Analyzing Business Processes for an Enterprise System 1
Case Description
The case sheds light on the management of a firm looking to improve on their order process by making it more efficient. The firm is fairly large having about five different production facilities which manufacture chemicals used in plastics, fibers, and coatings in the south eastern region of the United States.
The case goes in depth into the firm’s order process. When a customer faxes, mails in the order, or calls, his order is taken down by a representative who manually takes down necessary information required for the order on an order pad. The representative accesses the firm’s order entry system and checks the inventory and location for each product the customer orders. After all relevant information regarding the order is gathered, the customer is contacted by the representative who confirms the entire order before proceeding. The representative suggests a delivery date of four to five business days. If the customer would prefer an earlier delivery, the representative checks the order entry system to see the warehouse nearest in location to the customer shipping address. This check appears to be redundant as orders are generally delivered from the nearest location to the customer.
Orders which written by hand on an order pad are collected together and put manually into the order entry system. The order entry system rejects orders with missing information. Some orders are not immediately put into the system depending on their delivery date. The system performs a credit check on the customers. Customers are separated and treated differently based on the health of their credit. A report is generated and sent daily to the Credit Department and representatives.
The firm also faces a problem due to lack of standards. Different business units use different identification systems for the same products. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
The firm appears to be strong and big. It holds fives different production facilities producing a variety of
The case sheds light on the management of a firm looking to improve on their order process by making it more efficient. The firm is fairly large having about five different production facilities which manufacture chemicals used in plastics, fibers, and coatings in the south eastern region of the United States.
The case goes in depth into the firm’s order process. When a customer faxes, mails in the order, or calls, his order is taken down by a representative who manually takes down necessary information required for the order on an order pad. The representative accesses the firm’s order entry system and checks the inventory and location for each product the customer orders. After all relevant information regarding the order is gathered, the customer is contacted by the representative who confirms the entire order before proceeding. The representative suggests a delivery date of four to five business days. If the customer would prefer an earlier delivery, the representative checks the order entry system to see the warehouse nearest in location to the customer shipping address. This check appears to be redundant as orders are generally delivered from the nearest location to the customer.
Orders which written by hand on an order pad are collected together and put manually into the order entry system. The order entry system rejects orders with missing information. Some orders are not immediately put into the system depending on their delivery date. The system performs a credit check on the customers. Customers are separated and treated differently based on the health of their credit. A report is generated and sent daily to the Credit Department and representatives.
The firm also faces a problem due to lack of standards. Different business units use different identification systems for the same products. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
The firm appears to be strong and big. It holds fives different production facilities producing a variety of
Cited: "Oracle". Oracle. 02/14/2008 <http://www.oracle.com/database/index.html>. "Oracle Database". Wikipedia. 02/14/2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_database>. Sutton, Mark. "Bonyan Group selects SAP to help drive international growth ". Bonyan Group. 2/17/2008 <http://www.itp.net/news/511552-bonyan-group-selects-sap-to-help-drive-international-growth>.