Tugas Ujian Akhir Semester Mata Kuliah ERP

Di dalam tugas kali ini, saya diminta oleh dosen untuk merangkum semua tugas yang telah dikerjakan selama mengikuti mata kuliah ERP ini mulai dari tugas 1 - 7. Selain itu ada tugas tambahan berupa pembuatan transaksi bisnis menggunakan Adempiere dan tugas ini sebagai Soal ujian akhir semester untuk mata kuliah ERP ini.

Berikut adalah link untuk vidio pembuatan transaksi bisnis menggunakan Adempiere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhvITqXgvRk

Dan berikut adalah link untuk rangkuman dari tugas 1 - tugas 7:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f5knokmziw4nqov/Tugas%20Rangkuman%20Uas%20Agung%20Budi%20Laksono%204411216146.docx

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wfklv4ty6fqfvrl/Tugas%20Rangkuman%20Uas%20Agung%20Budi%20Laksono%204411216146.pdf

Tugas Ke 3 (UTS) - Instal Adempiere

Pada tugas ini saya di tugaskan untuk meng instal aplikasi program Adempiere. Dan tugas ini juga sebagai UTS saya.

Adempiere sendiri adalah program ERP yang bersifat open source yang menggunakan bahasa pemrograman JAVA. Aplikasi ADempiere sendiri dapat di gunakan pada OS windows, unix, linux.

Untuk menginstall Adempiere, file-file yang kita butuhkan:

1.    JAVA
2.    Postgres SQL
3.    Adempiere

Langkah-langkah yang kita lakukan :

1.    Install JAVA
2.    Install PostgresSQL
3.    Setting environment untuk JAVA dan PostgresSQL
4.    Membuat user dan database pada PostgresSQL
5.    Jalankan Adempiere

Untuk lebih jelasnya, dapat di unduh pada file berikut:

Tugas ke 4

PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC

PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC adalah sebuah perusahaan yang bergerak dalam bidang logistik untuk memenuhi permintaan dari konsumen baik konsumen pribadi untuk  maupun perusahaan perusahaan  di seluruh Indonesia

Saat ini PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC memiliki kantor di Kota Depok. PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC didirikan dengan legalitas yang resmi dari Deperindag, Depnaker, SIUP, NPWP, dan lain sebaginya.

Sebagai perusahaan Jasa logistik yang profesional di bidangnya PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC selalu berusaha untuk memperbaharui unit kendaraan yang kami miliki saat ini. Untuk mendukung sukses dan usahanya PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC selalu merekrut mekanik – mekanik untuk melakukan perawatan armada yang kami miliki saat. Dan PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC juga bekerja sama dengan beberapa produsen otomotif di dalam maupun di luar negeri untuk memenuhi pengadaan armada kami. 

VISI

“Menjadi perusahaan penyedia Jasa Transportasi Logistik Profesional, Terdepan dan Terpercaya  dengan pelayanan yang profesional, armada handal dan memuaskan customer”

MISI

1. Memenuhi kebutuhan klien melalui jasa transportasi untuk keperluan logistic
2. Berusaha selalu menciptakan kepuasan pelanggan melalui kwalitas pelayanan armada dengan kondisi terbaik
3. Memastikan setiap logistic klien sampai di tempat dengan selamat, aman, dan terlindungi.
4. Menjalin hubungan yang berkepanjangan dengan selalu memperhatikan dan memahami kebutuhan mitra strategis.

STRUKTUR ORGANISASI

PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC

Presiden Komisaris             : Gosho Aoyama

Komisaris                              : Sherlock Holmes

Komisaris                              : Yusaku Kudo

Komisaris                              : Yukiko Kudo

Direktur Utama                     : Shinichi Chudo

Direktur Keuangan              : Ran Mouri

Direktur Personalia             : Conan Edogawa

Direktur Operasional           : Kogoro Mouri

Manager Personalia            : Heiji Hattori

Manager Operasional         :  Eisuke Hondo  

Manager. Account & Finc  : Kazuha Toyama

Manager Legal & GA           : Eri Kisaki    

Manager Pemasaran          : Masumi Sera

AREA PEMASARAN

Cakupan area pengiriman PT Pepaya Logistic melipiti ke wilayah Jabodetabek, dan di luar Jabodetabek, seperti,Serang, Bandung, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur.

 Alamat Kantor:

PT Pepaya Logistic

Jln Juanda No.10

Depok, Jawa Barat. 10333

Tlp, (021) 888 9000

Email: marketing@pepaya-logistic.co.id

STANDAR PROSEDUR PEMAKAIAN JASA SEWA ARMADA PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC

11. Job Order (JO)
Pengadaan jasa akan diproses setelah JO diterima, dan pengerjaan akan dilakukan paling lambat 1 minggu.

22. Kalkulasi dan Penawaran Biaya
Mengkalkulasi/menghitung dan menawarkan biaya yang harus dikeluarkan oleh customer sesuai Delivery order yang diterima.

33. Penandatanganan Kontrak Kerja
Kontrak kerja akan ditandatangani oleh kedua belah pihak, setelah penawaran biaya disetujui customer.

44. Pengriman armada sesuai kontrak kerja
Pekerjaan dilakukan oleh staf, teknisi dan driver ahli yang berpengalaman

55.  Proses Penagihan (Invoice)
Invoice beserta berkas pendukung lainnya diterbitkan paling lambat 1 minggu setelah kontrak kerja ditandatangani.

65. Term of Payment (TOP)

7 hari kerja setelah invoice diterima atau sesuai kesepakatan bersama.

Berikut ini attach file nya:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0qurbl65oi088m/Company%20Profil%20PT%20PEPAYA%20LOGISIC.docx

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g5c33viuk2r7ku9/Company%20Profil%20PT%20PEPAYA%20LOGISIC.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z6u746wtpcf35jq/Bisnis%20Proses%20PT%20Pepaya%20Logistic.bpm

https://www.dropbox.com/s/of16re5h7rcrb7m/List%20Harga%20Pengiriman%20PT%20Pepaya%20Logistic.xlsx

TUGAS KE 4

PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC

PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC adalah sebuah perusahaan yang bergerak dalam bidang logistik untuk memenuhi permintaan dari konsumen baik konsumen pribadi untuk  maupun perusahaan perusahaan  di seluruh Indonesia

Saat ini PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC memiliki kantor di Kota Depok. PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC didirikan dengan legalitas yang resmi dari Deperindag, Depnaker, SIUP, NPWP, dan lain sebaginya.

Sebagai perusahaan Jasa logistik yang profesional di bidangnya PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC selalu berusaha untuk memperbaharui unit kendaraan yang kami miliki saat ini. Untuk mendukung sukses dan usahanya PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC selalu merekrut mekanik – mekanik untuk melakukan perawatan armada yang kami miliki saat. Dan PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC juga bekerja sama dengan beberapa produsen otomotif di dalam maupun di luar negeri untuk memenuhi pengadaan armada kami. 

VISI

“Menjadi perusahaan penyedia Jasa Transportasi Logistik Profesional, Terdepan dan Terpercaya  dengan pelayanan yang profesional, armada handal dan memuaskan customer”

MISI

1. Memenuhi kebutuhan klien melalui jasa transportasi untuk keperluan logistic
2. Berusaha selalu menciptakan kepuasan pelanggan melalui kwalitas pelayanan armada dengan kondisi terbaik
3. Memastikan setiap logistic klien sampai di tempat dengan selamat, aman, dan terlindungi.
4. Menjalin hubungan yang berkepanjangan dengan selalu memperhatikan dan memahami kebutuhan mitra strategis.

STRUKTUR ORGANISASI

PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC

Presiden Komisaris             : Gosho Aoyama

Komisaris                              : Sherlock Holmes

Komisaris                              : Yusaku Kudo

Komisaris                              : Yukiko Kudo

Direktur Utama                     : Shinichi Chudo

Direktur Keuangan              : Ran Mouri

Direktur Personalia             : Conan Edogawa

Direktur Operasional           : Kogoro Mouri

Manager Personalia            : Heiji Hattori

Manager Operasional         :  Eisuke Hondo  

Manager. Account & Finc  : Kazuha Toyama

Manager Legal & GA           : Eri Kisaki    

Manager Pemasaran          : Masumi Sera

AREA PEMASARAN

Cakupan area pengiriman PT Pepaya Logistic melipiti ke wilayah Jabodetabek, dan di luar Jabodetabek, seperti,Serang, Bandung, Jawa Tengah, Jawa Timur.

 Alamat Kantor:

PT Pepaya Logistic

Jln Juanda No.10

Depok, Jawa Barat. 10333

Tlp, (021) 888 9000

Email: marketing@pepaya-logistic.co.id

STANDAR PROSEDUR PEMAKAIAN JASA SEWA ARMADA PT PEPAYA LOGISTIC

11. Job Order (JO)
Pengadaan jasa akan diproses setelah JO diterima, dan pengerjaan akan dilakukan paling lambat 1 minggu.

22. Kalkulasi dan Penawaran Biaya
Mengkalkulasi/menghitung dan menawarkan biaya yang harus dikeluarkan oleh customer sesuai Delivery order yang diterima.

33. Penandatanganan Kontrak Kerja
Kontrak kerja akan ditandatangani oleh kedua belah pihak, setelah penawaran biaya disetujui customer.

44. Pengriman armada sesuai kontrak kerja
Pekerjaan dilakukan oleh staf, teknisi dan driver ahli yang berpengalaman

55.  Proses Penagihan (Invoice)
Invoice beserta berkas pendukung lainnya diterbitkan paling lambat 1 minggu setelah kontrak kerja ditandatangani.

65. Term of Payment (TOP)

7 hari kerja setelah invoice diterima atau sesuai kesepakatan bersama.

Berikut ini attach file nya:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0qurbl65oi088m/Company%20Profil%20PT%20PEPAYA%20LOGISIC.docx

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g5c33viuk2r7ku9/Company%20Profil%20PT%20PEPAYA%20LOGISIC.pdf

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z6u746wtpcf35jq/Bisnis%20Proses%20PT%20Pepaya%20Logistic.bpm

https://www.dropbox.com/s/of16re5h7rcrb7m/List%20Harga%20Pengiriman%20PT%20Pepaya%20Logistic.xlsx

TUGAS ERV EBOOK 2 CHAPTER 1

Part I - Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain, and Customer Relationship Management  

Chapter 1

Concepts, Functionality, and Cost-Effectiveness of Internet-Oriented ERP Systems

Overview

Perceptive people in both enterprise management and information technology suggest that in the coming        years there is going to be available on a commercial basis a truly integrated software solution. It will combine many of today's discrete-island subsystems and replace others by means of much more efficient programming products than can presently be found off-the-shelf. At the core of this integration lies the Internet-oriented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, and its morphing into an intelligent Supply Chain Management, able to handle smart materials

One of the challenges has been the successful implementation of ERP. This is not done in the abstract. It involves the analysis of current business processes and the services they provide; their handling through bought software rather than designing an application system from scratch; and internal control activities necessary to keep the system functioning at all times. The target is integration of middle and lower senior management functions, keeping in mind that business processes are complex.

Exhibit 1.1 illustrates the main lines of ERP functionality. Notice in this description that top management support and general accounting chores are not directly addressed. General accounting, however, has been part of an ERP solution, as is the case with SAP's R/2 and R/3. In fact, R/2 srted as a general accounting package. Therefore, ERP can be historically linked to the development of commodity software for accounting purposes.

Exhibit 1.1: ERP Solutions Address Some Senior Management and All Middle Management Concerns

 

   The Evolution from MIS and Logistics to ERP and Beyond

At the origin of the word logistics (noun, singular) is a Greek term meaning something logical, but also a calculator and accountant. Webster's Dictionary defines logistics as the branch of military science

having to do with moving, supplying, and quartering troops. This definition, and its predecessors, are too narrow and need to be extended in two ways:

1.     Conceptually, to encompass not only military science and calculation, but also the support of basic entrepreneurial activities addressing all sectors of the economy

2.     In depth, to include prognostication, computation, planning, scheduling, controlling, and other vital support activities that increasingly require online, interactive database mining

    In this sense, the mission assigned to logistics, and by extension to ERP software, is both tactical and         strategic as shown in Exhibit 1.2. Many, if not most, logistics problems are medium range. Although short-range approaches are often targeted, these cannot be sustained in an effective manner without extending them to the medium term — which requires a host of other supporting services

                     Exhibit 1.2: Strategic and Tactical Goals Overlap in Medium-Range Planning

Then a new agent of transformation came along in the 1990s. By the mid- to late 1990s, the Internet spawned a wave of innovation that required industry leaders to reinvent both internal and external business partnerships or be overtaken by competitors. By 2001 this wave had hit all sectors of the economy: automobiles, aerospace, materials systems, telecommunications, environmental services, and, of course, technology. This wave of industrial sectors moving to Internet commerce led Goldman Sachs to the growth forecast shown in Exhibit 1.3.

1.3: A Forecast of Global Market Growth in Business-to-Business Commerce, by Goldman Sachs

In a way, it is only normal to experience a major evolution in management information requirements,which has been the driving force behind the change from MIS to Internet-oriented ERP solutions. Nearly a quarter century down the line, after the advent of MIS, it should be expected that:

§  New integrative software systems are necessary.

§  New systems are much more sophisticated than those they replace.

§  The software industry will come forward with valid solutions.

Internet-oriented ERP software is increasingly richer in agents,[2] has direct online access to live databases (rather than extracts from operational databases that were typically used by MIS), and can be severely handicapped by delays in data streams, information element updates, as well as errors and mistakes. There are, as well, other differences:

§  MIS approaches were typically developed in-house, with the vendor providing the extract routine and some advice.

§  ERP software comes off-the-shelf, seamlessly integrates with live databases, and is immediately available for testing and implementation.

 Enterprise Resource Planning Can Be Implemented at Different Levels of Sophistication

The effort that began a dozen years ago with ERP programming products and associated tools providing an off-the-shelf integrative solution has been long overdue. Basically, it was a reaction to the fact that most software produced until then was delivered as monolithic code for one specific application or function. It did not address the very sensible concepts of seamless system integration. This was true whether the programming effort was done in-house or the company bought one of the available packages.

Looking at Exhibit 1.1, one sees that the functions shown in the middle layers evidently existed well before ERP software came into being. The difference is that each was a discrete island, badly connected to the others, which significantly increased system complexity. One of the goals of ERP has been that of reducing this complexity to help better understand the evolution of business processes and their new requirements in software support.

This is the principle, but not all vendors of ERP packages respect this rule. The reason is that their wares have evolved from simple beginnings and therefore lack a master plan. To make matters worse, some ERP packages are comprised of large functional modules, such as logistics, finance, manufacturing, and inventory management, that integrate together rather poorly. In addition, not all vendors are effective in their internal product development operations, even if it is a matter of survival to deliver new functionality faster than their competitors.

The reader should also be aware that while this book is generally favorable to ERP, there does exist a contrary view, and it comes from people with experience in its implementation. Some who participated in my research expressed reservations in connection with the size of benefits a company gets by applying ERP software. They stressed that:

§  Vendors do not necessarily provide the functionality users need for the replacement of legacy software.

§  Off-the-shelf ERP solutions have become too large to handle efficiently, let alone integrate with old routines.

This led to a handholding with information technology departments that tried to move away from 20- year-old or even 30-year-old code by adopting a flexible software architecture with an incremental evolution of systems, subsystems, functions, and utilities. But other problems remained. For example, ERP software collided with the widely available Web software that is easy to manage, upgrade, and make work with other routines.

§  Granularity, scope boundaries, and internal cohesion are important attributes of all Internet software.

§  Fine-grained components are simple to exchange and integrate with other code, without undue technical complexities.

Thus far, Web software and ERP have been different paradigms, although ERP vendors move the Internet software way and therefore have developed both interfaces and overlaps. ERP vendors say   that because the scope and functionality of their ware is greater than that of Web software, the impact of change is also greater. I do not buy this argument, and if given a choice to use intranets and extranets for certain functions, I will give them preference over more classical networking functions associated  with ERP software.

 The Cost-Effectiveness of ERP Systems Is Always Relative to the Investments We Make and to the Job We Do

Studies that have focused on the cost-effectiveness of ERP implementation suggest that to make the system work into their applications environment, user organizations spend 200 to 800 percent more than they paid for their off-the-shelf software. There are several reasons for this major add-on cost and these reasons relate to the work being done. The lower end of the cost ratio, at the 200 to 300 percent level, characterizes those companies that do not change the bought ERP code and have more or less homogeneous computer system solutions.

                                                                  

The higher end, at the 700 to 800 percent level or beyond, is characteristic of exactly the opposite approach, unwise as this may be. User organizations alter some or most of the ERP code to make it "fit" their environment (definitely a very bad practice), and their computers, databases, and gateways run on quite heterogeneous platforms.

On the one hand, other things being equal, the more a company or a nation spends on technology, the better off it is in terms of productivity and growth. This is well demonstrated through five years of statistics on technological investment in the United States and the European Union, as shown through the histograms in Exhibit 1.4.

Exhibit 1.4: Major Investment in Technology Underpins the U.S. Economic

Boom

Invested money and costs are not the only issues on which senior management must concentrate its attention. Timetables are another key variable and they are evidently affected, often in a significant way, by management's action. The implementation of a core ERP system can take three months or two  years, depending on a number of reasons internal to the user organization. For example, the:

§  Effectiveness of project management entrusted with the task of implementing ERP

§  Existence of regular, rigorous design reviews and subsequent corrective action

§  Internal IT culture of working hard or taking it easy with deliverables

§  Attention given by top management to getting results, as well as on return on investment

§  Homogeneity or heterogeneity of the computer system environment in existence

 Enterprise Resource Planning Can Be Implemented at Different Levels of Sophistication

The effort that began a dozen years ago with ERP programming products and associated tools providing an off-the-shelf integrative solution has been long overdue. Basically, it was a reaction to the fact that most software produced until then was delivered as monolithic code for one specific application or function. It did not address the very sensible concepts of seamless system integration. This was true whether the programming effort was done in-house or the company bought one of the available packages.

Looking at Exhibit 1.1, one sees that the functions shown in the middle layers evidently existed well before ERP software came into being. The difference is that each was a discrete island, badly connected to the others, which significantly increased system complexity. One of the goals of ERP has been that of reducing this complexity to help better understand the evolution of business processes and their new requirements in software support.

The reader should also be aware that while this book is generally favorable to ERP, there does exist a contrary view, and it comes from people with experience in its implementation. Some who participated in my research expressed reservations in connection with the size of benefits a company gets by applying ERP software. They stressed that:

§  Vendors do not necessarily provide the functionality users need for the replacement of legacy software.

§  Off-the-shelf ERP solutions have become too large to handle efficiently, let alone integrate with old routines.

True enough, some ERP vendors have embarked on exercises to break up their larger application modules into finer components, or even to rebuild their wares for greater adaptability and integrability with the client company's in-house applications and legacy routines. A good solution in reinventing ERP (see also Chapter 6) has been to create service-based architectures enabling more efficient handling from outside core applications. This is particularly important for customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain business transactions, and internal management information requests

User organizations with experience in ERP and in Web software appreciate that there are prerequisites to their successful introduction into existing applications environments. Quite similarly, a properly designed business architecture and properly chosen implementation methodology are most crucial to a successful application. They help in leveraging the effort put into introducing an Internet-oriented ERP system into the user organization. Modeling techniques assist in:

§  Experimenting with goals and ways to attain them, prior to settling on them

§  Complementing the technical description and increasing its clarity

§  Providing benchmarks against which the results of design reviews can be measured

For this reason, not only with ERP but also with any systems solution, it is wise to document system requirements through conceptual modeling. This provides a framework that makes the system logic better understandable to specialists and end users. It also assists in explaining where and how ERP functionality fits into a company's business cycle and in defining the specific benefits one expects to get from its implementation.

 Project Definition for a Successful Internet-Oriented Implementation of ERP

  

Chapter 1.2 made the point that half-baked approaches, such as pushing the coordination problems to the back-office, would not give satisfactory results in linking ERP to the Internet supply chain, and vice versa. From the beginning, a project must be defined in an accurate and comprehensive manner, both  in technical and cost/benefit terms. This requires a dual approach that includes a rich database on costs and schedules and an interactive design management definition process able to:

§  Provide firm, properly studied solutions to functional, cost, and scheduling challenges

§  Reduce the risk of investing in new facilities and software routines prior to having thought out a valid solution

A surprising number of companies do not abide by the standard described by these two bullets. Therefore, it is not surprising that they have difficulty both in implementing ERP and in taking advantage of the Internet. A recent study in the United States came up with the result that the majority of small businesses do not believe that the Internet helps them a great deal — as Exhibit 1.5 shows through a pie chart. If a company does not have the right preparation to get results, then it is to be expected that it will be dissatisfied with the outcome of any new technology.

Exhibit 1.5: Small Businesses Do Not Believe the Internet Helps Them

Even large companies fall into the trap of not paying enough attention to the aftermath of the commitments they make, or to the likelihood of a downside. In 1997 the avon.com Web site was launched, selling directly to customers for the first time. This created tension among many of Avon's 500,000 U.S. sales representatives. The Web site's results have been uninspiring

In a nutshell, here are the fundamentals. To operate along a critical path, one must program the different phases of an integrated solution, aiming to reduce mismatch risk at early stages by identifying key items that must be targeted and by following their progress through the pipeline. Such targeting is necessary to guarantee timeliness, quality of product, and cost-effective implementation. Successful integration requires firm management of internal resources, hence ERP chores, and it must provide the assurance that numerous suppliers will adhere to schedule deadlines

The multiplicity of Internet-oriented links increases the challenge of the message that the two bullets above have conveyed. Exhibit 1.6 dramatizes an early 1990s experience in moving from one mainframe vendor to a multi-vendor environment, because of a change to client/server. With the Internet supply chain, the ERP implementation is faced with a situation much more complex than the one presented in this exhibit

Exhibit 1.6: A Web of Vendor Relations Underpins a Client/Server Solution; Internet Supply Chain Is Much More Complex

Items that potentially jeopardize a streamlined solution must be prioritized in the test sequences to avoid subsequently derailing the schedule. Combining ERP software and CPM modeling helps to create a synergy between production facilities, procurement chores, inventory control, and other systems. It also permits simulation of automated scheduling rules and follow-up methods.

A flexible master schedule must be available, in connection with an Internet-oriented ERP implementation, to assist in identifying, qualifying, installing, and testing all components of an integrated system. This must be done according to prioritization of critical elements that could impede operations or otherwise upset the master schedule, but without losing track of the vendor relationship.

                                       

Whether or not they target Internet links with their suppliers to attack the limitations of their legacy systems and processes, companies must use the best available enterprise solutions that, when properly implemented, can play the role of driver of organizational change. In addition to ERP systems and the critical path method, examples of off-the-shelf software include:

§  Supply chain management (SCM)

§  Customer relationship management (CRM)

A well-done study that capitalizes on Web software, ERP, CPM, SCM, and CRM can provide an integrated environment with seamless access to a global database. The integration of the aforementioned routines should result in a networked operation in the service of management, keeping in mind that the needed systems work is far from trivial.

People and companies participating in my research pressed the point that effective solutions to Internet- oriented ERP challenges — from manufacturing to logistics — recast business and industry in a new pattern. They also warned that factual and documented optimization studies need far better information technology than has been classically provided through legacy data processing and mainframes or by means of client/server solutions done primarily for "me-too" reasons.

Crucial along this line of reference is the timeliness, accuracy, and quality of analytical information provided to senior management. Typically, in the vast majority of companies, the so-called electronic data processing (EDP) operations paid only lip service to management information — despite MIS (see  Chapter 1.1). This is highly counterproductive as is shown in Exhibit 1.7.

Exhibit 1.7: Largest Part of the IT Budget Allocated to Management Support Through Technology

§  Top tier companies such as TIAA/CREF dedicate two thirds of their IT budgets to the service of management.

§  In contrast, the vast majority of companies spend no more than 5 percent of their IT budget on management information as well as on modeling and experimentation.

Making money in an online supply chain is no different than making money in a traditional supply chain. What is different with the Web is the strategy and the means. ERP and CRM are two examples of basic software supports, and therefore the means. There are other examples; an Internet merchandiser, for example, needs to do three things to become a retail powerhouse:

1.     Attract consumer and business traffic to his side

2.     Sell merchandise without giving away the store

3.     Convert business-to-business (B2B) browsers to fit the buyers

This may sound simple and obvious, but it is not necessarily so. ERP experts and logistics planners are faced with the task of solving problems that become increasingly complex in a delivery sense. They are charged with the job of quickly developing an optimal course of action for moving supplies in an environment where it is inherently impossible to outguess future consumption patterns and therefore get an exact amount of supplies anywhere at any time. Optimization is not doable without the use of sophisticated technology (see Chapter 1.6).

Specialization through captive companies is one way to beat the rapidly developing overpopulation of processes, products, transactions, and their permutations. This growing complexity is one of the reasons why management must increasingly use analytical models to identify customer patterns, map supply relationships, and analyze distribution networks. Internet commerce adds to these requirements, leading to more explicit needs for high-performance ERP solutions necessary in:

§  Anticipating process boundaries at any given time

§  Shrinking to a bare minimum the lead-time required to transit from production to distribution

§  Elaborating and analyzing a seemingly endless list of interdependent variables

Until new technology served as an enabling agent in logistics planning, the then-prevailing conditions were dramatically over-constrained. Not only were the mainframes of EDP a poor way of handling the concepts and models that mathematicians, logicians, and production management experts were developing, but they were (and continue to be) too slow and too costly; and they never succeeded in doing more than a routine job.

No production planner or logistics expert worth his salt can forget the snafus in trying to balance supply and demand. Industrial history is littered with stories of these snafus. Optimization is a management philosophy that can be successfully applied to all business processes or, alternatively, to none of them. In fact, if it is not applied in a rational manner to all processes, it is by definition applied to no problem at all. It is schizophrenic to make exceptions for "this" or "that" case, yet this is what many companies do.

In conclusion, top management must be co-involved in Internet-oriented ERP solutions. The members of the board, the CEO, the CFO, the CIO, and other senior executives should appreciate that the

principles behind evaluations of cost-effectiveness are applicable to all engineering, manufacturing, merchandising, and financial operations. Because it is known that supplying all business units with everything required at every instant is impossible if one is unable to reach great detail at high speed, then the job is to:

§  Assess the risk associated with not meeting each and every one of the ongoing requirements.

§  Decide how to achieve the best possible allocation of resources, everything considered.

      The Synergy in Managing Information Technology and Procurement

There is no question that IT and Internet solutions are merging. Personal computers function as Web access points, phones, entertainment outlets, and home automation controllers all at the same time. Software is being designed to allow multi-purpose products, while hardware is becoming more and more flexible. Personal devices and communications infrastructure converge to provide new functionality and handle all data, including voice, video, and the Internet.

It is not difficult to see how ERP solutions fit squarely within this perspective, whether their integration into the Internet environment is the responsibility of the CIO or the CWO. But the implementation of ERP also generates a rich knowledge stream that should be preserved for further usage. The appreciation of this fact has led to the institution of knowledge management procedures by leading organizations. A Year 2000 Conference Board survey of 200 executives at 158 large multinational companies found that 80 percent had knowledge management projects in the works, and many had already appointed a chief knowledge officer (CKO) or hired knowledge management consultants.

Knowledge management projects include a corporate memory facility (CMF) into which are registered all decisions as well as their reasons and aftermath; expert systems and agents that improve productivity and replace old approaches to computer programming; and a growing array of tools for knowledge management. Among them are chaos theory,[5] stochastic processes, chi-square analysis, test of hypothesis, and experimental design.[6]

What kind of knowledge does one want to preserve and reuse in connection with ERP and supply chain? Here are a couple of factual answers. Danone, a French milk products company, increased inventory turnover by 30 percent and decreased order lead-time by 57 percent after three weeks of implementing an ERP system. Only 110 days after implementing ERP, IBM was able to reduce the time for checking customer credit and for responding to customer inquiries from 20 minutes to instantaneously. At the same time, pricing data entry dropped from 80 days to 5 minutes.

At Bell Atlantic, information that once took a month to retrieve now takes a few seconds. Using ERP as a catalyst, Borden sharply reduced the number of computer platforms and applications. It also reduced

In another case, the Internet-oriented implementation of ERP grew into a cross-partner supply chain management. This provided multi-company transaction data and planning information, helping to reduce inventory by 25 percent. At the same time, on-time shipments were boosted from 85 to 95 percent, and lead-times were lowered from 80 to 27 days.

This situation has radically changed. We are now in a phase of "plenty" as some very sophisticated processing is entering into administrative science. However, solutions need to be interactive and it can be expected that as experimentation goes on, successful projects will bring to the foreground a number of surprises. The good news is that well-managed companies will see to it that today's surprises will be part of tomorrow's management model.