Case Study 2: Implementation Strategies Case Study 2: Implementation Strategies Your proposed information system is still a contender. The executives, how
Case Study 2: Implementation Strategies Case Study 2: Implementation Strategies
Your proposed information system is still a contender. The executives, however, are asking whether it is too limited to prevent the shadow IT projects that continue to take place throughout the organization.
They believe that you have considered what the organization does now, but how will your system adapt to new products and processes? Read IQMS (2015) for a concrete example of what they mean.
You’ll have to quell their fears, so it’s time for another memo. Please focus on these points:
1. Identify any significant changes that your organization might reasonably make in its product offerings in the next 3 years. Explain the competitive benefits of this change.
2. Explain how your information system addresses or can adapt to the introduction of these new product offerings.
3. Give one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated in the initial information system design. Justify your reason. Your memo should be 3–5 pages long.
Note: Assignment will be check for plagiarism.
Reference: IQMS. (2015). Quick Response Manufacturing Yields Lower Inventories & Improves cash flow. Retrieved from https://www.iqms.com/files/case-studies/quick-response-manufacturing.pdf
Case study 2 is based on the picture illustration.
Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.
1. Identify any significant changes in its product offerings that your organization might reasonably make over the next 3 years. Explain the competitive benefits of this change.
Weight: 30% (52.5 points)
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 20.7 (13.8%)
Inadequate prediction of changes in product offerings Limited explanation of competitive benefits of change in product offerings
Fair 70-79% C 21 (14%) – 23.7 (15.8%)
Somewhat predicted changes in product offerings. Somewhat explained the competitive benefits of this change in product offerings.
Proficient 80-89% B 24 (16%) – 26.7 (17.8%)
Predicted significant changes in product offerings Explained the competitive benefits of these changes in product offerings
Exemplary 90-100% A 27 (18%) – 30 (20%)
Described the sustainability of the information system against any potential changes in the marketplace Proposed ideas for adapting the system to change
2. EXPLAIN HOW YOUR INFORMATION SYSTEM ADDRESSES OR CAN ADAPT TO THE INTRODUCTION OF THESE NEW PRODUCT OFFERINGS.
WEIGHT: 30% (52.5 POINTS)
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 25.88 (17.25%)
Did not explain how the information system addresses new product offerings Inadequate explanation of how the information system can adapt to some of new product offerings
Fair 70-79% C 26.25 (17.5%) – 29.62 (19.75%)
Explained how the information system addresses new product offerings Somewhat described how the information system can adapt to some of new product offerings
Proficient 80-89% B 30 (20%) – 33.38 (22.25%)
Explained how the information system addresses the introduction of each new product offering Described how the information system can adapt to each new product offering
Exemplary 90-100% A 33.75 (22.5%) – 37.5 (25%)
Demonstrated what considerations were made for the system to be adaptable and flexible to unknown changes Included insight on how the system could be adopted by the IT department
3. GIVE ONE REASON WHY CAPABILITIES FOR THE NEW PRODUCT OFFERINGS SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT BE INCORPORATED IN THE INITIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM DESIGN. JUSTIFY YOUR REASON.
WEIGHT: 30% (52.5 POINTS)
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 25.88 (17.25%)
Limited evaluation of capabilities of each product offering Did not provide adequate reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial system design, and failed to justify reasoning
Fair 70-79% C 26.25 (17.5%) – 29.62 (19.75%)
Somewhat evaluated the capabilities of each product offering Provided one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial system design, but failed to justify reasoning
Proficient 80-89% B 30 (20%) – 33.38 (22.25%)
Evaluated the capabilities of each product offering Provided one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial system design. Justified the reason.
Exemplary 90-100% A 33.75 (22.5%) – 37.5 (25%)
Provided more than one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial system design. Justified the reasoning.
4. CLARITY, PERSUASION, PROPER COMMUNICATION, WRITING MECHANICS, AND FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS WEIGHT: 10% (17.5 POINTS)
WEIGHT: 20%–
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 20.7 (13.8%)
Unclear structure, not persuasive, major grammatical errors
Fair 70-79% C 21 (14%) – 23.7 (15.8%)
Somewhat clear structure, limited persuasion, grammatical errors, language too simple or too wordy
Proficient 80-89% B 24 (16%) – 26.7 (17.8%)
Clear structure, persuasive writing, minor or no grammatical errors, length and format within requirements, plain language
Exemplary 90-100% A 27 (18%) – 30 (20%)
No grammatical errors, plain language, organized by topic, references business needs, connects to technical specs, persuasive
5. CLARITY, PERSUASION, PROPER COMMUNICATION, WRITING MECHANICS, AND FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS
WEIGHT: 10%–
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 10.35 (6.9%)
Fair 70-79% C 10.5 (7%) – 11.85 (7.9%)
Proficient 80-89% B 12 (8%) – 13.35 (8.9%)
Exemplary 90-100% A 13.5 (9%) – 15 (10%)
Bottom of Form Case Study 2: Implementation Strategies
Your proposed information system is still a contender. The executives, however, are asking
whether it is too limited to prevent the shadow IT projects that continue to take place throughout
the organization.
They believe that you have considered what the organization does now, but how will your system
adapt to new products and processes? Read IQMS (2015) for a concrete example of what they
mean.
You’ll have to quell their fears, so it’s time for another memo. Please focus on these points:
1. Identify any significant changes that your organization might reasonably make in its product
offerings in the next 3 years. Explain the competitive benefits of this change.
2. Explain how your information system addresses or can adapt to the introduction of these new
product offerings.
3. Give one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be
incorporated in the initial information system design. Justify your reason. Your memo should be
3–5 pages long.
Note: Assignment will be check for plagiarism.
Reference: IQMS. (2015). Quick Response Manufacturing Yields Lower Inventories & Improves
cash
flow.
Retrieved
manufacturing.pdf
from
https://www.iqms.com/files/case-studies/quick-response-
Case study 2 is based on the picture illustration.
Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper,
and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.
1. Identify any significant changes in its product offerings that your organization might
reasonably make over the next 3 years. Explain the competitive benefits of this change.
Weight: 30% (52.5 points)
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 20.7 (13.8%)
Inadequate prediction of changes in product offerings Limited explanation of competitive
benefits of change in product offerings
Fair 70-79% C 21 (14%) – 23.7 (15.8%)
Somewhat predicted changes in product offerings. Somewhat explained the competitive benefits
of this change in product offerings.
Proficient 80-89% B 24 (16%) – 26.7 (17.8%)
Predicted significant changes in product offerings Explained the competitive benefits of these
changes in product offerings
Exemplary 90-100% A 27 (18%) – 30 (20%)
Described the sustainability of the information system against any potential changes in the
marketplace Proposed ideas for adapting the system to change
2. Explain how your information system addresses or can adapt to the introduction of these new
product offerings.
Weight: 30% (52.5 points)
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 25.88 (17.25%)
Did not explain how the information system addresses new product offerings Inadequate
explanation of how the information system can adapt to some of new product offerings
Fair 70-79% C 26.25 (17.5%) – 29.62 (19.75%)
Explained how the information system addresses new product offerings Somewhat described
how the information system can adapt to some of new product offerings
Proficient 80-89% B 30 (20%) – 33.38 (22.25%)
Explained how the information system addresses the introduction of each new product offering
Described how the information system can adapt to each new product offering
Exemplary 90-100% A 33.75 (22.5%) – 37.5 (25%)
Demonstrated what considerations were made for the system to be adaptable and flexible to
unknown changes Included insight on how the system could be adopted by the IT department
3. Give one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be
incorporated in the initial information system design. Justify your reason.
Weight: 30% (52.5 points)
Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 25.88 (17.25%)
Limited evaluation of capabilities of each product offering Did not provide adequate reason why
capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial
system design, and failed to justify reasoning
Fair 70-79% C 26.25 (17.5%) – 29.62 (19.75%)
Somewhat evaluated the capabilities of each product offering Provided one reason why
capabilities for the new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial
system design, but failed to justify reasoning
Proficient 80-89% B 30 (20%) – 33.38 (22.25%)
Evaluated the capabilities of each product offering Provided one reason why capabilities for the
new product offerings should or should not be incorporated into the initial system design.
Justified the reason.
Exemplary 90-100% A 33.75 (22.5%) – 37.5 (25%)
Provided more than one reason why capabilities for the new product offerings should or should
not be incorporated into the initial system design. Justified the reasoning.
4. Clarity, persuasion, proper communication, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements
Weight: 10% (17.5 points)
Weight: 20%-Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 20.7 (13.8%)
Unclear structure, not persuasive, major grammatical errors
Fair 70-79% C 21 (14%) – 23.7 (15.8%)
Somewhat clear structure, limited persuasion, grammatical errors, language too simple or too
wordy
Proficient 80-89% B 24 (16%) – 26.7 (17.8%)
Clear structure, persuasive writing, minor or no grammatical errors, length and format within
requirements, plain language
Exemplary 90-100% A 27 (18%) – 30 (20%)
No grammatical errors, plain language, organized by topic, references business needs, connects
to technical specs, persuasive
5. Clarity, persuasion, proper communication, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements
Weight: 10%-Levels of Achievement:
Unacceptable Below 70% F 0 (0%) – 10.35 (6.9%)
Fair 70-79% C 10.5 (7%) – 11.85 (7.9%)
Proficient 80-89% B 12 (8%) – 13.35 (8.9%)
Exemplary 90-100% A 13.5 (9%) – 15 (10%)
Nicolet Plastics’ Quick Response Manufacturing Strategy
If someone gave you a week of time, what would you
do with it? A whole seven days is exactly what Nicolet
Plastics, Inc. is delivering its customers with its innovative
Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) program. Through
an enterprise-wide initiative that relentlessly emphasizes
lead time reduction, Nicolet Plastics is revolutionizing
time-based competition and make-to-order strategies
to ensure manufacturing excellence.
Nicolet Plastics credits a large portion of its QRM success
to the flexibility, depth, user-defined fields and forms,
process and workflow design and database integrity of
its manufacturing ERP and MES system, EnterpriseIQ
from IQMS. Without it, the QRM strategy would be very
difficult to deploy on a day-to-day basis. Read below
to learn more about Nicolet Plastics’ innovative quick
response manufacturing initiative and the results its
customers are experiencing.
Why Quick Response Manufacturing?
Nicolet Plastics is a total solutions provider of parts
and components for a wide array of customers, from
disposable packaging to high-end medical parts for MRI
equipment. The company specializes in low to moderate
volume, highly complex custom parts in a wide variety
of materials. Despite the diverse industries Nicolet
Plastics produces for, the one commonality between its
customers is the need for consistent products that drive
down costs and meet volume needs.
Observing the marketplace, Nicolet Plastics knew it
needed to make a change. Nicolet Plastics watched as
the major multi-national firms were increasingly moving
their high volume, minimally complex molded business
offshore to avoid rising costs at home. The company also
observed that although the high volume business was
leaving, the low to moderate volume business was not,
as these companies were not able to take advantage of
the offshore workforce.
Nicolet Plastics, Inc. has
accomplished more over the
past 25 years than many of its
top competitors have in more
than 50—and they’re just getting
started. Originally established in
1986 in Mountain, Wis., a small
community located in the middle
of the Chequamegon-Nicolet
National Forest, it’s easy to see
that Nicolet Plastics has come
a long way since those humble
beginnings. Today, Nicolet Plastics,
an ISO certified company, serves
its ever-growing customer
base from a 41,000 square foot
production facility and focuses on
complex industrial and medical
components and assemblies.
In the beginning, Nicolet Plastics
was a company that made
parts. However, thanks to the
development of its Total Solutions
approach, Nicolet Plastics is doing
much more than simply making
parts. Today, they’re solving
problems.
Nicolet Plastics realized that the marketplace’s focus on
long-run production optimization offered an untapped
IQMS, the IQMS logo and EnterpriseIQ are registered trademarks of IQMS. All other company names are trademarks of their respective owners. The information herein is subject to change without notice. © 2015 IQMS. All rights reserved.
www.iqms.com
1.866.367.3772
sales@iqms.com
opportunity in the low to moderate volume market. To thrive in the economic landscape,
stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive, Nicolet Plastics decided to exploit its
strength in excellence at complexity and turn market weaknesses into opportunities. It
began looking for manufacturing philosophies that supported the needs of short-run,
complex part customers.
That is when Nicolet Plastics discovered a solution right in its own backyard. Quick
Response Manufacturing is a consortium between the manufacturing industry and the
engineering school at the University of Wisconsin. It was developed and published by
founding director, Rajan Suri, who defines the program as the pursuit of the reduction of
lead time in all aspects of a company’s operation, embracing a relentless emphasis on time
reduction that has a long-term impact on every aspect of the company.
For Nicolet Plastics, the key to making the QRM program work was two-fold: Companywide embracement of operational change and the business and manufacturing tools
found in EnterpriseIQ. Before embarking on this new initiative, Nicolet Plastics established
a few goals:
Reduce total order to delivery time of parts by 14 days (from 21 days to 7 days)
Reduce finished goods inventory
Be able to respond to unexpected changes in demand without a degradation of service
Develop a cross-trained workforce for flexibility, including the creation of a cross
functional quick response office cell
• Reduce last shot (last good piece) to first shot time (first good piece) by 50 percent
•
•
•
•
Beginning the QRM Process
When implementation of QRM began, Nicolet Plastics started by addressing its workforce
and creating more flexibility with its personnel by ditching the old way of looking at
production staffing. For example, traditional floor management would have required a
mold hanger, materials handler, production and process technicians, a supervisor and a
manager for each shift. Nicolet Plastics decided to ignore job titles and employee categories
by defining the talents and skills required for an ideal shift on the production floor.
Nicolet Plastics built a skills matrix, including both
soft skills (interpersonal, ability to succeed in a team
For Nicolet Plastics, the
environment) and hard skills (technical abilities,
intelligence), including gaps between the target skills
key to making the QRM
mix and the actual. With this thought process in
program work was
mind, Nicolet Plastics immediately saw crossover. An
two-fold:
Companyemployee previously defined as an operator might also
wide embracement of
be able to clean out a hopper, a skill that crossed over
operational
change
into materials handling. Once defined, Nicolet Plastics
and the business and
evaluated its employees in terms of skill levels through
written and practical testing to determine competency
manufacturing
tools
levels and establish training necessary to create an ideal
found in EnterpriseIQ.
shift.
IQMS, the IQMS logo and EnterpriseIQ are registered trademarks of IQMS. All other company names are trademarks of their respective owners. The information herein is subject to change without notice. © 2015 IQMS. All rights reserved.
www.iqms.com
1.866.367.3772
sales@iqms.com
A credentialing program was established in-house and employees were rewarded for
technical abilities and willingness to learn new production and process-related skills.
New pay ranges were defined for each skill level, so as employees progressed in their
ability to handle more complex issues, value to the company increased and so did wages.
120-plus hours per employee were logged over a three year period, equivalent to a week
of training for every employee since the initiative began.
Once the new employee roles were defined and established, Nicolet began tackling
the individual QRM initiatives. The first was to change its accounting mindset: Because
standard costing is not a key tenet of lean accounting, Nicolet Plastics decided to track
actual costs instead. The challenge was to get employees thinking in terms of time and
not in terms of overhead absorption. It is not reasonable to assume that all of a company’s
costs will increase as production volume increases, but that is exactly what standard cost
accounting assumes. Nicolet Plastics now tracks actual costs through the proactive tools
in IQMS’ RealTime™ Process Monitoring system, as well as detailed exception reporting,
for a proactive value add/value stream approach.
The second initiative was to reduce batch sizes. Due to the nature of low volume customers,
Nicolet Plastics typically handles as many as 90 to 100 mold changes per week. QRM
practices slicing time by sharing resources (in this case, presses) with competing target
market segments (long and short runs) without creating backlogs and queues. In order
to cut time, Nicolet Plastics schedules its long jobs that can run unattended over the
weekend in what is referred to as a “swim lane.” This prevents short jobs from getting
backlogged or delayed behind a long-running job (we all understand how frustrating it
is to wait in the express lane behind someone at the grocery store who clearly has more
than 10 items in his cart!).
Nicolet Plastics achieves this unattended, lights out weekend production with the help
of IQMS’ RealTime™ Production Monitoring system that supports machine management
in real time. All aspects of Nicolet Plastics’ production (total parts created, production
time, downtime, rejects and parts remaining) are tracked immediately and applied to the
order, while simultaneously updating the schedule.
Work center performance can be viewed from any
Nicolet Plastics achieves
computer on the network and even remotely, for
this unattended, lights
improved efficiency, visibility and productivity.
out weekend production
with the help of IQMS’
If RealTime detects that there is a problem with an
RealTime™ Production
unattended swim lane, like a press has stopped running,
Nicolet Plastics uses the EnterpriseIQ business activity
Monitoring system…
monitoring feature, IQAlert, to generate an automated
message (text, email or voice message) to the on-call
press technician. The technician only needs to come to work if an exception occurs.
IQMS, the IQMS logo and EnterpriseIQ are registered trademarks of IQMS. All other company names are trademarks of their respective owners. The information herein is subject to change without notice. © 2015 IQMS. All rights reserved.
www.iqms.com
1.866.367.3772
sales@iqms.com
Addressing Scheduling Complexity and Improving Customer Service
With the critical component of properly handling customers’ needs top of mind, Nicolet
Plastics next focused on managing job complexity. Nicolet Plastics was previously
supporting hundreds of different materials and thousands of mold/insert combinations.
Variability is the essence of complexity, so Nicolet Plastics had to focus on eliminating
dysfunctional variability, such as excessive inventory, ineffective systems and rework.
Using the rich data in EnterpriseIQ, Nicolet Plastics evaluated the top 80 percent of
its customers, items and materials to identify target groups. The tools in EnterpriseIQ
allowed Nicolet Plastics to “weed the garden” (eliminate non-strategic variability) and
come up with a resulting mix that remains very complex, but more focused.
Following the initiative above, Nicolet Plastics addressed its wide variety of custom
resins and materials required to run jobs, specifically the challenge: How do you reduce
lead times when the material lead time may be longer than your total desired time for
the whole order? Using its new data about key materials from the step above, Nicolet
Plastics was able to designate “house” materials. Using EnterpriseIQ’s user-defined
fields and rich MRP reporting tools, Nicolet Plastics identified daily usage, appropriate
reorder points and established a purchasing plan to ensure sufficient stocks of key
house materials.
With staff, materials and batch size improvements addressed, Nicolet Plastics could
focus on scheduling. QRM requires dynamic and fluid adaptation at any minute, so
Nicolet’s master scheduler uses EnterpriseIQ’s rough-cut capacity planning tools and
robust scheduling engine (that takes into account complete materials, capacity and
labor requirements in a matter of minutes) to create the daily plan.
Nicolet also uses EnterpriseIQ’s auto-load feature that uses must-start dates to establish
a priority sequence for jobs. If a job has a must-start date in the next seven days, it is
authorized for work. This prevents “stealing” of necessary materials or labor from one
job for another that is not yet due. Combine this with just-in-time principals, and Nicolet
Plastics can easily see where there will be spikes and constraints to manage.
Despite the accurate schedule, Nicolet Plastics needed additional flexibility. So in
combination with the auto-loaded schedule, Nicolet Plastics uses EnterpriseIQ’s press
and labor capacity whiteboards to ensure they have spare capacity for flexibility. In
addition, Nicolet Plastics uses EnterpriseIQ’s Runs Best feature (an establishment of
which job runs best on which work center) to define which presses are capable and
qualified to run any item. This is also included on the schedule to offer operators the
flexibility to adjust as needed to prevent potential bottlenecks and flow resources where
needed.
Finally, Nicolet Plastics moved its focus from the production floor to the front office
to make sure that customer service was also done the QRM way. All support staff
IQMS, the IQMS logo and EnterpriseIQ are registered trademarks of IQMS. All other company names are trademarks of their respective owners. The information herein is subject to change without notice. © 2015 IQMS. All rights reserved.
www.iqms.com
1.866.367.3772
sales@iqms.com
that touched an order were organized into one team and cross-trained to improve
responsiveness to customers. Nicolet Plastics uses EnterpriseIQ’s Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) system to extensively track customer and order status. With the
ability to accurately check capable to promise, access external documents and initiate
workflows to facilitate communication, Nicolet Plastics’ employees can quickly and
easily assess what has transpired, the particular status of an order, etc., for accurate and
timely customer service.
Nicolet Plastics’ Hard Work Yields Impressive Results
Time is money in manufacturing. A quicker responsiveness to the customer gives them
not only what they want, when they want it, but at quantities that allow them to lower
inventories and improve cash flow. Despite the benefits of time-based competition and
make-to-order strategies, injection molding has been very slow to adopt a time-based
model.
QRM has clearly differentiated Nicolet Plastics from other molders. Nicolet Plastics has
added many clients because it has been able to develop partnerships based on the
value it delivers, not the price it charges. By saving its custom…
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