Successfully Navigating the Turbulent of a Large-Scale Erp Implementation

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Successfully Navigating the Turbulent of a Large-Scale ERP Implementation

M.Sc. Global Logistics

Kühne Logistics University

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Joern Meissner  

Module: Information Systems and Decision Science

Name of Students: Lobanets V., Laptev V., I. Flores Hurtado

 Date of Submission: 14-04-2015

Executive summary

Bombardier’s massive ERP implementation was very methodic and tediously planned to ensure success. They targeted specific challenges like quick access to important data and transparent communication between different business entities. This case will describe how they developed and planned a strategy and the obstacles that they encountered.

Some highlights are:

• The BMIS project and its leadership vision
• Learning from mistakes and progressive implementation
• How knowledge is transferred down from ‘Power Users’ to ‘End Users’

Table of contest

Executive summary        

Table of contest        

Current challenges        

Bombardier as an integrated company        

Strong and weak points in the first implementation phase        

Strong and weak points in the second implementation phase        

Comparison of the implementation phases and the role of the plant manager        

Challenges and responsiveness        

Assessing success and failure        

Current challenges

Bombardier is one of the third largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, after Boeing and Airbus. Being presented in various areas within the aerospace industry the company operates four product and service lines: business aircraft, regional aircraft, amphibious aircraft and defense services.  At the same time, it offers such services as aircraft charter, fractional ownership of business jets, aircraft maintenance and pilot and maintenance training.

Bombardier Aerospace recently faced several challenges requiring significant organizational and operational changes from the company’s executives. It includes rising pressure on the closest competitors side, constantly changing economic conditions and the socio-political climate. However, major problems seem to be internal ones provoked by the company’s intensive acquisition strategy. After making some company a part of Bombardier it inherited the data, processes and systems of that company. Thus, communication and data interchange between different subdivisions got complicated, labor mobility decreased and the cost of information systems increased. In fact, it also causes such problems as process delays, sequential activities, low inventory turns, supplier proliferation, price inconsistency and multiple bills of materials. Nevertheless, the main headache for Bombardier management as a result of the organizational complexity was low visibility of inventories and lack of integration between the company’s information systems.

Bombardier as an integrated company

Revealed diversification of Bombardier businesses and its active acquisition strategy explains the lack of integration between the company divisions. Despite the fact that all company manufacturing activities was supported by the information system called Bombardier Manufacturing System, that system can not fully correspond to the future plans and challenges of the company. That is why the company seeks opportunities for data interchange improvements with the new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

Strong and weak points in the first implementation phase

        As it was shown in the case, the first implementation process at Maribel plant was not quite smooth at the very beginning due to different problems as in any new technology implementation. However, the estimation of the results achieved after the first roll-out formed a clear understanding of the need of the SAP implementation at the company. Indeed, Stabilization and Go-Live phases provided significant and essential information about some issues to be solved, possible problems to be arranged in future. Moreover the management and project team defined some rooms for improvements. Thus, many issues were eliminated in further implementation phases of ERP system through Bombardier Aerospace.