ERP Implementation for Production Planning at EA Cakes Ltd.

Abstract

This case details the implementation of the Systems Applications & Products (SAP) Production Planning module at EA Cakes Ltd. The market forced the company to change its sales and production strategy from “make-to-order” to “make-to-stock.” The decision to change the strategy involved not only the company’s decision to invest much more money in accumulation and keeping stocks of finished goods, it required a complete redesign of its production planning system, which was an integral part of an ERP system that used SAP software. A team of IT specialists and production planning personnel was formed for designing computer support for the new production planning system business processes. There was no consensus in the design group. IT specialists were sure that existing SAP software could provide adequate computer support. The production planning staff had doubts that SAP modules are relevant to their business processes. They argued that poor fit between the business processes implicit in the software and the business processes of EA Cakes will result in failure. To resolve the problem, the management invited a consulting company. The consultants suggested quickly designing a rough prototype system. Analyzing this system would help the working group to reach a consensus. Apart from giving adequate computer support to the new production planning system, the SAP implementation had to solve several implementation problems identified by consultants. The question is: can a standard software system like SAP give adequate computer support to an individually designed business management system?