Estrategias agropecuarias de subsistencia

BLT Bridge Ltd. is the U.K.’s leading independent producer of commercial vehicle springs, formed in 1987 as the result of a management buy-out from British Steel.

Manufacturing and administrative offices are together at one site. Many changes were

introduced by the new owners, including Total Quality Management, updated Human Resource Management policies (fair pay, single status, multiskilling, share ownership, improved

communication), and a management development programme. There was a large capital investment in plant, but very little new spend on IT, with the result that existing systems had become ’isolated islands of automation with no upgrade path, slow and unreliable, out of date, with whole areas of the business not supported’.

Initiation and Objectives

The consultants who were advising the buy-out urged the company to apply for a DTI grant for a Manufacturing Systems Review. This was carried out in 1989 and identified problems in most functional areas, outdated and manual systems, lack of integration within functions and between functions, with consequent need to transfer data and inaccurate/inconsistent data. The consultants identified as reasons for investing in IT: 1) inadequacy of existing systems; 2) cost reduction; 3) better management information; 4) to support delegation of responsibility to lower levels; 5) dramatic improvements in response time. The company’s competitive strategy

emphasised quality, technical innovation and new product design, and responsiveness to customer demand. IT investment was seen as a means of meeting these strategic objectives as well as improving internal control, co-ordination, and planning. BLT perceived itself as having fallen behind other companies in IT, and as having to make an enormous leap to catch up and if possible, to get ahead in some areas.

Design

The plan was for four main systems integrated by a common database: material control, manufacturing control, financial control, and CAD. CAD was seen as significant in improving responsiveness to customers and technological innovation. EDI links to customers and suppliers were another important feature. The company was already electronically linked to three

customers - major vehicle manufacturers - due to customer pressure, but the system which

already existed involved rekeying, while the new one would make it possible to eliminate this and to transfer designs directly. An MIS was planned for when the information became available, but they did not yet have it. What were defined as ’internal networks’ including electronic mail and word-processing had relatively low priority, after all this had been accomplished.

Implementation

Implementation began as the recession was beginning to bite in 1990. This assisted implementation in that fewer orders had to be filled during the changeover period, but people were also being made redundant because of the drop in orders, which could be blamed on the new system. The Financial System was implemented first, because it was relatively self- contained. For this reason, and because the department was already computer-literate, there were few problems. The core MRPII system however was all integrated and had to go live all at once. It had been developed in six months, very fast compared with the supplier’s other

customers. Outcomes

Even three months after implementation, there were still many problems, because the shop floor workers were not used to computers and had had inadequate time for training before the system went live. In the offices, responses varied. The Sales Department were said to be resistant, because they had a purpose-designed system tailored for them over the years which suited them perfectly, and they didn’t want to change to the new one which did not meet their needs so well. The Purchasing Department were quite positive about it because it reduced computer print-out and would provide more management information. In Planning there were many problems which required additional programming. EDI and CAD were said to be going well.

Organizational Change

Managers thought they could only have made so big a leap in technology because of the organizational changes they had already carried out and the ’strong culture’ thus established. As for subsequent organizational change, it was thought at first that this would come about in an evolutionary fashion, after people got used to the system. However, five months after implementation began the IT manager was talking about making radical changes to jobs soon, rationalising lines of communication and responsiblities. This was not only because of the technology, although the system did highlight some deficiencies. Consultants who were then in were recommending changes in practices which were perceived as having been wrong before

anyway. Conclusions

The case study shows the strategic nature of IT to a small manufacturing company, and the large amount of information required in the manufacture of even quite a simple product. Having fallen behind in IT development, the company’s basic need was not for an office system, but to control production and planning through MRP and MIS. However, CAD and EDI were definitely factors in competition, and EDI had already been imposed by customers. Office systems in the sense of generic OA were very low priority, probably because they were not required for intraorganizational communication. However, office functions such as planning, sales and purchasing were necessary parts of an integrated system. BLT also illustrates some of the problems arising from the rapid implementation of integrated systems, and the complex two- way relationship between the introduction of IT and organizational change.

9. KFS TOOLS 1990