 k2 electric driven Forewinch 292 f 2 Nr T Item Type Company Unit Price Unit anits Va Searngs 6001 Rulm Com pes 1 14 1 1 1 jush algemene beschrijving Adorian 2000 pes 50 00 A EN Add comp ransport 500 Customs Design Certification Extra costs 1000 Purchase item 1 551 Margin Sales price item 1 551 14 Offer item 1600 x Anchor Equipment End fastening device for anchor chain end size 19 K2 293 iv Del WEIGHT 3 7 y Nr T Item Type Company Unit Price Unit units Va Add comp Transport Customs Design 1000 Certification Extra costs 1000 Purchase item 2 000 Margm Sales price item 2 000 00 Offer item 2000 Picture 6 Order calculation You see that the order calculation is in red this is to emphasize the difference with the calculation in inquiry phase If you have major revisions you can do this here with the Make revision button on the top This works exactly the same as with the Offer button in the inquiry calculation Remember this order calculation always resembles the contract with the customer It is used as the basic for the after
103. n new employees are introduced in the company DMT has a rather stable staff without a lot of changes but the company is growing and in the three months was in the company 3 new persons were hired They received only a very very small introduction and they just started working and had to introduce themselves Also a document with company rules and very useful information exists but none of these employees received this just like the lack of an email address and access to the database think it would be better if every new employee was asked to write something about him herself and mailed this around with their new email address they would be included in the company wide mails directly It would also be an improvement if they would receive around 30 minutes of training in the information system directly independent of their function How DMT works is then also directly visible and can be easily illustrated by using the system Also the distribution of new email addresses could be done somewhat more systematical They now look all totally different with very different lay outs was wondering often who should mail It dmt design ro lb dmt design ro or livia barbalata dmt design ro Some structure as for example firstletteroffirstname fullsurname dmt design ro would be useful 73 Appendix M DMT information system user manual This appendix contains the user manual which was adjusted quite rigorously to support new users of the inform
104. nced me to go something I m still happy with think it didn t harmed my work in Romania and really learned from managing and helping people from 2000 km distance 1 4 The international experience Coming from the Netherlands to a former communistic country was a fantastic experience The economical contrast between people here is really striking and especially Romania s countryside is in Western eyes really poor Nevertheless a lot of people confirm that Romania is really closing the gap with the rest of Europe and that it will only take time for the country to catch up met a lot of Dutch businessmen who could talk for hours about these developments To see such a country struggling with its past and trying to adapt to the future was an experience never to forget The main part of my experience has been made up by the people in Romania The members of AIESEC did almost everything to make me feel comfortable Cristi Vali and Marian of DMT took me on different road trips trough Romania And the local population is very kind and complaisant lived together in the local student dorms with French Spaniards Portuguese Turkish and Indian people to never forget 1 brought a lot of books but they still wait to be read So the months spend in Romania were very instructive very interesting but especially really really really sociable 31 Appendix A Theoretical background This appendix contains the underlying theory on which
105. nd a What did you study b What are your hobbies 2 How long have you been working here 3 What is your current function 4 Did you fulfill other functions before Internal processes 1 What is your personal daily work a What are you doing on an average day b Where is this happening 54 2 3 Why are you doing this How do you do this How much time does it cost Are you only working for your department or also for others With what kind of information do you work For example technical financial quantities etc more possible h Where do you obtain this information and where do you store it oa0 Did you work with the new Information System a How did you like it OR WHY DIDN T YOU b Is your work changed by the new Information System Why changed positively negatively c Which features are most useful in your opinion Why d Which features do you miss Why Do you communicate interact with other people in your daily work a With whom do you communicate most b Why c Howdo you communicate then d About what e And how often f Is the way you communicate changed by the new IS Positively negatively why g Do you miss this feature 4 What do you think that are critical incidents during the process Problems things that go wrong Can you mention things that go wrong Can you give examples Who are involved then Why are these things going wrong Could the IS support s
106. nd offered back to the customer This customer starts the extensive negotiations about specifications and the price Specifications change and after agreement the price becomes fixed and the inquiry becomes an order A graphical overview of the spreadsheet Not a single general template was found for making pre calculations The average calculation looked like the calculation as in figure 7 on the next page No legend supplied and a lot of unclear remarks The spreadsheet contains in fact rather only simple components and calculations But meaning of the colors and formules differs sheet by sheet and is only known to the person who made the sheet And generally speaking this sheet contains all financial information known about an order 43 2 sets of Anchor mooring equipment DT place 2005 2006 Armenie SY ay Inquiry DMT 466 Ex order 2004 350 f To S S f drawing no CT New6102 5236 Revi J q T T J ELECTRIC WITH FREQUENCY DRIVING VARIANT D purchase item ___ weight __ NOP___ company BRP pcs Pkg Twv winch 210 Efgs6 6ss __1 CRISTIBY 3798 6oof ef _ 1 T J winch _ 110 Efq32 d _333333 __1 CRISTI BV 1399999 4 20 1399998 6 J TC Main shaft 1 O oS Y S oi zo o S S S Main shaft 2 O oS OP d S y i O ooo fF Ferro tinf376 Oooo o o f ings 1 jojojo xX Xx x X SERE ARBE V V v fom lon Cen e ojojo o OELE LN K Fara gigigig ov 33 8 JRP a 3 2 n 12 Hil extra c
107. nd the appropriate configuration of standard components already existing on the market but very often it requires the development of new ones possibly not only for the modification of the physical interfaces but also in functional terms Giannini et al 2002 A greater emphasis must therefore be laid on collaboration inside enterprises to develop more innovative products at lower costs with a reduced time to market Han amp Do 2006 This desired collaboration becomes easier through standardization for example of the used IT infrastructure Three advantages of standardization exist Akkermans amp Van der Horst 2002 e Collaboration trough communication becomes cheaper and faster e Changes in the organizational network become easier e Standards allow economies of scale with costs of IT shared on more applications But the possible advantages of standardization are depending on the specific characteristics the business process owns In his Structure in Fives 1983 Henry Mintzberg distinguishes 5 different views of business processes from Akkermans amp Van der Horst 2002 page 219 e the flow of formal authority supported by e g the accounting infrastructure Here are entire work processes standardized e the flow of regulated activity supported by e g ERP systems e the flow of informal communication supported by e g electronic mail This is the middle ground were people are free to decide how to carry out their work as l
108. ndently and talk with employees as much as possible The atmosphere at DMT was very nice and my mentor and company director Piet Ter Schure was an inspiring amp motivating person to work with He helped guided trusted and supported me Therefore want to thank him extensively also want to thank the local AIESEC community in Galati and especially Steluta Isabelle Udrea She helped me were she could and especially the first couple of weeks she was really my protection angel Special thanks also for Valerie my coordinator from AIESEC TWENTE who helped me coming to Romania Maarten Koster my pre successor at DMT also deserves attention He interested me for DMT and helped me very good in my first and his last week Thanks Maarten Valentin Anton a colleague from DMT made me Ciorba de Burta and took me on a road trip trough the beautiful mountains With Cristi Babas spend a weekend on the sea side and had 12 fun weeks in the office He also did the hard work programming all those ideas had These people really helped me feeling at home Multsumesc mult And last but not least want to thank Annemieke my girlfriend She continuously supported me from helping me taking the decision to go Galati and through my time here The week she visited me was fantastic Pupici Finally am sure forget many people who helped me with all those small things in a foreign country Nevertheless thanks for reading my report and hope a
109. nexpected costs and the cost of capital This value is calculated automatically by the system You only have to add it In picture 4 you see an example of such a pop up the screen for entering design costs 10 Eor example you have 1 winch and you enter an estimated 75 euro for customs Perfect But when you have 3 identical winches and you think customs will take a total of 150 euro enter this value So remember these are total prices 82 Inquiry DMT 379 OVERALL INQUIRY DETAILS Description Manual Comments Manual Reception Wate 27 07 2006 by E mail Dispatch date 2006 See Se sr le rT en en ee ee Inquiry DMT 879 General People Customer Products Otters Decine Detete Chose J OVERALL INQUIRY DETAILS Description Manual Comments Marmal Reception datel ll 27 07 2006 by E mail Dispah AIEEE 2006 orgasm st Reply t Remarks Meke otter AWING 65 1 x Anchor Equipment End fastening device for anchor chain end size 19 K2 WEIGHT 6500 ev Add comp AAA Transport Customs Design Margin Certification Extra costs 1000 Purchase 1 000 00 Sales price 1 000 00 Offer 1000 5 hitps 82 79 118 35 Design costs Microsoft fa 5 FR Price per kilo Total Extra prices for design Speci catons a OTAL DESIGN 0 Picture 4 add other costs to product Ok finished You now see a purchase and sales pr
110. ng menu 58 inlogging show invoices with due date that week amp before option to show all Invoice checking tool Supporting functions Financial gt Running invoice Ability to select on order number supplier week to pay Ability to sort ordernumer value supplier week to pay Running Order Supplier Product Component Description Week to piDownpayment Value Paid 5 1 ABZPKA 132M 8 4 number Camexip Anchor mooring Electric Motor 2 5 4 2kw w15 2007 YES NO 4545 checkbox not checked Bottom door Solid Component 343dfdf Ability to select on order number supplier week to pay Ability to sort ordernumer value supplier date paid Supporting functions Financial gt History of invoice Order Supplier Product Component Description Date paid Downpayment Value 5 1 ABZPKA 132M 8 4 number Camexip Anchor mooring Electric Motor 2 5 4 2 kw wi11 2005 YES NO 4545 Bottom door Figure 19 Final design of invoice sending receiving Calculation module To determine the opportunity costs of capital the following choices were made Each order has a highly variable lead time and corresponding variable time taking stages of cost driving activities It is therefore unknown during the inquiry stage of an order when this activities are carried out and what the total lead time of the project will be It is therefore needed to make certain assumptions to estimate the opportunity cost of capital which were extensively discussed with employees Paying sup
111. nquiry can be seen from this screen e Customer contact information for the customer is displayed This information is copied directly from the inquiry The contact person can be changed with the Update button if necessary e Products in this section all products that the customer would like to have are shown with some additional information Just as in the main screen the product description is clickable for the product in order pop up There is one function for an order e Cancel with this button you can cancel the order if the customer or DMT decides to for some reason The status of the order will change from Running to Cancelled The product in order pop up contains kind of a project and has the following tabs e General the general tab contains general information about the product from description to drawing and from status to amount Also an overall responsible for the project can be chosen there When the component list is extensive a free supply file can be uploaded to the product e Manufacturer this tab contains contact information about the manufacturer In this screen the contact person can be chosen and updated If the manufacturer changes this has to be chosen in the order pop up described above e Planning the most important tab of the product in order is the planning where the planning for the project can be made and which displays alerts if deadlines are about to be broken To make this planning the impor
112. nt life cycle as can be read in the appendix about the plan of approach appendix M Nevertheless the choice was made to include some aspects of this traditional system development life cycle Especially the structure of the rapport is a remainder of this system This was chosen to give the rapport a decent and good composition This method can be found in appendix J 56 Appendix H Requirements amp development In this appendix the requirements and scenario s like restructured them are presented The information used to create these overviews came from very different sources and a lot of negotiating and talking with employees The restructuring lead to the design of the different menu s as did in Excel The second part of the appendix consists of some of the examples of the developments following from these structures Planning accounts receivables To give an overview of future accounts receivable and to streamline invoice processing it is desirable to introduce a tool to make short term planning of future receivables possible Needed actions functions Orders which are registered have a probable time of final delivery Employees of the department of sales enter these specifications in the system The time of delivery leads automatically to the creation of an invoice with a certain deadline Because of fluctuations in deliverytime confirmation is needed in the database to confirm the creation of an invoice yo Before Graphi
113. olutions for these problems No Yes why Can you give possible solutions for these problems arising Vision on the company D OV O How do you think the company is performing at the moment What do you think that will be the performance in the future Where is the company in 2 years What are you doing in 2 years What are the directions what should be strategy What can be done better and how 55 Appendix G The prototyping system developing method Because of the availability of IT specialist Cristi the prototyping approach for development was chosen This method distinguishes some different phases for system development which structures this research The following figure displays the prototyping methodology from Hoffer page 26 2002 Initial requirements Develop initial prototype Identity problem Convert to Working operational prototype 4 system A f prototype is inetficient i i Problems Implement and Revise and enhance use prototype prototype Next version Figure 16 Prototyping development cycle By working directly with working prototypes it was easy to make abstract concepts more tangible Also it was easier to involve employees with the problem A disadvantage of this system is the less efficient way of working the systems offer This methodology is different than the original chosen traditional system developme
114. on Therefore next to the pre calculation inquiry phase an order calculation order phase was created To distinguish these different calculations some buttons were slightly modified and the colors totally changed Employees often use the history of an inquiry or an order After numerous revisions it must still be possible to use the history of the offer and for example the prices as offered back then Therefore it was chosen to introduce a new calculations database This gives the possibility to save all changes and look in the inquiry offering history From this history specific products can be chosen for re use In summary a flexible calculation module in blue colors was created for the pre calculation and for the order calculation a module was created in red colors Using this system calculations could be created saved and re used with a product component hierarchy to provide structure and still some degree of flexibility The following subchapter explains another tier in all calculations the group of major cost drivers which add extra costs to the products Major cost drivers 5 Different groups of general cost drivers could be identified which are explained below e Transport A highly variable cost is the international transport of goods which needs special attention when making the pre calculation Therefore it was chosen to exclude 5 The department of sales tries to offer the lowest price possible which after a certain tim
115. onents Primary functions Sales Access Engineering Access Purchasing Access Production Access After sales Access Supporting functions HRM Employees Access View pop up Add Delete employee Update general Update DMT User admin Access View pop up Add Delete users View types Add Delete Update types Finance Access Management Key figures Access Product overview Access Settings Access General Home Add Delete news Table 13 User rights explanation Finance Currently only one function for the department of finance is in the system Employees can see the ordering value for all components being ordered by the department of purchasing This is a real time overview as long the department of purchasing keeps this up to date An employee can push a button by which they can pinpoint they paid this bill The system then changes the status of an invoice to paid Different invoices statuses exist paid running and current Management Key figures On this page some relevant statistics can be shown like for instance the inquiry hit rate the generated turnover and so on Product overview At the moment the overview of orders is only displayed in a table It can be relevant to have a visual overview of all running orders or products in orders This page can be used for that Settings In the current release of the system most of the settings are inside the syst
116. ong as their outputs confirm to specific criteria e the flow of work within a set of work constellations supported by e g design management systems and e the flow of ad hoc decision processes supported by e g a decision support system DSS or executive information systems EIS Here only selection of inputs is required like standardization by hiring people with certain skills So the need for IT driven control and standardization becomes less for each subsequent flow Akkermans amp Van der Horst and therefore a decent analysis of the ongoing process is required Also the value of information for the company needs to be analyzed for example by the use of Porter and Millar s information intensity matrix and value chain 1985 as Levi and Powell 2000 conclude The value chain and information intensity matrix are summarized below Weil and Broadbent stress in Akkermans amp Van der Horst 2002 that local fast changing applications used by small groups need not to be standardized For them the standardization include a its local versus integral nature b it soeed of change and c the number of people 33 that use it Integral applications that remain stable over longer periods of time and that have large user groups should be standardized page 218 Akkermans amp Van der Horst concludes with the importance of standardization of product data management This applies especially where communication between customers
117. ormation you enter is used elsewhere in the system so try to enter as much as possible After adding products we return to the main screen General but first we summarize a product has a certain configuration It is always built from components depending on the characteristics After you added the product you directly see this configuration The components already defined in the product by another employee in another order are displayed Check always if these characteristics match the new expectations as defined by the customer 80 In this main screen you can change this component list You can add and replace components by pushing different buttons Try it The small red crosses behind each component remove the component from the list and by clicking on the name you can replace a component directly for a component from another group If the product is empty without any components then you will have to add them You can do it like this If you put the add comp button for example you can add new components You get the following screen picture 3 2 ntips 1182 79 118 35 Inquiry details Microsoft Internet Explore a DRAWING 6580 Transport Customs Design Margm Certification Extra costs 1000 Purchase 1 000 00 Sales price 1 000 00 Offer 1000 vf f0 EURO v 1000pieces v SCHMITT HIGH HOLDING ANCHOR TE i weight 360 kg A S 1174 00 EURO pes SCHMITT HIGH HOLDING AN
118. ost fittings motors 11 KW without frequency q S 2 werkina ee IMARIAN S 333 aajo o dorian sss eef T T T MARIAN S 54 oo oso ooo eo o MARIAN S sss TO 232 ta sej J wol J 2323 17ze 2323 240 J 2 MARIAN s 2323 asf 225 superbox _ keter 550 SO f o aoo f winch desid210 Efq36 63 ldmtsa_ 1899 oof 1899 T T T winch desid 110 Efq32d _333333 _ tfdmtsa 99999 9 oso 999999 T T Coupling C of zoo as of 2700 2100 45 3 5 purchase price 1 without transport GL 15149954 J T J Sales price without transport GL Xx 1908894 1817994 48 XX Survey GL winches incl materialf 2 eof Of J T J transport purchase items Hol Ukrd aoo o So ftransportitems Hollanf5 tons A eof of o T transport items Sevasf10 tons 1 tooo S 1000 customs tee imp exp Wo o oo a o a o T SS purchase price2 Total purchase price with transport GL 1519670 4 14194806 J Total sales price with transport GL L xx 1913569 1818069 48 1196358 Offer price 1 set delivery in Czechie sent offer 57 000 Difference 07 09 2005 1 462 670 CALCULATION VALID UNTIL END 2006 89 989 sent offer 26 08 2003 motors 7 5 KW without frequenc mim ale aye 9 o o fo S 0 gt o ale 3S als ol o x cylinder plate steel wire70m 32 anchors HHP Pool FB anchors HHP Pool N 4 chain 70 36K2 DB 213 B
119. ou can press the Purchase button The financial data is automatically copied to create financial overview Very helpful for other departments You can always cancel the purchase or change the specific financial values it will be updated automatically This ends the tutorial Noroc 90 The tutorial for the department of finance Welcome to the DMT Information System As a user from the department of finance you can extract valuable information from the database Currently there is only one function in the system the forecast of the costs of purchasing The forecast of coming cashflows When the department of purchasing buys certain goods they also fill in some financial details Let s show you how you can use this information First log in the database and look in the left margin for the following buttons Financial gt Incoming invoices Click on it and you ll see the screen as in the following picture DMT Information System Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Q tx z a e 2 Search Z Favorites amp amp o o A a 3 s https 82 79 118 35 new 20menuy index_2 php v EJ co Links Google v Yr hg w kb Search Web 2 EAr GMail Ory Yahoo EJ Answers amp Games R shopping Music Ca my Web gt Personals as sign In L DMT Information System sF Add Tab x Financial Running invoices Supplier Koncar 195kg SHHP standard Relations 4
120. ow much is calculated for every component Most important in this screen are the products that go into the order which can each be seen as a project with a separate planning and for which the delivery date should be set The active ones are checked automatically the optional ones can be checked if necessary and you are not able to check the historic ones After the order is made it appears in the order database and the status of the inquiry becomes Ordered which cannot be changed anymore The amount of products ordered is taken from the amounts in the inquiry e Decline this button declines the inquiry after agreeing when a customer decides that it does not want the offered products prices The status of the inquiry becomes Declined It remains possible to make an order if the customer asks for this later status then changes in Ordered and is not changeable anymore Orders In the order database all the orders are stored containing all one or more product series which are actually kind of projects Every project has its own planning with different delivery dates and the possibility to work with different manufacturers This means that there are two kinds of pop 96 ups one for general information about the order and one or more others for the products series or projects These can both have different statuses that are linked to each other An order can have several statuses e Running this is an order for which the proc
121. ped to support users and management Preparing employees for change was an ongoing process which was carried out continuously especially during small talks Business process re engineering and minimum customization Aligning the business process to the software implementation is critical according to Holland et al 1999 This statement applies to introducing complete standard solutions But DMT chose to build a complete system from scratch roughly fitting to previous running processes see Koster 2006 But it was chosen to change procedures and guidelines in the company for example who should be responsible for after calculation etc Nevertheless complete re engineering was not carried out minimization of customization is applicable This provided the problem that it took quite a lot of time before the calculation module was finally finished and all user wishes were integrated Software development testing and troubleshooting A clear software structure was already present before starting this project which was supported by extensive requirements determination and structuring The availability of Cristi provided the opportunity and the necessity to use a prototyping approach with its cons and pro s Coding testing troubleshooting and revisions occurred parallel It can be concluded that the development was not very efficient with sometimes writing and removing code on the same day This was also because user wishes changed sometime
122. plies 1 After 4 weeks when an order is placed around 25 of the total purchasing value needs to be paid 2 After 8 weeks when an order is placed another 25 of the total purchasing value needs to be paid Receiving payments 1 Some customers will pay around 20 of the total order value as a down payment after 4 weeks when an order is placed 2 Final payments will be made on average 4 weeks after the order is delivered to the customer 59 Nevertheless only a very few customers pay down payments for an order to DMT These accounts for a total value that doesn t make up for the down payments as paid by DMT although these order values are higher than the purchasing values Therefore it is chosen to calculate the opportunity cost of capital only over the outgoing amount of money This was done by creating the following formula Cost of capital kadtime Z H Downpayment 1 x Purchasing value x 1 Hnterest x kadtime Z T Downpayment 2 x Purchasing value lHnterest aa Cost of capital kadtime Z H Downpayment 1 Purchasing value 1 Hnterest E i kadtime Z T Downpayment 2 x Purchasing value x 1Hnterest a3 To use this formula some parameters for every order need to be filled in The final design of the calculation module looked like the following graphical overview figure 20 60 Checkbox Checkbox TOTAL PURCHASING TOTAL SALES PRICE TOTAL OFFER 72464 496562 50000 S
123. rather extensive information about this system the rapport of Koster 2006 is advised for further study Introduction A previous trainee designed a new IS to restructure all information flows in the company This IS tries to structure and standardize the exchange of information concerning orders between departments While started my internship at DMT Design this new system was just introduced It took a couple of weeks before it was accepted by all employees and they started working with it Management emphasized the need of using it so after a while all employees were using the system Basics of the information system The IS consists of 7 databases The following diagram describes how these databases are related to each other 47 CUSTOMER MANUFACTURER SUPPLIER PRODUCT EMPLOYEE Figure 11 E R diagram Source Koster 2006 Entity Meaning Customer A company DMT delivers an order to Order Demand for one or more products that DMT delivers Product A unit that DMT creates and that consist of one or more components Manufacturer A company which assembles the components to products Component An item with the possibility to be assembled to a product Supplier A company which supplies components Table 10 Meaning of entities Every database holds specific information about the entities they represent Some examples Which database Example data Customers
124. rder module of orders Proportion of specific General Management Cash inflow specific Calculation Piechart costs in turnover cost transport module purchasing etc Table 3 Wishlist It appeared that the content that management wanted to be presented was similar to the requirements as ventilated by the different departments for the other solutions Management was also quite satisfied with the other of course still theoretical solutions as presented in this thesis which meant support for the validity of the used data was confirmed But of course there were some additional requirements e The data presented needed to be real time and very accurate e The presentation needed to be graphical e It had to be easy accessible with the information system The requirements as stated above were taken to the next development phase the design of solutions Chapter 4 Design of solutions Following the requirements from users and the guidelines from theory it was possible to construct and design solutions for the three partly distinct problems as discussed in the previous chapter These solutions where coded completely by Cristi the IT specialist on site The underlying basic structure of these chosen solutions can be found in this chapter Detailed final design of the solutions can be found in appendix l 4 1 Problems occurring because of the existence of local calculations The challenge was to introduce one standard of calculation wit
125. ree hand in carrying out my work This gave energy but was sometimes also a little bit of a burden was really restricted by the speed of programming and also by the time employees wanted to speak with me People started arranged meetings sometimes with the words you said this wouldn t take long quite de motivating Therefore couldn t develop and introduce as much as wanted to do when started but that is probably how things go with projects like these In general really liked my assignment truly felt like an industrial engineer in between different people departments and conflicts of interest and translating user wishes for usable concepts and drawings for Cristi Sometimes felt a bit of regret not being able to produce more coding input Therefore myself started programming PHP and MySQL to get more insight into what Cristi was doing and to be able to give more input 1 3 Challenges and skills In a very short time needed to master the old information system and supply programmer Cristi with new tasks Therefore quickly had to develop solutions and provide an underlying structure for it Planning my work and the coding to be done by Cristi was therefore quite important With 30 my planning we both knew what pace to work and how to cope with problems and newly arising problems problems problems and challenges Sometimes this was difficult had a lot of questions and logically employees often did not have time
126. rent responsible is Liviu Trimbitaru e The system contains different pages with tables in almost all of them Those tables only contain some primary information but all of them are clickable to open pop ups with more relevant information structured by tabs and functionalities Because there are many pop ups it is relevant to turn off your pop up blocker for this website e Inthe pop ups there are some general functions used for every database record o Delete to delete the record from the database o Close to close the pop up window e The functionality you can use depends on the user rights you have This manual explains all possible functionalities but it can be possible that you don not see all of the buttons or you do not have the rights to change information For every department a general tutorial was created to practice with the database by yourself Because the system is rapidly evolving the pictures don t always show the latest state slight difference could appear Don t worry it will not affect the way of working just try it out Now you can start following your own tutorial Succes or better noroc Maarten Koster Pieter Vernooij 78 The tutorial for the department of Sales As an employee of sales the system offers great possibilities to keep track of inquiries and orders The following chapter will show the possibilities it offers and the way you can manage these It will only show you some general remarks
127. rlying ideas behind these critical factors in appendix A and the extensive evaluation in appendix K The main conclusion from this appendix follows here The project required a lot of input and quite a ready to change mentality from employees Not everybody could bring up this time and energy although the project had quite strong support from management This probably had two causes The first was that the information system as a whole was not even in use while starting Employees were forced to adapt to changes quickly and were not waiting to a new person who came asking the same questions The om problem was that the management support was not always directly visible Business vision and strategy could be communicated better for example to the heads of the departments The prototyping approach worked sensitively and adaptively with user wishes but also a bit inefficient Future development and extensions can probably better be undertaken by taking more time for analysis and requirements determination and restructuring but also demanding more quality time from employees Nevertheless in general planning and performance feedback of settings and targets or milestones worked quite well although the project had some delay Because of organizational resistance and lack of resources the project did not achieved all of its goals A next project will therefore need to pay attention to these points Conclusion amp recommendations This chapter contains a
128. rrectly for example with wrong prices or wrong dates of delivery or both The same goes for invoices which are not always send or paid in time This is because not all needed information about products and deliveries is captured into the new information system Some very important information is still managed on local computers as can be seen in appendix D Sharing complete information is therefore not possible An example is the way sales prices are calculated During the inquiry phase of an order the future price of an order is calculated by the department of sales This department gathers all possible financial information about an order in a local excel sheet The calculation is then rather easily computed 12 but sometimes important cost drivers are not included Also because the after calculation is made along a certain standard format it is therefore quite a lot of work to compare the pre amp after calculation Consequence of this is that the after calculation is not always made hardly ever Therefore it is not possible to calculate real profits and acquire an accurate financial insight This process of creating calculations is described more extensively in appendix C Opportunities The demand for naval equipment is expanding Therefore DMT s turnover is also increasing rapidly New markets are discovered and new customers acquired This means that the company can grow and invest in assets DMT is acquiring customers in Turkey and C
129. rt research on cost prices This research is executed by an employee of the department of sales on a local computer Because the importance of this sub process this is also explained more in detail in appendix C After this both parties will negotiate about the specifications of a potential order technical as well commercial When they finish this and DMT gains the order it will be confirmed and the engineering department can start with the detailed design of the product if the customer does not deliver its own drawings Purchasing can start to find a suitable subcontractor for the manufacturer and during the designing process Engineering will give them a list with necessary components to be delivered by DMT When the design is finished the components are ordered and delivered and a subcontractor will be ready to produce the product the real production phase starts In this period DMT will carry out some quality controls and keep an eye on delivery time When the product is finished tested and if the customer wants certified by a certification organization it can be transported and if abroad exported to the customer If there may be any problem with the product DMT will deliver after sales service An overview of the primary process is given in figure 2 In appendix C an extended overview of the primary process is given All supporting processes are described there too Figure 2 Overview of primary process Koster 2006 an
130. rtment of Finance which needs to pay and write invoices The module is easy to use and offers a clear overview Unfortunately currently it cannot be used because of a lack of data This can be blamed to the dependent relation with the calculation module Because this module currently does not capture input no output with the planning module can be given The possibilities for management information suffer from the same problem A complete framework is built to collect this information but of course without the information it cannot be displayed Although the current situation is not like it is supposed to be it is still possible that in the near future all possibilities of the system can be used At this moment the system doesn t have enough momentum to override all employees towards using it Management and external users must built up support towards a moment of full implementation and integration into business processes This needs an extra effort from all stakeholders and will take some precious resources Nevertheless it will offer huge management possibilities for the benefit of the growth of DMT Design S A the growth in orders list and the growth in employees Some other further steps are more extensively described in appendix L 26 Bibliography Aladwani Adel M 2001 Change management strategies for successful ERP implementation Business Process Management Journal 7 3 266 275 Akkermans H A and Horst H van der 2002
131. ru for access to the system Why using an information system The DMT information system is made for several reasons The main objective is the following All primary process information up to date and easy to access add and edit should be available all over the world from a central stored place This makes communication easier which will have positive impacts on the work performed Some examples for this are e Up to date component prices make it easier to make proper calculations e Alerts in the planning system will provide the company from problems with the delivery time e A total overview of all running pending inquiries and orders can be shown e Contacting customers manufacturers and suppliers will be easier with the relations modules How does it work The basics of the system are in the inquiries offers and orders All other relevant entities around are available in the system as databases There is chosen for an extensive menu which is divided in the following parts e Databases these are the views for the basic databases with all information in it about relations articles and most importantly inquiries and orders e Primary functions the primary process is performed by some departments In the primary function overviews one can see the relevant information for or about the concerning departments e Supporting functions for the supporting non value adding functions different information is available So far no
132. s Programming followed user wishes closely and was sensitive for these fluctuations Nevertheless this approach did offer the benefits of developing a very highly customized product To prevent future troubleshooting training was given and a manual was developed Monitoring and evaluation of performance Business achievements Planning together with Cristi was dependent on the setting of certain milestones and achievements These milestones and the progress were often as possible evaluated with management also users were often confronted with results Management supported the achieved milestones and tried to improve implementation but this didn t prevented skepticism from employees 71 Appendix L Further steps amp company improvements This chapter deals with an extensive explanation of the steps to follow after the current project is finished would like to give my ideas about this it will be useful for my successor and can also partly serve as an introduction for this person Because worked quite a long time in DMT as a relative outsider also gathered some other ideas which are outside the scope of the project These will be presented in the second part of this appendix Part 1 Improvement of the information system This part describes my point of view about the further development of the information system Side effects and start up problems from history The project as carried out was in fact as logical extension of the ba
133. s and a decent outline Also the background of the company needed to be studied extensively This appeared to be a good basic plan to steer the development by good project management as described under the next bullet Nevertheless uncertainty about the business strategy and vision sometimes delayed work and created uncertainty under employees Effective communication Because of the small size of the company and the short and informal lines of contact communication was easy User wishes demands and expectations were gathered almost continuously But this counts only for short moments and with little questions On key moments it was difficult to involve users very effective for example for longer times of testing and practice longer than 10 minutes Communication was therefore not always as efficient as possible It was tried to keep management and end users in contact with proceedings but this failed sometimes because of the high work pressure and the lack of priority Project management Responsibilities in the project team were clearly defined The scope of the project was generally defined and limited only to some extent This somewhat more general scope matched the nature of the assignment as an independent research project and the assigned limitations did not threatened the boundaries and deliveries of the project Milestones and deliveries were planned in detail so management knew when to expect results what helped to maintain credibilit
134. s from the previous chapters it is possible to analyse the company using a SWOT analysis to identify problems The ABP Heerkens 2002 describes a problem in business terms as the difference between the current situation and a desired situation This desired situation will be formulated and reached by implementing a certain solution This part will keep track of this process of analyzing the situation and the implementation of the solution After this solution is implemented it evaluated Chapter 1 SWOT analysis The following SWOT analysis makes it possible to find a starting point for problem identification and problem formulation The SWOT analysis is explained in detail in appendix A Strengths The major strength of DMT Design lies in the cheap labour costs it has in comparison with other competitors The average monthly wage avm in Romania is about 15 of the avm in Western Europe This makes the cost price of the labour intensive products significant lower But in addition DMT Design also places a huge effort in emphasizing the importance of quality All deliveries are quality inspected what offers some guarantees for customers The location of the company near the important Damen shipyard is also an important factor to success A high proportion of the orders come from this customer DMT has also a growing portfolio of products These are engineered to order and the highly educated employees are flexible in the products they can d
135. s of calculation Costs can be estimated with some different types of calculation Layer et al e Pre calculation e Post calculation DMT employees refer to post calculation as after calculation Therefore this term is being used in the following Pre calculation estimates the price of a product before actual production During this development phase a very large proportion of the future costs and price will be fixed although costs are not expended yet Pre calculation should therefore be very accurate because the future margin is completely determined here accumulated In contrast after calculation determines the actual costs incurred with these costs then serving as the base data for future pre calculations Pre and after calculation may utilize different kinds of information For example information from purchasing can be collected to determine product costs for after calculation In contrast pre calculation is only able to access product describing data and unfortunately such data may be incomplete or _ Product production Avediiction uncertain Layer et al 2002 Figure 4 Product costs which accumulate trough Often designer make choices solely on the the product life cycle Source Layer et al basis of their own experience frequently make design decisions that impact upon product costs If a more accurate and in depth cost estimation is needed greater effort is involved with lots of interdepartmental traf
136. s true meaning Finally ERP improves the timeliness of information On the other hand costs of a standardized system such as ERP increase in proportion to the degree of sub unit differentiation which is the uniqueness of tasks technologies environment goals etc across sub units Gattiker amp Goodhue 2003 Decision support Holsapple amp Sena 2005 researched the consequence of the introduction of an ERP system on decision making Beyond the need for decision support via ERP they found evidence that ERP indeed offers features that support decision making Processing decision reliability decisional substantiation competitiveness decision making speed and treatment of large scale complex problems are features that benefit from an integrated ERP system Implementation amp evaluation of ERP systems Determinants for successful future use of an information system are described by Lucas 1997 These 6 factors are e Users s personal stake the importance of the system for the user e System characteristics The reliability ease of use and relevance for the task the system supports e User demographics Characteristics of the user such as age and computer experience e Organizational support Support received from the project implementation team and other organizational units e Performance The better the system supports employees in their working processes the more they will use it e Satisfaction The more satisfied
137. sales This registration is extremely important because it is directly connected to the date when the invoice should be sent In summary it is extremely important to keep a close eye on the final delivery date 3 days before delivery the department of finance automatically receives an announcement that an order value needs to be incurred By using the invoice creator a new invoice is created by the system and is printed automatically e Situation with cash outflow receiving invoices from suppliers After purchasing supplies the department of purchasing adds these components to the part list of an order in the order database The items all have a certain sometimes negotiated price anda delivery date Instantly this confirmation of future cash outflows should go to the department of finance This department always needs a real time overview of the current outstanding orders and their future value and date Any change of specification like for example the delivery date which means a delay in cash outflow will be detected and registered by the department of purchasing in the system When the value and delivery time of groups of products becomes definite this must be followed by a change in status in the financial planning database system The received invoice can then be matched and validated by the department of finance to the data in the system Purchasing must release a final confirmation for items to be paid 3 Days before an invoice due date
138. sic structure as deployed by Koster early in 2006 Koster finished quite optimistically with a large list of possible improvements completely agree with this list but think some unexpected side effects occurred which changed the outlook on the path of development The system went live 3 month at the time of writing but still most employees are hesitating to use it This is partly because of the high working pressure as employees call it and partly because of a resistance to change Different systems are now developed which still wait to be used seriously companywide Employees are hesitating to get dependant on the system an understandable problem but something they have to get over The system needs critical mass and therefore it is seriously needed that the system gets time and attention from management to get working Currently some employees have the feeling they fill the database because they have to not because their colleagues are using it This has to change Time out This project will finish with the calculation module and the planning of outgoing cash flows After this it is crucial to take a time out the company needs to adept to the system and start using it This will go more slowly than Koster and at first expected it would go Concretely Sales needs to start making all calculations with the system and purchasing needs to update all component information and add all purchasing information to the orders Then the department
139. st double click on the date to the right to set the time the latest date of price to today 3 Click on the article code You will get a menu where you can also update all information 87 As you can see updating the information in the component list is quite easy Adding new components is just as easy In the main screen just press the add component button fill some details quite clear and the components will be entered in the system Adding components to an order The second main task for the department of purchasing is adding components to ordered products and purchasing them Of course this is quite easy Click on Processing gt Orders in the main screen in the top left corner Now you get the total order list You can see a lot of information about the running orders There is one column with the products which are in an order The name of the column is Products Status and you can click on these products which are in Find a specific order and click on a product Do it It will open a pop up with all product information and different tabs on the top You can see a components tab If you click on it you will see a screen like in picture 8 https 82 79 118 35 Product details Microsoft Internet Explorer Order _ Product AMW 110 H34 Aftwinch General II Manufacturer I Planning I Components BE 1 35 m Bearings g0g002 6000 RSR 2RSR Rum Com eypo 2020 gt a es 1138 00 E Electric station Go o
140. t on a default setting of 3 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 RON exchanged exchange RON o 254 2 21 3 66 2 53 1 02 2 39 po 2 23 a iis ail Table 4 Exchange history EURO RON Finally an inquiry consists sometimes of different products and multiples of identical products For identical products it was chosen not to work with multipliers of cost drivers This is because sometimes products with identical components have a different separate cost driver configuration like with certification or are only valid for the total amount of identical products like with transport 20 Next to the product component extra cost driver hierarchy some features were included in the system These are summarized in the next section Extra features The following extra features where included to fully use the advantages of a database driven ERP system e To create the possibility for management to change the chosen settings a new Management settings screen was created Settings like valuta costs opportunity cost of capital and margin viewers were included e Prices which are not updated by the department of purchasing turn red in the calculation e Prices which are updated by the department of purchasing during inquiry running time turn blue e The component lists can be sorted on value and name and can collapse to create a clear overview e When an order is made from an inquiry the esti
141. t so many modules are added for these but it is not difficult to extend the system in this way e Management in this part the management overviews and statistics will be shown on which decisions can be based but so far these have not been finished Another aspect that can be made is a page where some settings can be changed e General here some general functions are displayed as the home page search page not finished and logout and switch user functions 77 What do I have to do Important to remark is that the system will only be successful if information is up to date And as information is added by the people within DMT you are the most important It happens that some information seems irrelevant for you but it can be very interesting for others so fill in everything possible Another important thing is improvement This can be done the best with input from the end user you again So if there are remarks comments or questions just state those and we try to fix the problems or make improvements as soon as possible Some general remarks To give a good explanation of how the system is working this will all be described in the following parts In this section some general remarks will be made about the system in total e To open the system follow the URL https 82 79 118 35 new 20menu You can login with your username and password If you don t have a username and a password contact the IT responsible at the office The cur
142. ta flow diagrams in this rapport are not very strictly drawn according to all rules and conventions and only used to create more insight into situations and explain certain situations across a language barrier Tools and techniques The following techniques are used to research certain situations and processes They are listed in the order of appearance in the rapport STEP Better known as PEST analysis the STEP acronym provides a more positive view on the surrounding environment The social technological amp environmental factors provide a clear context for making a decent analysis of the internal environment SWOT A SWOT analysis can be used for auditing an organization and its environment By placing a company onto two dimensions it is possible to evaluate it at 4 different aspects opportunities threats and strengths and weaknesses Problem knot 36 Often problems occurring in an organisation are interrelated A problem knot tries to find the root of these problems by drawing the cause and effect relations between these problems A cause can be identified because no other effects flow to these points Source Heerkens 2001 Value chain The value chain categorizes the generic value adding activities of an organization The primary activities include inbound logistics operations production outbound logistics sales and marketing and service maintenance The support activities include administrative infrastruct
143. tant dates Engineering deadline In Production date Production finishing date and Delivery date should be filled The initial status of a project is Engineering which should be finished before the Engineering deadline If this date is not reached the Engineering deadline date in the planning tab appears red When the Engineering is finished you can check it and the status changes to Preparation when it is before In production date and to Production when it is after the In production date The purchasing should be finished as soon as possible To show this in the system all components shown in the Components tab 97 which will be described below should be Purchased and Delivered If purchasing is not finished before production has started the In production date appears in red If the purchasing is finished and the Production finishing date is nearing three days the date appears in blue When the deadline is not reached so the Production is not checked while it is after the deadline it appears in red For Delivery of the product series the same goes the deadline should be met otherwise the deadline will appear in red The alerts are although not only visible in the Planning tab Also in the main screen the product appears in a certain colour if there are alerts The last important part of the Planning tab is the overview of responsible employees The responsible people for Sales Engineering and Purchasing are copied from the inquiry an
144. tate the starting point for implementation Change management program and culture A culture with shared values and common aims is conducive to success Organizations should have a strong corporate identity that is open to change An emphasis on quality a strong computing ability and a strong willingness to accept new technology would aid in implementation efforts Management should also have a strong commitment to use the system for achieving business aims Roberts and Barrar 1992 Users must be trained and concerns must be addressed through regular communication working with change agents leveraging corporate culture and identifying job aids for different users Rosario 2000 As part of the change management efforts users should be involved in design and implementation of business processes and the ERP system and formal education and training should be provided to help them do so page293 35 Business process reengineering BPR and minimum customization It is inevitable that business processes are molded to fit the new system Bingi et al 1999 Aligning the business process to the software implementation is critical Holland et al 1999 Sumner 1999 Organizations should be willing to change the business to fit the software with minimal customization page 293 Software development testing and troubleshooting Software development testing and troubleshooting is essential beginning in the project phase The overall
145. teds a 101 MANAGEMENT wicisisiscsiccnvscciscstennsscatecedscstennsannisndusieodeandessiaaedededaceseasenerduaodeadscts 101 KEY SL QUT ES oiin th Ga aaa So Aa a cana e Eaten e a eee cae aes 101 Product OVETVICW rispons keisere edee reapse ee ean ie Boeing tb opshi se rerea gy Soeede 101 OLIN GS AERA ER E SSE S E ESE EA 101 eaa a E E E T 101 Va LO EE EEEE A E EEE A E E E E E 101 SCOICH iiss c ceed he a e e A e A E E E E TAE AA REE 102 VERAO NEEN ETE E E E E EE T 102 SWHCH USET araneae aaee E r E E SEER EAE E EE AE E EE EA ENERE 102 76 Introduction In 2006 DMT Design introduced a new information system which keeps track of the entire primary process It was custom built to support your work and this manual was created to support you in learning to use it In this first part of the manual some backgrounds will be discussed and the following questions will be answered e Why is there a new DMT information system e How is the system structured and what does it look like e What is your role in this After these first questions the department of Sales Purchasing and Finance each have their own chapter about the specific functions the systems offers If you are an new employee of these departments you should read these chapters thoroughly It is strongly recommended to read the other department specific chapters and the final chapter which gives a general overview of all functions But at first ask the current IT Administrator Livu Trimbita
146. theless the order calculation also has its own specific functions and gadgets For example it connected to a revisions database where old revisions can be re used The 63 following two screen shots offer two examples from pop ups which can be opened in inquiry amp n order phase tot add transport or extra costs The second cost driver uses some built in formulas to calculate cost drivers like cost of capital and the cost of valuta exchange Parameters for these formulas can be changed by using the screen with management settings AAA Edit transport 1x AMW 110 E32c electric driven Aftwinch Product Dimensions Destination Time of delivery 0000 00 00 Figure 24 Transport cost pop up AAA Extra costs B Extra costs Specifications Est deadtine Soecifications TOTAL EXTRA COSTS Est leadtime is the estimated duration in weeks untill the order s delivery time Figure 25 Extra costs pop up 64 Sending invoices The following figure show the solution as developed for the process of receiving invoices CONVERTOR VALUTAR CES TT oe Dee Tal vo me 30001 TESTGROUP Going Test comp 2 4200 NO 30001 a ai ame 26063 Steel construction Ipromet 10 29999 TEST GROUP Going 50 Testcomp2 th BSE 2 29999 Hydraulic motor A van der Velden 1 HM C045 P 45 20 FM3 X 38 Rae Production 2999 TESTGROUP BrahaEmy 2 Testcomp 1 33 300 e 2063 Seclconsucion Ipromet 10
147. this kilo price and also add extra costs manually The system automatically calculates the price for design Also one group of extra costs was created This group consists of the following cost drivers e Unexpected Every order has unexpected costs occurring during production Therefore a certain value is added to the sales price to prevent unexpected loss The module automatically adds a default value which can be modified e Opportunity cost of capital An order takes a certain time to be designed purchased and finally produced During these stages as in figure 2 2 some down payments are made and incurred from and paid to suppliers and customers Because of the opportunity cost of capital it is needed to specify these transactions and include this cost of capital as a cost driver in the calculation mode A formula was derived to calculate these costs which can be found in appendix I e Valuta exchange costs DMT tries to pay in Euros as much as possible to avoid valuta exchange costs and exchange rate risks Therefore all international transactions are in Euros Nevertheless sometimes certain Romanian suppliers need to be paid in RON the local currency A new cost driver was therefore introduced in the pre calculation to take these costs into account Automatically the total purchasing value of components from Romanian suppliers is multiplied with the cost of the exchange This value was determined by studying the exchange history and se
148. ticularly if they have a significant information processing component 1985 page 159 But the standardization accomplished with introducing calculations in to the current information system should match the characteristics of the current process of making this calculation Akkermans amp Van der Horst 2002 This process is like working within a set of work constellations as can be seen from appendix C Akkermans amp Van der Horst argue that such a process can do without standardization However this argument only counts for the current process with its costs and benefits A process which consists of a flow of regulated activities can be very well supported by ERP software and for example a calculation module Akkermans amp Van der Horst 2002 page 219 The criteria of Weil and Broadbent appendix A also show that in theory it was possible to standardize a pre calculation module e Local versus integral nature The calculation is created locally but the data is used as a basic structure for different departments Also different departments should be able to give input for the process It has an integral nature although not the complete calculation is shared e Speed of change The process and its products did not change throughout a couple of years It is not expected it will change in the near future only a radical change from the company s primary process will be able to do this This is not expected e Number of people using
149. to read and study First the collected desirable system requirements are presented and restructured here to present a view of the desired process and its specifications Hoffer distinguishes different methods page 206 for collection system requirements From these different methods interviewing observing and studying business documents like spreadsheets were used extensively to discover issues and collect the needed requirements In appendix F the firstly used interview outline form can be found Although making outlines was useful most information was collected in non structured interviews and meetings For the sake of intelligibility the chapter is divided according to the 3 main problems as stated in the previous chapter 3 1 Problems occurring because of the existence of local calculations All calculations during the primary process are executed locally in departments on spreadsheets and these are not shared across departmental boundaries This has important negative consequences as can be read extensively in appendix E Management decided therefore to research the possibility for a new system of cost accounting To research this wish first the necessary requirements from the user point of view were determined The primary stakeholders are working at the department of sales These employees value the ease of working with complex sheets Calculations contain a lot of remarks and suggestions sometimes totally incomprehensible It is not cl
150. to achieve with a rapidly growing flow of information Harmful side effects and problems occur This rapport deals with these problems in a company called DMT Design SA located in Galati Romania It is active in the international market for deck equipment DMT Design SA is a company which is growing very quickly in terms of turnover and in amount of incoming requests for proposals and received orders All departments are hiring new employees These developments ask a lot of attention from management to manage and coordinate all extra occurring problems Therefore the company introduced a new information system in May 2006 As a second try another system failed and only partly finished the system required some important extensions and modifications This report deals with this step in the development of the system for which the following procedure is used First the company and the currently running information systems are researched extensively Also the total environment and the context in which the company operates is described This information is used in the second part of the report where an extensive problem analysis can be found This problem analysis resulted in the following central research question How to develop and implement financial modules as extensions of the current information system to coordinate a better flow of financial information between departments This question was used to gain insight in the problem and deve
151. ts his employees and tries to give them their own responsibility For example on the second day was in the company Piet gave me the assignment to check the rules of conduct he wanted to reintroduce in the company changed it quite radically and he just looked at the changes and approved it With such a little sign of trust he really improved my at that moment fragile self confidence directly felt a member of the DMT family 1 2 The assignment Because of the good working atmosphere my assignment therefore was also far more pleasant as expected Before starting expected to have the feeling of going to work again and again and again combined with making long working days But it totally did not feel like that really liked to be at the office discussing and making small talks with everybody This was also because employees took me to some different manufacturers and suppliers of DMT saw shipyards lots of products and interesting factories with very different working circumstances as in the Netherlands In the beginning didn t really knew how to start my assignment The employees were not really seriously using the new information system and had the feeling my questions probably all asked before by my pre successor were too much a burden for them But Piet really tried to make the IS high priority and gave me the feeling my assignment was difficult but very important He also gave me responsibility and quite a f
152. ty Marketing function e Sales Projects Product services development function e Engineering Legal Finance Office management IT Systems Table 9 Linking functions to Slack model 39 Slack mentions that functional names boundaries and responsibilities between departments and functions often vary page 7 As can be seen from the figure boundaries between departments are always somewhat blurred In DMT practice this means that for example employees from purchasing also fix problems in production and logistics The following figure is an extension from the primary process as can be found in chapter 2 5 40 Active selling Exhibitions Approaching Meeting Offering Register inquiry Preliminary design Find subcontractors Manufacturing Components Inquire receive prices Negotiating Technical e Design e Quality e Certification Commercial e Price Delivery time Payment Transport L Confirm order Specifications Conditions Design Purchasing Drawings Parts lists Inquire prices of Contact preferred components production supplier Negotiating Negotiation with producer Buy components Send manufacturing order Arrange transport and import Production Deliver drawings Quality controls Keep an eye on delivery time Delivery Testing Certification if asked for Transport Export After sales service Solving probl
153. ucture Part Il The assignment 1 Problem identification 2 Problem analysis 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 l 3 Solution 4 Implementation plan Appendices 69 Appendix K Evaluation This appendix contains an extensive evaluation of the implementation of the information system The framework of Nah et al as explained in appendix F is used ERP teamwork and composition Business and technical knowledge was available in the project team and the workload was good manageable Top management support The assignment and implementation had strong management support This was extremely important because the introduction did not have priority for 80 of the employees This is against the advice of Nah et al to assign top priority to the project In addition Laughlin proposes in the work of Gupta et al 2006 that during the implementation process the strategic business perspective emphasizing cooperative and cross functional approach should be clearly communicated across functional areas by top management of the company Sometimes it was unclear how the new organizational structure roles and responsibilities should be established although management tried to get things as clear as possible Strategic goals and objectives were not always clear with all users Probably work pressure was interfering with this objective Business plan and vision Making a university thesis from this project helped in defining concrete problems causal relation
154. ucture for different departments internal and external to the company It makes cost calculations quite easy and still quite flexible and open for different employees A lot of data is directly shared across departmental boundaries which could prevent some interdepartmental tension Nevertheless the system has its practical disadvantages It is quite static and needs a lot of clicking not Window based It also demands an intensive training and adjusting period for employees They need to change their way of working quite radically These problems cause that the module is not completely in use Currently no calculations are made with the system and most of the newly added functions are not being used At this moment the system doesn t have enough momentum to override all employees towards using it Although management supports the system full implementation failed Nevertheless it could offer huge management possibilities for the benefit of the growth of DMT Design S A the growth in orders list and the growth in employees Introduction A growing company faces major challenges especially in highly competitive business areas lts time to market needs to drop and with shortening product life cycles the company needs to stay sensitive to external developments But also internal developments offer threats Although new resources become available it is needed that the company works as efficient and effective as possible This goal is difficult
155. ure management human resources management R amp D and procurement The costs and value drivers are identified for each value activity By now the concept has been extended beyond individual organizations It can apply to whole supply chains and distribution networks each managing its own value chain Source http www netmba com strategy value chain Information intensity matrix Porter and Millar 1985 proposed the use of an information intensity matrix to assess IT s role in an organization The matrix evaluates the information intensity of the value chain against that of the product They suggested that IT will play a strategic role in an industry that is characterised by high information intensity in both the value chain and the product Their representation of the matrix is reproduced in table 8 Source ttp www anu edu au people Roger Clarke SOS StratISTh html Information content of the product LOW HIGH Newspapers Information HIGH Oil refining Banking intensity Airlines of the value chain Low Cement Table 8 Information intensity matrix 37 Appendix B Five forces of Porter To estimate the attractiveness of a market the five forces model of Porter can be used In the following paragraph this model is used to make an assessment of the markets on which DMT operates This analysis is taken completely from the work of Koster 2006 Internal rivalry At the moment the most important competitors are other Dutch d
156. uropean Conference on Information Systems Vol 1 pp 273 97 Holsapple C W and Sena M P 2005 ERP plans and decision support benefits Decision Support Systems 38 575 590 Koster M 2006 Development of the new DMT information system University of Twente Layer A Brinke E ten Houten F van Kals H Haasis S 2002 Recent and future trends in cost estimation Int J Computer Integrated Manufacturing 15 6 499 510 Levy M and Powell P 2000 Information systems strategy for small and medium sized enterprises an organizational perspective Journal of Strategic Information Systems 9 63 84 Lucas H C 1997 Information Technology for Management New York NY McGraw Hill Mooney J G Gurbaxani V Kraemer K L 1996 A process orientated framework for assessing the business value of Information Technology The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems 27 2 68 81 27 Nah F F H Lau J L S Kuang J 2001 Critical factors for successful implementation of enterprise systems Business Process Management Journal 7 3 285 296 Porter M E 1980 Competitive Strategy Techniques for Analysing Industries and Competitors New York U S A Free Press Porter M E and Millar V E 1985 How information gives you competitive advantage Harvard Business Review pp 140 160 Slack N et al 2001 Operations Management 3 edition Harlow U K Pearson Education Ltd Veeramani D
157. use after calculation is not always carried out change of important cost drivers are unknown e Short term planning of future cash flows is not available e There is no available management information so decision making is more difficult Stakeholders A stakeholder is someone who comes into contact with the changes following from this research and has an interest in the continuation of the company Director of the company Piet ter Schure is the main stakeholder He initiated this project to improve the information technology used in the company Next to Piet the employees are important stakeholders They need to work with the system and probable need to change their way of working Especially the employees from the departments of sales finance and purchasing need to work with the system Responsibility The responsibility for the assignment lies by me but of course it is necessary to keep in close contact with and report to the management of the company because they have to work with these solutions Next to that the university tutor can be consulted for advices Method According to Hoffer 2002 some different types of system development methods can be distinguished dependent on the new IS characteristics page 17 To develop a transaction processing system TPS the used research method needs a process orientation This concerns a focus for capturing validating and storing data Because management also wants the system to in
158. use these companies get to see all drawings and know how to assemble equipment The advantage for DMT is that there are many possible manufacturers in the steel working field and all of them need orders because many of their machines are standing still Barriers to entry The know how about the products explicated in drawings is based on experience Next to that because there are so few possible clients a network within the field is needed These two aspects make it difficult to enter the market 38 Appendix C Extended function amp process overview This appendix gives an extended overview of DMT Design s company functions and running processes The first paragraph uses a model as described by Slack to analyze the company s functions and provides a total overview of the primary process The last paragraph gives some more details about an important part of this process the creation of calculations Slack s model of a company Slack 2001 describes company s by identifying three core functions and different support functions like in figure 2 Support functions Product services development function Core functions i Marketing Operations function function Figure 5 Core and support functions source Slack 2001 The 3 core functions of the company are coupled with the model in the following way Model functions Actual function Operations function e Purchasing logistics import export e Production quali
159. ust reflect the latest prices An accurate cost price determines an accurate margin and accurate decision support information e The offered cost structure should have a high level of transparency By offering a high level of transparency interdepartmental traffic becomes more effective and efficient This also clears responsibilities and guidelines e The model should be dynamically adaptive It must be very easy to include the latest cost drivers in the calculation e Calculation of complex parts should be applicable DMT Design s product portfolio can be defined as very diverse and complex It is therefore indeed needed to make the cost calculation very flexible The company often uses an analogue cost estimation with similar products from design history to make cost estimations Therefore it must also be possible to search in the history for past used designs In summary history should support new calculations but should not limit it by reducing the accuracy After some internal discussion it was clear that management wanted to eradicate all local calculations and storage of data It was quickly decided that all local storage and calculation should disappear in favor of a more extensive standardization of the current processes and practices probably by means of extending the ERP system Different authors claim huge advantages of enterprise wide standardization as can be read in appendix A Akkermans amp Van der Horst 2002 notice the
160. ve member of NATO since 2004 and is also an acceding country to the European Union The EU Accession Treaty was signed in early 2005 and Romania is due to join the European Union on January 1 2007 But conditions as set by the EU are strict Romania s economy has to grow and especially corruption has to stop For a company like DMT this is a twofold development Probably the attention for legislation and international procedures will make business easier to handle but on the other side labor costs and prices will increase dramatically Chapter 2 The internal environment In this chapter a general description of the DMT Group is given by describing internal aspects of the company like the organizational structure the provided markets amp products and the primary process Because the original assignment was to make management information available a part of this chapter contains information about supporting information systems 2 1 Introduction and history After having gained experience in the naval shipyard industry Dutch entrepreneur Piet ter Schure decided to start on his own in 2001 He founded Dutch Marine Trading design S A DMT S A with some Romanian designers The company started with designing tailor made winches At the same time DMT BV was established in the Netherlands to do most of the selling part In the beginning the company was run with the Dutch company as the primary base where most of the orders were running Last y
161. view 4 3 Real time management information Originally one of the main goals of this assignment was to generate real time management information A fundament for this goal was created in the form of the previous stated solutions After the creation of these solutions it appeared that table 3 was still correctly describing management requirements Therefore table 3 was taken as the basic wish list for the production of management information Using the other solutions as the appropriate source for the needed information it was easy to draw the needed charts and figures Some can be found in appendix Management was Satisfied with these solutions but the developments from the concurrently running implementation of the other solutions demanded a stop on further implementation of the solution for real time management information as can be read in the following chapter about the implementation Therefore the solution for the output of real time management information was not fully implemented 22 Implementation amp project evaluation The solutions as developed were introduced into the organization by a certain chosen path of organizational implementation in collaboration with management This chapter deals with this process The second part of the chapter consists of the evaluation of the development and implementation of the chosen solutions 4 4 System implementation To develop an underpinned implementation the framework as developed by Lu
162. view of how an after calculation menu should or could look is already created and included in this rapport A positive evaluation of the data in the system and how people use the system should mean that the creation of an order after calculation gets top priority 72 This way it becomes really clear how DMT and its employees perform and which products are successful and which not Important for after calculation is that employees can really trust the information they find their Management information The next step should be to introduce the creation of management information by the system Also for this extension the entire structure is ready and also for this option the quality of data should be researched before It will not be difficult to gather the needed information from the system and also the needed graphical php plugins are already installed to the server It is needed to take a good look on the structure of the calculation module especially on all places were dates and values are combined This will be very useful to make this information accessible Part 2 Suggestions for company improvements In this part some suggestions and ideas for improving company processes outside the scope of this rapport will be discussed Read it for your own interest because it will probably reflects my personal opinion quite strongly The introduction of new employees What directly came to my attention was the lack of procedures appearing whe
163. w employees the rigorously adjusted manual can be found in appendix M e Technical support n the first weeks after the introduction employees probably will still have a lot of comments and updates to make about the system Lay out and minor technical modifications will therefore be made by Cristi who will stay on site for one week 23 After this start up period technical assistance will be provided remotely by the helpdesk of Tempo Labour Performance It is needed that users will have insight in the benefits the system offers and the increase in performance in running business processes Hoffer 2002 page 601 also mentions that users will appreciate it being able to work creatively with the system A point of attention is therefore needed to create future possibilities for user input in enhancing the system and its performance Performance represents a two way relationship with use and it is largely determined in the development phase Management needs to show users the performance increase during the running of the system for example every 3 months Satisfaction Like performance satisfaction also has a two way relationship with use The system is not finished unless users are not totally satisfied with the way it works During the start up phase it is therefore also important to focus on how satisfied users are with chosen solutions and layout for example 4 5 Time schedule The points as described above were followed to creat
164. y This also helped in working with Cristi who knew exactly how to plan programming Project champion During the project Piet ter Schure was the transformational leader who had the power to set goals and legitimize change as Falkowski et al recommends in Nah et al 2002 This was indeed important because he was able to create credibility in the organization and was able to steer the direction according to his vision His presence increased the workability and fastened implementation 70 Appropriate business and legacy systems The available business and legacy systems were relatively uncomplicated and well defined The only difficulty was the lack of knowledge available during pre calculation and the rich product portfolio Because business process were defined and analyzed it was possible to evaluate this important source of information and it s fit with the new system Change management program and culture Because the daily pressure it was understandable that not all employees had change as top priority although this was different for different employees Some accepted the need for change and accepted it more easily and even advocated this Creating the willingness for change was therefore recognized as important during the project Users were extensively involved in lay out and interface issues Also a strategy was developed to make the live going phase more easily Training was give on site and a manual was develo
165. y becomes declined when a customer decides not to take the offer e Ordered when one or more orders appear from an inquiry the status of it becomes ordered With the selection in the right upper corner you can choose which inquiries offers you would like to see There are many ways in ways the status of an inquiry can change from one in another This will become clear below An inquiry can be added with the Add inquiry button There some fields can be filled with general information the customer and two dates the reception date on which the inquiry was received and the dispatch date when the salesperson is supposed to send an offer The status becomes Running and the pop up with the newly made inquiry becomes visible In the main screen the basis information appears in the table The inquiry number can be clicked to open a pop up The pop up has the following tabs e General the general information is displayed and can be updated Remarkable are the possible status changes if the offer sending date is filled and updated the status changes to Pending Later on this can be changed back to Running again when you change the dispatch date again e People the responsible employees for this inquiry for Sales Engineering and Purchasing can be selected e Customer contact information for the customer is displayed Next to that a contact person for this inquiry can be selected If no contact person is defined for this customer you can ad

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