Texas Instruments Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Texas Instruments - Case Study Example Despite the sceptical outlook that a majority of executives had with respect to ERP, it was chosen as the methodology that could bring answers to the issues Texas Instruments faced in the late 1990s. As the case study outlines, the executives at TI felt that granted the fast paced trend of information technology, it was necessary for the company to make some considerable changes as to their methods and processes, in a manner that would allow them to compete more favourably in their market. According to the authors Sarkis et. al, TI was facing some serious issues in handling large international orders and delivery demands. For instance, the study refers to a Taiwan customer asking for product orders to be made in California and delivered at a given location to be decided just before delivery time. Such procedural complications in the ordering procedure would cause logistics issues that would eventually impact delivery time. As pointed out in the study, TI was facing several similar pr oblems where the customer requests would be delayed as the information system in place was not flexible enough to streamline the ordering process or to meet customer demands adequately. The executive decision to invest 250 million dollars in a brand new web based ERP system was made to help address the several issues caused by the internal and incompatible information systems used for inventory, manufacturing, and sourcing. Consequently the overall decision to implement a novel IS strategy to better meet customer demands was handled properly. In implementing a web based ERP system, the company would help reorganize the many processes that tie suppliers, manufacturers, and resellers on a worldwide scale, and thereby meet market demands in a preferred fashion to become competitive again. In upgrading their internal information system, I believe TI executives made the right choice in partnering with Andersen Consulting for their consulting expertise in the area. Considering the size and impact of the project in the long term, it makes perfect sense to consider that managers would employ significant resources to plan and execute this strategy for an up-to-date information system capable of handling customizable orders in an effort to enhance overall customer satisfaction and loyalty to the company. The team in charge of the project, after meeting and evaluating the solutions of several vendors, eventually choose the SAP solution for its ability to handle large amounts of data. Due to the widespread nature of the project, reli ance and pragmatism of the solution become imperative to make the transition to a more productive system. In considering the processes involved in the decision making for the adoption of the SAP based ERP system; there are few objections when taking into account the pre-established goals of the company. However, in considering the results that came off the newly implemented system, there were some methods and processes that could have been considered for a better turn out. In fact, Texas Instruments experienced issues of delivery and lower productivity immediately after product launch within their enterprise. As reported in the study, it appears that the 13,000 thousand users of the ERP system were not properly trained on the new system prior to its implementation. The previous reasoning would explain in part the apparent low productivity pattern which occurred during the "go live" phase of the ERP system. The report