Reengineering business process Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Reengineering business process - Case Study Example This ever increasing competition necessitated the company to contemplate about the provision of information on various matters including marketing at appropriate time points. However, contrary to the expectations of its well wishers, the superannuated legacy systems used by the company had serious flaws in their architecture which impaired the achievement of organizational effectiveness and strategic objectives. The critical problem associated with structure of legacy systems was its inability to integrate and become compatible with other systems. To overcome these shortcomings and survive in the industry, the company decided to re-engineer the global supply chain namely PRIDE project (Process re-engineering through Information Delivery Excellence). As a part of the re-engineering programme, implementation SAP/R3 is a critical endeavour to become a truly global company (Scott and Vessey, 2002). The company believes that implementing SAP, which is an enterprise-wide solution, will int egrate all the core functions of the organization comprising of Sales, Finance, Accounting, Logistics, Manufacturing, and HR. The centralized database and integrated architecture of SAP facilitates smooth flow of information across departments, eliminates data redundancy and provides a broader picture of the organization to management. The present essay is an attempt to evaluate and critically analyze the re-engineering programme of Dow Corning Corporation in term of organisational learning, project management and risk management. The essay takes a descriptive approach wherein all the requirements of an effective and workable re-engineering project are discussed in detail. The essay also suggests certain measures by which the project can be made operational and successful. Project Management Project management is commonly understood as the process of planning, monitoring and controlling a project so as to achieve its objectives on time and as per specific budget, quality and performance (Atkinson, 1999). The successful ERP implementation needs many resources and factors and Al-Mashari at al. (2003) have developed the critical actors of ERP success and these factors can be shown as in Figure 2. After the analysis of Dow Corning ERP case, it has been observed that the company brought in many resources for the successful implementation of ERP. At the same time, it has also been noticed that the company neglected some areas completely and it is recommended that these areas are to be improved in future. The pre-implementation factors which have been observed as critical success factors are bifurcated into three stages, namely pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation. All these different stages involve many activities/efforts, all of which are briefed as below: Pre-implementation Stage 1. Vision and Planning Planning is indispensable for all activities in business, particularly for strategic operations. As the first move towards re-engineering, Dow Corning aligned IT strategy with its business strategy. This is followed by major changes in the existing in IT function. First, the company formed a new committee, the Process and IT Board. Second, a new business unit called BPIT (business processes and IT)

Cost-Benefit Analysis and Ethics Analysis Essay

Cost-Benefit Analysis and Ethics Analysis - Essay Example Cost-benefit analysis is a systematic process used in calculating and comparing benefits and costs of a project. It involves assessing the monetary social costs and benefits of a capital investment project, over a specified period. People debate public health policies on the grounds of costs and monetary benefits. Cost-benefit analysis helps in assessing the desirability of public health policy such as the countrywide immunization of children using new drugs or the supply of clean water to the community to avert the widespread of water borne disease. For instance, in the case of a business making an investment, when the projected revenues are more than the costs then the government are expected to adopt a cost-benefit analysis of the public health policy. Cost benefit analysis ensures better regulation and avoid inefficiency in the public sector and distribution of its resources. It helps to find out whether the benefits of a given policy outweigh the costs1. Cost-benefit analysis re quires expensive technique and data. When done poorly the analysis will create a false sense of clarity and precision. It involves organizing, evaluating and presenting information about how the government can improve the public health sector. Principles of cost-benefit analysis include appraisal of a project that involves the economic technique for project appraisal. It incorporates externalities into the equation. These could include wider social impacts and the private economic costs, hence estimating the social welfare effects of the health policy. The economics of time is a principle used to determine the health impacts of the policy in the future. The cost-benefit analysis gives an opportunity for proposals of the different public health policies to rank according to those that provide the highest benefits in social welfare, which is a significant aspect, to the limitations of government spending. Due to the use of indirect methods in approximating the monetary actions of the public health policy, cost-benefit analysis is very costly. The use of indirect methods is because many public services do not have equivalents in the private sector. In the public health policy, human health data statistical models and laboratory experiments play a significant role. Some crucial public health protection needs can only be met effectively through government action and cost-benefit analysis provides guidance to these actions. Cost-benefit analysis is used as a channel to effective public health policies where there is the issue of inefficient market within the private sector depending on how their actions affect the health of the public. In using cost-benefit analysis in the public health policy, regulations maintenance includes those that demonstrate benefits exceeding the costs. Because of this, the regulations will ease the burden on the business and consumers that are out of proportion to gains in health, which leads to more considerations of mechanisms of achievi ng desirable health2. However, cost-benefit analysis is often viewed as an inconsistent procedure and should not be emphasized on public policy decisions. Cost-benefit analysis has several problems that range from deep ethical and logical contradictions and partisan abuse. It could be detrimental when cost-benefit does not define the important benefits, in monetary terms. Cost-benefit analysis is very costly and time-consuming because of the resources needed for a comprehensive cost-benefit ana