Nibco
NIBCO’s “Big Bang”: An SAP Implementation
Carlin J. Murphy
Columbia Southern University
March 19, 2013
NIBCO’s “Big Bang”; An Sap Implementation NIBCO’s Inc. is a midsized manufacturer of values and pipe fitting headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana (Brown, Dehayes, Hoffer, Martin & Perkins, 2012, p.468). NIBCO had over 3000 employees and reported $461 million annual revenue. The company implemented SAP R/3 among its ten plants and four new distribution centers. Top management did not take the advice of their consultants concerning taking a slower approach instead of the BIG Bang approach, instead they decided to go along with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to eliminate the legacy system and replace them with integrated systems. There were four different types of legacy systems that supported the order entry, manufacturing, distribution and accounting functions (Brown et.al 2012, p.470). Different sections in the organization were using their own versions of manufacturing software package with separate database. NIBCO’s decided they needed standardized software across the company that’s how ERP package came about. NIBCO project was led by a team called the Triad. These were highly skilled managers with backgrounds in Information Technology. According to Brown et.al (2012), “The R/3 project team was called the Tiger team; Total Information Generating Exceptional Results” (p.472). The triad team member’s responsibilities were outlined using a triangle. Wilson was responsible for the technology, Beutler for business coordination and Davis for change management. There were major reasons that the ERP package was implemented, how it was managed and structured and the pros and cons of ERP package. NIBCO’s was having major concern with their systems communicating with one another throughout the organization. The organization was unable to prosper with the current information systems. BCG study outlined that the development staff spent
Carlin J. Murphy
Columbia Southern University
March 19, 2013
NIBCO’s “Big Bang”; An Sap Implementation NIBCO’s Inc. is a midsized manufacturer of values and pipe fitting headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana (Brown, Dehayes, Hoffer, Martin & Perkins, 2012, p.468). NIBCO had over 3000 employees and reported $461 million annual revenue. The company implemented SAP R/3 among its ten plants and four new distribution centers. Top management did not take the advice of their consultants concerning taking a slower approach instead of the BIG Bang approach, instead they decided to go along with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to eliminate the legacy system and replace them with integrated systems. There were four different types of legacy systems that supported the order entry, manufacturing, distribution and accounting functions (Brown et.al 2012, p.470). Different sections in the organization were using their own versions of manufacturing software package with separate database. NIBCO’s decided they needed standardized software across the company that’s how ERP package came about. NIBCO project was led by a team called the Triad. These were highly skilled managers with backgrounds in Information Technology. According to Brown et.al (2012), “The R/3 project team was called the Tiger team; Total Information Generating Exceptional Results” (p.472). The triad team member’s responsibilities were outlined using a triangle. Wilson was responsible for the technology, Beutler for business coordination and Davis for change management. There were major reasons that the ERP package was implemented, how it was managed and structured and the pros and cons of ERP package. NIBCO’s was having major concern with their systems communicating with one another throughout the organization. The organization was unable to prosper with the current information systems. BCG study outlined that the development staff spent
References: Brown, C. V., Dehayes, D. W., Hoffer, J. A., Martin, E. W., & Perkins, W. C. (2012). Managing information technology (7th ed.). Boston, Mass: Prentice, Hall. GRADE 97