Operations and Information Systems Management (OIM4002-B) MODULE LEADER: Dr Zahid Hussain   OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT MODULE (OIM4002-B) LEVEL 1 Assignment 2 A brief scenario concerning a briefcase manufacturing company is provided below and is followed by report tasks you are required to complete. The scenario description has been deliberately kept brief to allow you the scope to be more creative and imaginative, and hence, give you more flexibility in the writing up of your report. A list of suggestions and advice has been provided to enable you to complete your assignment successfully. However, this must not be seen as a script to a success mark. The University Marking Criteria will be used to mark your submitted report. It is provided in your module handbook, which should be consulted for further guidance. You are asked to research into and then explain how an integrated CAD/CAM system works and why it is useful in operations of a manufacturing organisation, and then how it could be acquired or developed using appropriate ISD methods. Case Scenario: My-Briefcase Limited (MBL) is a small manufacturer with 200 employees. It has been growing consistently due to the quality of its products, innovation and good customer service it has expanded continuously. It is based in an old mill near the centre of Bradford. It now manufactures 15 types of business briefcases. Today, MBL has a number of centralized departments, namely: Accounting, Marketing, HRM, Engineering and Design, Sales, Purchasing and Warehousing, Manufacturing, Logistics and Despatch. It buys products from a variety of suppliers, such as producers of plastics, locks, leather, etc. MBL has contacts with a number of local, national and international retailers and wholesalers. Each of its department plays an essential role in selling its brief cases to a customer. For example, the purchase department orders raw materials, which are held as inventory in the warehouse. The warehouse then forwards them onto the manufacturing department to meet production orders. Different departments handle different types of information and use basic systems; for example, the Accounts department is involved in handling purchase orders and paying for goods, whereas the marketing department collects information about the popularity of products and then advises the Engineering and Design Department to design particular types of brief cases. It also markets and advertises the products. Recently, MBL’s Managing Director identified the need to use IS to enhance and gain greater business efficiency and effectiveness, primarily due to international competition. He has decided to create a new IS department. An initial priority of MBL is to acquire a new stock control system and an up-to-date integrated Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system (software and hardware). This new CAD/CAM system will have implications for the organisation. It requires a robust and efficient data network that is able to simultaneously connect multiple systems throughout the organisation. The new proposed system would affect many categories of workers and stakeholders of the organisation in addition to its engineering and design staff (e.g., it may lead to redundancies in the workforce). MBL also wishes to use a shop floor data collection system to gather data concerning worker output, productivity, etc. and measures related to product quality and wastage, etc. Due to the growth in MBL it as also identified the need for several additional IT systems across many of its departments. Different departments need different systems to address different levels and types of functionality. For example, IT systems required by senior management would normally support long term decision making regarding the overall progress and efficiency of the company. Additionally, these different systems need to interface and collaborate in order to increase the quality and quantity of information available to the different departments and the employees. Assignment tasks: You have recently been employed in the new IS department of MBL as a Business Systems Analyst. You have been asked to produce a report on the role and acquisition of IS for Senior Management, Department Heads and line Management at MBL. In your report you are required to have a number of sections, and these are listed below: 1) Management have expressed their desire to acquire new CAD/CAM system and you have been asked you to provide comparative analyses of what systems and hardware are available to purchase/lease and to provide a clear justification of the best option for MBL to adopt. You will need to provide details of the process you would follow to select the CAD/CAM system. This involves identifying the requirements of the CAD/CAM systems, identifying and evaluating potential suppliers, delivery, installation, training, etc. The process would also need to identify the criteria (e.g. speed, quality, flexibility, cost, etc.) you would use to select in acquiring such system that will be acceptable for company’s designers. CAD/CAM systems are one of a range of potential process technologies that MBL could employ. Process technologies have an impact on the operations of an organization in terms of the layout (fixed, variable, cellular, etc.) of the facility, product methods (job, batch, mass, etc.), flow of materials, etc. As part of your analysis you need to identify the impact of process technologies on these aspects of the organization, their advantages, disadvantages and if appropriate any mitigating strategies. For this portion of the task you need to cover the following aspects: • A list and description of different types of CAD/CAM systems available together with any other process technologies required to support them. • An analysis of impact on the organization from on operational perspective paying particular attention to the potential impacts on layout, processes, materials flows, types of operation, etc. • The choice of IS acquisition process with relevant justifications, taking into account the organisations size, products, etc. This needs to cover all aspects including acquisition, selection, delivery, installation, testing and validation. 2) Management have asked you to evaluate the feasibility of developing systems to support B2B and even B2C e-business models for marketing and selling their briefcases and other products. You will need to provide a discussion of the differences in work processes involved in selling products using traditional means versus those that are supported via the Internet. Again, the focus is on the IT systems both hardware and software needed to support the both types of business models. These should consider the options of developing in house solutions versus outsourcing to third party organizations and groups. In particular, what are the implications for data security, data access and the ability to provide data on demand to all aspects of the MBL business? However, your proposed changes to the IS functionality within MBL will have implications for the operations aspects of the business and these need to be assessed. For example, if the aim of the B2B improvements is to allow greater flexibility in customer orders, reduce dispatch and deliver times then these again have implications for the ways in which the organization produces the briefcases. In particular the production methods, layout, materials flows, etc. within the organization. A significant aspect of the feasibility needs to be on the ways in which your suggested changes impact on the operations of the business. For this portion of the task you need to cover the following aspects: • An explanation of e-commerce. • A discussion of the differences between traditional vs. Internet means of selling. • A discussion of B2B and B2C and the advantages and disadvantages to both the customer and the seller. • A discussion and analysis of any proposed B2B or B2C changes on the operational aspects of the organization. These need to cover all aspects from production and inventory to dispatch and delivery. • A discussion of organisational environments (both from an IS and operational perspective) and their relation to the organisation. Your report will also need to provide an introduction and conclusion and a suggested count of 200 -300 words is suggested. As was the case with the First Assignment the content of the reports Table of Contents, Reference and Appendices do not count towards the word limit. The word counts suggested for tasks 1 and 2 are meant as a guide, however the overall word count for the report should not exceed 2000 words. You are preparing the report as an employee of MBL and hence its needs to focus on MBL, its structure, processes and systems. You may wish to identify the ways in which MBL could identify the improvements to quality, flexibility, customer satisfaction, etc. of your proposed approach by means of comparison with competitors. However, a comparison of different briefcase manufacturers is not what is required. Submission deadline: The submission date for this assignment is on or before Friday 28th April 2017, at 3pm. Given the volume of submissions near to the deadline you are advised to plan your submission carefully. Please submit your assignment electronically through Turnitin in Blackboard Failure to submit, or late submissions without an authorised extension, will be considered as non-submission and you will receive a mark of zero.